BALTIMORE: Five Year Sentence In Attack On Transgender Woman

To the dismay of LGBT activists, one of the women convicted of assaulting a transgender woman in a Baltimore McDonald's has only received a five year sentence for the hate crime.

"The whole incident is unfortunate and demonstrates the lack of knowledge and understanding, and discrimination against transgender people," said Patrick Wojahn, board president of the Equality Maryland Foundation. "If anything, five years may have been too short of an amount of time for the attack and the amount of hatred that was shown in the incident." Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk agreed. "Five years is not enough for what she did. It was really horrible — nobody should do something like that to another human being," said Pena-Melnyk, who represents parts of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. She proposed legislation to prevent employers, creditors and others from discriminating against transgender people, but the measure failed in the 2011 General Assembly.

The victim is planning a civil suit against McDonald's.