A system that sees “predators” as beyond repair and thrusts them to the outermost regions of society also deeply pathologizes the “victims.”
A report from the Deaf Queer Resource Center ( www.deafqueer.org ) indicated that a murder in Waverly, Ohio, was being ignored, unlike the killing of Matthew Shepard, because the gay victim was a hearing-impaired, homeless man. The details of the murder were horrific: Daniel ‘Dano’ Fetty, 39 years old, had been living in his car after a fire, working at a local restaurant, and saving up for his next apartment.