D.C. police are searching for three men who allegedly hurled anti-trans slurs at 43-year-old Cayla Calhoun before brutally attacking her and leaving her with serious injuries.
Calhoun, a sommelier and bartender at Annabelle restaurant, left work around midnight on June 29 and stopped at the Golden Age, a nearby bar, for a quick beer, according to The Advocate.
After leaving Golden Age, Calhoun rode a Onewheel electric board through Georgetown and along Rock Creek Parkway. Near the National Mall, three men on scooters emerged and began shouting anti-LGBTQ slurs at her.
Calhoun tried to ride away, but the men followed. One pushed her off her Onewheel, sending her into a tree. She got back on and attempted to flee, but couldn’t escape.
“I don’t know how long it went on,” she said. “But I remember thinking, ‘I have to get away.'”
Calhoun doesn’t remember anything after that. At some point, she lost consciousness.
Around 6 a.m., emergency responders found Calhoun unconscious near 19th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Initially disoriented, she told EMTs she had fallen off her skateboard, but later recalled being attacked by three men about three-quarters of a mile from where she was found.
Police noted the use of hate-related slurs, leading Calhoun to believe she was targeted for being transgender. She was taken to George Washington University Hospital with serious injuries, including a concussion, a shattered elbow, fractures around her eye socket, multiple broken bones, and signs of strangulation.
When Calhoun woke in the hospital, she said her skirt was shredded and bloody, and many of her belongings had been discarded by staff who she believes mistook her for a homeless person, leading to the loss of key forensic evidence. Detectives visited her four days later, but she was still foggy on details and says she hasn’t heard from MPD since.
An MPD spokesperson said the case is being investigated as “potentially motivated by hate or bias,” according to The Advocate.
Calhoun faces a long recovery and won’t be able to return to work for at least eight weeks. She’s also lost fine motor skills and will likely need physical therapy.
“I’m like a two-year-old trying to use a really small iPhone,” she said. “Grabbing things, picking things up, trying to drink or eat — it’s very arduous right now.”
Friends have launched a GoFundMe to help Calhoun cover medical bills and living expenses while she’s unable to work. The fundraiser has raised $22,000 so far.
According to the GoFundMe, Calhoun’s wallet was found intact in a reflecting pool days later, suggesting the attack was driven by anti-trans hatred rather than robbery.
Calhoun blames right-wing anti-trans rhetoric for fueling the attack.
“The narrative written by Republicans and people like Donald Trump — the talking points, the disinformation, the blanket terms — it’s all deliberate,” she said. “It’s not an accident we’re seeing more violence against transgender people. It’s part of a right-wing plan.”
Calhoun said that there is one small positive outcome from her attack, noting: “Last week was the first time in my life that my parents referred to me as Cayla or used my pronouns correctly.”
One small positive emerged from the attack, says Calhoun: “Last week was the first time in my life that my parents referred to me as Cayla or used my pronouns correctly.”
Anyone with information about the attack is urged to contact D.C. police at 202-727-9099 or submit a tip anonymously via the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by sending a message to 50411.
Chris Kostka, a gay man visiting Provincetown, Massachusetts, was walking along Bradford Street between 1 and 2 a.m. on Monday, June 30, when, near Howland Street at the town’s eastern end, three men shoved him to the pavement and began kicking him while yelling anti-gay slurs.
"All of a sudden I just feel myself getting pushed to the ground," Kostka told Boston NBC affiliate WBTS-CD. "I fly forward and I turn. I see three guys, and of course, I'm stunned from just being thrown to the pavement, and I just cover my face, go into a fetal position as I'm getting kicked and getting called some gay slurs."
Jackson Vogel has been sentenced to life without parole for strangling his cellmate -- 19-year-old Micah Laureano, a Black gay man -- inside Green Bay Correctional Institution in what prosecutors described as a racially and homophobically motivated killing.
The Wisconsin inmate was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide by a jury last month.
Before sentencing, Vogel -- who was already serving a 20-year term for attempting to kill his mother in 2016, when he was just 16 -- told Brown County Circuit Judge Donald Zuidmulder he was "sorry" for his actions, although he did not appear to show any signs of regret.
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer has signed an executive order protecting transgender individuals from having their medical or personal information shared with out-of-state authorities seeking to prosecute them for obtaining gender-affirming care.
Meyer signed the order last Friday at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center, surrounded by LGBTQ advocates and activists.
The order prohibits Delaware state agencies from cooperating with out-of-state investigations targeting anyone who provides, receives, or assists others in obtaining legal gender-affirming care, such as hormone therapy or puberty blockers. It also bars agencies from sharing medical records, billing data, or personal information about anyone involved in such care.
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