Statement from Gender Justice after attack on transgender woman in Minneapolis

March 1, 2023

Yesterday morning a transgender woman was violently assaulted at a light rail station in Minneapolis. As we wait to learn more about this horrific attack, our hearts go out to the woman, her family, and our entire transgender and LGBQ community.

No matter the motive of yesterday’s attack, it happened during a spike in harmful, dehumanizing and dangerous rhetoric about transgender people playing out in the media, state legislatures, school board meetings, and communities across the country. Transgender people face higher rates of discrimination and violence than cisgender people, simply for being who they are.

And violence towards LGBTQ+ individuals is not slowing down. Just a few months ago, the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado Springs lost 5 of their neighbors and friends in a devastating mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ nightclub.

The hate that inspires this violence does not just grow in the dark corners of the internet. It’s the driving force behind the roughly 350 anti-LGBTQ bills that have been introduced across the country just this year. The “othering” that inspires attacks against trans people lives in the mainstream masked as bans on drag performances, bans on gender-affirming care, and restrictions on who can compete in sports. It’s on your cable news, across your social media feeds, and in political ads.

Across all areas of our work at Gender Justice, from reproductive justice to trans and LGB liberation, one thing is increasingly clear: hateful rhetoric threatens all of us. Where we see an attack on one of our rights, we’re likely to soon see another. In a very real sense, we’re all in this fight together.

We call on our leaders, media outlets, and pundits to do better and disavow anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and its deadly repercussions, and stop the spread of dangerous disinformation about transgender people. In the meantime, we will continue to not only fight back, but also build a world where everyone can live in safety and with dignity, no matter their gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.