Crowd Cheers as Trans Women Beaten in Minneapolis
Two transgender women were beaten by a group of men at a light rail station as a crowd cheered and no one intervened to help.
Two transgender women were brutally attacked at a Minneapolis light rail station while onlookers cheered the perpetrators and no one offered any assistance.
On November 10, Dahlia and Jess (last names have not been released for their safety) were leaving the light rail station near Hennepin Avenue and Fifth Street in downtown Minneapolis’s Warehouse District when a man began yelling transphobic slurs at them.
When Jess asked the man to stop, he hit her, local transgender advocate Amber Muhm, who is affiliated with the Trans Movement for Liberation, told the British newspaper The Independent.
Dahlia then hit the man with her cane, knocking him out. Subsequently, at least five other men rushed over and began beating both women.
Muhm told CBS affiliate WCCO that both women were knocked unconscious, with Dahlia suffering a broken nose, and Jess receiving “multiple contusions” on her ribs.
“No one came to help them,” Muhm said. “In fact, they said people were cheering the attackers on while they were getting beaten.”
Muhm and other community advocates held a rally in support of the injured women on November 17 to protest the violent attack. According to an Instagram post from Smitten Kitten, a local sex-positive adult gift shop, this marks the third such attack on transgender women in the light rail system over the past two years.
Dahlia and Jess reportedly moved from Iowa to Minnesota under the state’s 2023 “Trans Refuge” law, which prevents out-of-state laws from interfering with the practice of gender-affirming health care.
“A lot of people are moving to Minnesota and have moved since we passed the trans refuge bill, but I think we’re going to see a real spike after the election outcome,” State Rep. Leigh Finke (DFL-St. Paul), the first out transgender elected official in the state, told WCCO.
Muhm said that she worries that the frequency of attacks against transgender individuals may escalate following the rightward shift in this year’s elections.
“People are so emboldened now,” she said. “There’s so much false data, so many false narratives about trans people.”
Munn noted that counter-protesters at the rally were accusing those gathered of “performing surgeries on 10-year-olds,” which is “not even close to being medically true.”
Trump’s victory has made many transgender people fear for their futures, with advocates urging individuals to stockpile hormones and medication, get their vital and identity documents in order, and take other precautions to ensure they can continue to have their identity affirmed.
Others in Minneapolis are taking precautions to defend themselves from future attacks by either taking self-defense classes or seeking out permits to carry handguns in public.
“People are talking to me about erasing their social media presence, going back in the closet,” one speaker at the rally said, according to CBS News.
Muhm told The Independent there’s a feeling of urgency among some Minneapolis community members to arm themselves and learn how to ward off attackers.
“People are about to get a lot more hostile and emboldened in their transphobia,” she said. “So what do we do to protect ourselves when we’re out?”
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