1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

Sian Radaskiewicz-King, a 32-year-old transgender woman, spray-painted a symbol representing her transgender identity on various buildings around Easton, including a Catholic elementary school. While vandalism is obviously illegal, and she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for that reason, there is one thing that changes this situation: she was charged for committing a hate crime. It is a blatant miscarriage of justice in Maryland that a symbol of transgender identity would even even be considered to be classified in the same way as the Nazi flag. Being transgender is not a trend, it is not an ideology, and it is obviously not hateful. This simply must not happen again. Maryland's laws on hate crimes must be amended to ensure that they are not misused in such obvious ways. They should be protecting minority groups, not terrorizing them.