"You're Rooting A Bloke"

Local News, By Christian Taylor, 6th February, 2008

Two NSW Police Officers are looking at a possible two years in prison for unlawfully disclosing information. According to News.com.au, Garrick Jacobson was told by Police while in custody at Sydney’s Surry Hills station that his girlfriend was actually a transgender woman. When he got out on bail he went around to her house and seriously assaulted her.

Constables Tyrone Stacey and Brendan Ritson have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Back in September 2006 26 year old Jacobson was arrested under suspicion of theft. Constable Stacey looked up information on his girlfriend Brigitte Fell and discovered that her gender was actually male.

Constable Ritson saw the screen and yelled out to Jacobson, “You’re rooting a bloke.” When he refused to believe it the Police actually showed him written proof, saying, “See, it’s a guy.”

Brigitte Fell told the court that the carelessness of the Police ruined her life. She had the gender reassignment surgery twelve years ago in London and many had told her that it was “the best sex change [they’d] ever seen.” Fell kept her transgender status a secret because she was worried about her boyfriend’s temper.

She had good cause to be concerned. When he was released from Police custody he showed up at her house, banging on her door, threatening to kill her.

Fell said that Jacobson allegedly yelled, “Your fucking mates the cops told me you’re a man – is it true?” He punched her a number of times in the face, giving her concussion. She fell from the balcony of her loft bedroom and awoke covered in blood, her face broken.

Fell had only told a couple of people close to her about her surgery, but Police knew about it because she’d gone to them before for other matters. The hearing continues at Sydney’s Downing Centre Court.

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Your Thoughts

Anthony Mahera

said ages ago

just like a homosexual individual's coming out journey, each transgendered person must have his or her own life experience prior to the op which would certainly indicate to them the level of support they feel would be given them by the people closest. This in turn would, i imagine, indicate to them the level of support they feel would be given by the larger community, and i think it shows niavity to think otherwise. There are still gay/lesbian/bi folk who are in closets in some aspects of their lives - those of us who have no secrets and are out to all may think life would be easier for everyone if they only told the whole truth, but that's not how everyone is made up. You might have had a really easy run thru your coming out - or it may have been really tricky. Maybe you've forgotten how tricky or scary it was. Compassion for others could possibly make it easier to understand the reasons some transgendered, or homosexual, people decide against being completely open about themselves. We each have lessons to learn in our time here. Some lessons come wrapped in love, some come packed in a punch. Horrible thought, really, but true regardless of our sex, sexuality or race. None of us are born deserving to be betrayed. All of us are born with the right to love ourselves. We all sit somewhere on a sliding scale of self-love and those life lessons are hopefully the things to move us further up the scale. Lets not criticise Bridgette for her decision - she may already be doing that for herself. I can completly understand where your coming from. Can I ask you a question? If you put yourself in the boyfriends shoes.... how would you feel or react? Plus even though he's a complete jerk for bashing her I can see where he is coming from to. Also taking about life lessons................we don't know what type of enviroment this guy grew up with or is acustomed to. If he comes from a background where he was taught homosexuality/Transgender was wrong.....even though I don't agree with that... You can't just expect someone to change ("click") and say that it's ok. Its a gradual process of acceptance through education and experiance. For all we know he might of never known transgender people his whole life then all of a sudden he's been in love with one, shock to the brain. I think that this perticular subject has so many unanswered questions about the circumstances and it's really hard to define without all the facts.

alikat

said ages ago

Can I ask you a question? If you put yourself in the boyfriends shoes.... how would you feel or react? Plus even though he's a complete jerk for bashing her I can see where he is coming from to. Also taking about life lessons................we don't know what type of enviroment this guy grew up with or is acustomed to. If he comes from a background where he was taught homosexuality/Transgender was wrong.....even though I don't agree with that... You can't just expect someone to change ("click") and say that it's ok. Its a gradual process of acceptance through education and experiance. For all we know he might of never known transgender people his whole life then all of a sudden he's been in love with one, shock to the brain. I think that this perticular subject has so many unanswered questions about the circumstances and it's really hard to define without all the facts. yeah - i totally agree, and i'm really glad that others think along these lines too. compassion towards this guy and his life experience is equally important to understanding his approach. its really tricky to find a way to understand such violent behaviour, tho, huh?

