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Maeve Korengold writes about the recent attack on three transgender women on Hollywood Boulevard. The incident has prompted outrage in the form of social media campaigns and protests in the streets. This article discusses the high levels of violence faced by transgender people, the police's response to the alleged assault, and the victims' reactions. One in four transgender Americans have been victims of bias-driven attacks - this statistic is higher for women and people of color.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least twenty-six transgender or gender-nonconforming people have been murdered in 2020 so far. This marks the largest number of violent deaths in the endangered community at this point in the year since the organization began to track them in 2013. Transgender women of color make up the majority of the victims of these murders, which is attributed to “a toxic mix of transphobia, racism, and misogyny.” Hate crimes committed against transgender and gender-nonconforming people that do not end in death are also common and are often ignored by major news sources.
Early in the morning on Monday, August seventeenth, YouTube personality Eden Estrada and her two friends Joslyn Allen and Jaslene Busanet, who are all transgender women of color, were robbed and attacked on Hollywood Boulevard while waiting for an Uber. Joslyn Allen was approached by a man wearing a black tank top and holding a crowbar. “He literally grabs my hand and pulls me,” Allen said. “He’s like ‘We’re going to find your friends because I’m going to beat y’all up.’”
After Allen got away, the man found Busanet and Estrada. “We thought we were going to die because the guy had left and he’s going to come back, he has a crowbar,” said Estrada. The man began to launch transphobic hate speech at the three of them and hit Busanet with a bottle with so much force that she fell to the ground unconscious. "There were men saying 'Oh, she's dead,' laughing at me," she said. Estrada knelt on the ground to help Busanet and begged bystanders to call 911.
The onlookers stood by, and instead of helping the women who were being beaten physically and verbally, watched and recorded the attacks. In many of the videos, these bystanders can be heard laughing and hurling insults as well. According to the three women, the men took their cell phones, wallets, and purses
On Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Department reported that they had found the man who was responsible for the crime. This prompted marches in support of the three victims and city officials to condemn the actions of the bystanders who did nothing to help the women as they were being attacked. “I don’t even have words for this,” said Allen in an Instagram post about the march. “I am so touched that that many people care about what happened to us, and what happens to trans women everywhere. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. I can’t even explain how much this means to me.” A GoFundMe raised over sixteen thousand dollars for the three women’s legal fees, and many public figures have spoken out since the incident, and among then was singer Zhavia Ward. She posted one of the videos that were recorded and wrote: “Last night my friends were targeted, attacked, and robbed by a group of men. This is the reality of how trans women of color are treated.”
Actress Indya Moore did the same, writing “Black people must do better to center trans people within our community and target transphobia... we are all collectively up against white supremacy in this world, the ongoing swaths of transphobia and violence in trans people's lives is becoming more challenging to fight alone and white supremacy too.” City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said: “When I saw the video, like anyone who has seen it who believes in human decency, to see this level of violence celebrated gleefully, so much so that the perpetrator himself posted on social media, is like a sucker punch to all of us who believe in civilized behavior.”
Twenty-nine-year-old Carlton Callaway was arrested on robbery and assault charges after he had bragged about what he had done on social media. In addition to this, the police identified at least two other men in the recorded videos who were involved. Twenty-four-year-old Willie Walker was charged with extortion, and police are still looking for a third man, twenty-two-year-old Davion Williams. "I found these crimes to be especially disturbing. There's no place for hate like this anywhere," said LAPD Capt. Steve Lurie. The three victims have large followings on Instagram, and they have used their platforms to bring awareness to what happened to them and demand justice.
From left to right: Carlton Callaway, Davion Williams and Willie Walker
“When I got hit in the back of my f-----g head and I fell to the ground, do you know what people did? Everyone crowded around me, recording me, telling me that I deserved that because they thought that I tricked the man and that’s why he’s beating me up,” said Busanet in an Instagram Live on Monday morning.
"This happens all the time to trans people and the only reason this is out there is because of us being on social media," said Estrada. "I don't care if you don't like me or aren't a fan or even hate me. No one deserves this. Women like me get murdered on the daily. I recognize my privilege. I know how lucky I am. But what about those who aren't?,” she also wrote on Instagram.
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