A pro-trans protester, dressed in an inflatable unicorn outfit, flips off LAPD officers protecting right-wing extremists.
After LGBTQ Pride Month wrapped up, and corporations put their queer and transgender pride flags away for the year, a transphobic incident in Los Angeles turned July into what can only be described as Trans Wrath Month, 2021. In the last week of June, a viral Twitter video showed an enraged woman berating a staff member at a Koreatown Spa, Wi Spa USA, for allowing a trans woman to use the women’s changing room – a decision Wi Spa USA stands behind, even though the public, and spa employees, have raised questions about the video’s truthfulness. In response to the video, on Saturday, July 3rd, 2021, a mix of far-right extremists, Proud Boys, QAnon supporters, and self-described concerned citizens, protested in the intersection around the spa.
Carrying signs that equated transgender women with pedophiles, these historically violent right-wing activists posed a threat to the trans community in Los Angeles. In response, LGBTQ activists, left-wing organizers, and members of the LA anti-fascist community gathered in counter-protest to defend at-risk community members in Koreatown. Despite attempts at non-violence and de-escalation, aggression from the right led to a clash between the two groups and police intervention. However, rather than defend the trans community of Los Angeles, the LAPD defended the right-wing aggressors and brutalized transgender activists and their supporters. Even with much of the violence coming from the anti-trans demonstrators, as reported by Left Coast Right Watch on Twitter, LAPD’s munitions were aimed almost exclusively at the pro-trans activists.
The two competing protests continued for several weekends until July 17th. That Saturday morning, after two weeks of escalating violence from both the far-right and the police, LGBTQ activists feared that the violence would only continue. And their fears were proven true a mere hour after the demonstrations began, as a clash between the two groups led to a police officer firing non-lethal rounds at a trans demonstrator from point-blank range.
Let me repeat: In 2021, 52 years after the Stonewall Riots erupted from police violence against transgender communities in New York, the LAPD shot a transgender activist in the stomach with non-lethal rounds at point-blank range.
The transphobic demonstrators, and LAPD’s anti-trans violence, prove that we must do more to support and defend our transgender siblings. Anti-trans hate is on the rise again – Will we step up to the plate and do what we must to counter it?
The Washington Revolutionary 