Anthony Mahera

said ages ago

Yeah...........I hate violent behaviour and try to avoid it as much as possible especially after seeing my mother in an abusive relationship (and not only one relationship but three!). I don't understand people like that but I have come to the conclusion that some people get so frustrated with the situation that they are in and don't know how to deal with it i.e. mentally or through communication, so they get so flusted and caught up in the emotion that they just explode with violence as a release of all that tention. People have different ways to release built up emotion/tention. It's a shame that some guys (especialy teenagers) use violence.

dreadcircus

said ages ago

Wow, this is yet another step to getting trans related issues to the table. Sadly is has come yet again at the expense of somebody being hurt. Transition is such an individual journey and as pointed out about not all journey's are lined with diamonds. I can only really ever give my opinion from my experience as my experience is unique apart from the basics of achieving the medical side ie hormones, psych, surgery, hair removal etc. I know many trans men and women who are open completely and many who are living in stealth both pre and post op. Personally I have made the decision to be open about my status of being trans mainly becuase I'm in a band and my band is not only a musical venture but a vehicle for education. In my personal life at work and friends I'm just a chick, trans doesn't really come into the story so I guess I'm kinda living both out and stealth. Thanks to the majority of mainstream media still painting a picture that all trans men and women are deceptive and only out to trick some unsuspecting dote only to yell "surprise im a man/woman" many trans people continue to follow the stereotype. It's mostly fear I suspect which drives this decision and sadly it's the leading cause of deaths and bashings which occur world wide each year. I personally could never fathom lying about my status with a partner (post, pre or even just being trans) as intimacy is involved and I value my life too much. It must be so difficult for some trans women/men to come out of the closet and face such harsh descrimination, go through their surgery only to step back into the closet and live stealth but as mentioned in earlier posts going through this journey say 20 years ago was much more brutal than today acceptance wise. Personally I'm open as I mentioned above but refuse to answer questions about my genitalia to people or media, it's none of their business as I'm not fucking them. This question is the most common question I hear upon people discovering I'm trans and I wish I had a dollar for everytime I heard it. We basically live in a world full of "Normal" people whos reactions to anything un normal is to destroy it. This sucks as normal means nothing to me, the world we live in is far from normal. In this case many people are at fault and for many reasons. Firstly the cops are at major fault. They broke the law and they did it for the wrong reasons. They have a duty of care toward the people they involve into an investigation no matter how bad the crime and how they use the tools to get info or arrest a perpetrator. The attitude shown here by these cops is that of a neaderthal, abuse of power and an obvious abuse of the law. Information is one of the most powerful tools in so many facets of life these days and abuses such as this case should be stamped out completely. If you really want to get dirty on this you can even blame the govt. As the world is driven by the internet, information and misinformation sadly world over our costitutions and laws are not yet formulated to deal with the outcomes of the new technology and methods of information sharing. So in the hands of baboons like these police this is the result. Bandaid solutions will never work and our govt seriously needs to confront the issues of information disclosure as with many other issues we face due to our world moving at a pace we seem to not be able to keep up with. Sadly they will most likely get off as the guy is now saying he was drunk and can't recall how the police told him which places doubt over how they did do it. In my opinion the police assisted in creating the violence which followed but our laws aren't in order enough to follow through. Disclosure comes into my second point. Bridgette will be seriously re thinking her approach to her next relationship, well she has no choice really now as she has been thrown into the media spotlight. Many trans women go after straight men as they are straight women, the sad thing of this is alotta straight men aint wanting a trans woman and don't really take alot of notice when hooking up. I mean she is beautiful why would anybody question he even being born a male? Honesty is the best policy even if it means missing out of a cute partner. This case proves it! I cannot condone her actions as I know not of her journey before. As stated in the stories ive read on this the guy was an asshole to begin with and she knew it but as in many straight and gay relationships we are often blinded by something like this and continue with the relationship. The more these issues are discussed and the more trans people that become prominant the better we will all be. If anything trans people are important. They can shed light on both genders and the struggles both endure. Indeginous people have reveared trans people for many centuries for these very amazing attributes and I believe western religion is the one thing which continues to condemn anything "un natural" in an amazingly imperfect;y perfect world.. Thanks to everybody who posted here as you are all a part of the process of understanding and education in such a horrid situation...

Cobra

said ages ago

Arguing that Fell is at the greater fault implies she deserved the consequences. It isn't up to a couple of douchebag cops to interfere in her life. They'll get away with it.

LynDoh

said ages ago

And this is the police station where we are supposed to go when we have issues on Oxford St - yeah sure!!

Kiltie

said ages ago

Shock, yes. Recriminations, yes. Violence? NO. There is no excuse for domestic violence, not here, not ever. As for the police's behaviour, contemptable.

Leece

said ages ago

i am also transsexual . i belive in been open about who i am or one day you will get found out and in this case she was and beaten.there is still no excuse for some one betting some one else. he should go to jail. the 2 police should be throwen out of the police force for what they did.we have a hard enough time as it is in life . people think we are some sort of freak. yet we are not we just want to betreated like any other person . no difrent. thanks leece

Stev_

said ages ago

I'm rooting for Brigitte!

Laura S

said ages ago

Even ignoring the trans issues here, the real problem is the deliberate abuse of confidentiality by those police, just to get a "rise" out of the person they were interviewing. There's a follow-up story where MsFell had to appear in court after a violent outburst in a shop. This is after the court case and she was paranoid that they were making fun of her.

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