We would like this page to say that hatred and bigotry have no place in Dallas, but we’re committed to telling the truth, even when the truth is hard to face. And the truth is that hatred has found a place in Dallas.

Too often in our city, hatred takes root in the twisted back alleys of an angry soul and explodes into violence against the "other." We saw it this summer in the murder of two transgender women: Muhlaysia Booker and Chynal Lindsey. And we saw it again Friday when another transgender woman was shot repeatedly while the assailant shouted "a number of slurs about her gender identity," according to police.

We don’t yet know the name of Friday’s victim, but we know she seems to have been targeted because of her identity group. That shouldn’t happen. It is our position that every person in North Texas is of measureless value. That means every person of every identity and at every stage of life. Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. As a city and as a nation, we have a long way to go.

There are two steps we can take.

First, we can expand hate-crime protections to transgender people in Texas. The legal category of hate crime exists to protect people whose identity group is often targeted by hatred and bigotry by mandating stiffer penalties for such crimes. Transgender people are already protected by federal hate-crimes law. Houston state Rep. Garnet Coleman has persistently promoted such a law in Austin. We think he has the right idea.

Second, we can speak out against vulgar or violent attitudes toward targeted groups of people. When the criminal in Friday’s attack rolled up alongside his victim with vitriol on his lips, he provided a microcosm of a lasting truth: Hate speech precedes hate crime. Hateful attitudes that go unchallenged metastasize into hateful action.

The next time we’re witness to a slur against someone because of his or her gender, we can stand up for the likes of Muhlaysia Booker, Chynal Lindsey and Friday’s victim. We can declare that our city has seen enough of this sort of brutality. We can hope for the day when hatred has no place in Dallas.

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