This post was submitted by LB

Stale beer and cigarette smoke hung in the air. The walls vibrated with the base of the music above. In the Saturday predawn hours, Mitch Graffeo climbed the eroding stairs up to the second-floor bar. Inside Fab Lounge in Northwest, people gyrated to Beyonce and Britney Spears on the dance floor, packed after 2 a.m. Although the crowd was predominantly women, there were about 10 men in the bar. Fifteen years ago was the last time Mitch was at a bar for lesbian night. In retrospect, he wondered if fate brought him there or if it was just bad timing.

Tonight was special. One of those rare occasions where Mitch, 40, of Alexandria, Va., was in the District. The self-proclaimed outdoorsman prefers hiking with his Jack Russell terrier, Chloe, or eating dinner with friends to DC nightlife. Yet, a love of country music woo-ed him to Remingtons in Southeast. Dismissing the temptation of his favorite hearty beer, he chose to stay sober. Around 1:30 a.m. his phone rang.

Jamie implored Mitch for a ride home. Mitch figured, why not, he was already in the city. Mitch first met Jamie, 29, in early September at a transgender conference in Seattle. Fate united them at a barbecue, when Mitch sat down at Jamie’s table, and they discovered they lived two miles apart in Virginia. They became casual friends, having the occasional coffee or going on a hike.

Mitch drove to Florida Avenue, Northwest, where they would rendezvous at Fab Lounge. Jamie insisted he meet Mitch outside so as not to get lost. After parking the car, he found Jamie. As Mitch approached, Jamie was courting a woman he met inside earlier. Mitch greeted them and stood idly as Jamie exchanged numbers with the woman and put her in a cab.

Throughout the country, transmen like Mitch and Jamie risk hate and prejudice stemming from ignorance and transphobia whenever they go out. On February 28, a hate crime at Fab Lounge underscored the proximity and prevalence of trasphobia within the local DC queer community.

Inside the club, Mitch and Jamie huddled near the bar chatting until the lights clicked on at 3 a.m. The crowd dispersed, hunting for their belongings. Jamie excused himself to grab the coat he left by the couch in the other room. Mitch waited. Fifteen seconds went by. Thirty seconds went by. A minute went by. A funny feeling filled Mitch’s stomach.

Near the couches, Mitch spied Jamie engulfed by about six butch lesbians screaming and flailing. A man stood outside the circle of women. “Oh sh*t! What the f*ck are you? A boy or a girl?” one yelled. Another woman and the man joined in. The women aggressively grabbed Jamie’s slim, boyish body. Jamie requested they leave him alone and attempted to make an escape before the situation got worse.

Jamie had faced transphobia, which is not a one-time incident. Internal community prejudice is the underlying problem, and hate will reoccur until dealt with comprehensively.

Transphobia exists due to a lack of understanding for trans needs and trans lives. Media under represents transgender individuals and often fails to present them in a positive light (if presenting them at all). The LGB community often forgets prejudice lives within the queer population.

People frequently neglect the role of gender identity and feel uncomfortable or threatened when their own identity is questioned. When threatened, people can lash out in violence or anger as a coping mechanism. While not directly connected, gender expression and sexual orientation are linked. A fight for sexual rights must include a fight for gender rights.

“Queers face insecurity around gender identity,” said Alex, 24, a mechanical engineer and transman from Shady Grove, Md. “There is a fear of questioning gender because it can construct gay men as not real men and lesbians as not real women.”

Any time there is a high level of ignorance, there is a propensity for violence. Gay men and lesbians have more public space, visibility and privilege; they don’t examine their own prejudice, said Alex.

“This incident really highlights that just because someone might experience relative homophobia,” said Sadie Ryanne Baker of the DC Trans Coalition, “They can still be transphobic, cissexist, racist, sexist, ableist. Just as trans guys can benefit from sexism, and a white trans woman is privileged by racism, LGBQ folks are often complicit in cissexism and transphobia. Trans people have specific needs and experiences that are different, and unless we talk about that, no one will understand us.”

As the confrontation escalated inside the bar, Jamie put on his coat and brushed past the women. Mitch and Jamie are swallowed by the crowd moseying to the exit. A look of annoyance settled over Jamie’s face. Mitch asks Jamie if he knew the women. No, Jamie said, he had not seen them all night. Neither had ever been to Fab Lounge before, and neither intends to return. As the cool winter wind hit their faces, they made their way to the car, unaware of what lay ahead.

Ignorance, transphobia and social discreditation make transgender folks feel unsafe and unwelcome in some queer spaces – the few places in which they should feel protected. It is critical to remember some transmen spend important parts of their lives in lesbian bars, said Alex. Even if they cease to go regularly, it is still part of their identities and they have every right to want to return, if only to visit.

Transgender voices are often overlooked and silenced, yet have played a critical part in building the LGBT movement to its current status. Stonewall and other revolts were often started by gender variant and transgender people. The police harassment at the Stonewall Inn was aided by an ordinance governing gender-appropriate clothing.

“[The LGB community] should be thanking people my age that they even have space,” said Mitch. “They should not be taking if for granted, creating hostility and abusing us.”

“We tend to forget that queer-on-queer crime, in particular, queer-on-queer assault, exists at all,” said Kasey, 23, a transman attending George Washington University.

Both politically and socially, transgender people still contest exclusion from the LGB population. Although outwardly appearing as one monolithic LGBT group, the transgender community is marginalized by the marginalized – their experiences devalued and dismissed in the larger fight for equality.

“One of the strongest arguments of the LGBQ movement has been that there are so many different ways to exist in the world and they’re all valid and we all deserve basic human dignity and equal rights,” said Sadie. “And that’s definitely something that resonates with trans people, too.”

Twenty seconds after leaving the club, just barely near the entrance of the Royal Palace nightclub on Connecticut Avenue, a woman with long braids under a baseball cap wearing a black jacket pinned Jamie in a headlock. She was the same woman from inside the club, and she relentlessly questioned his gender. She catapulted onto Jamie’s back and pummeled him with her fists. Her comrade watched.

Remembering his days as a high school teacher in inner city Brooklyn, Mitch pulled out his blue Ericson phone to defuse the situation. The plan backfired as the braided woman snatched the phone from Mitch, challenging “If you want your phone, you have to get it from my pocket.” She hit him in the neck with his phone, where he would suffer sore muscles and headaches for the next two weeks. A second woman began beating Jamie.

Neither passers-by on foot nor in cars stopped to assist. The Royal Palace bouncer, standing just feet away, refused involvement in the altercation. Minutes later, a 1995 maroon Camry pulled up. The women got in. The license plate was CU 7269.

Jamie reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He called 911. Mitch drove Jamie to the hospital and waited by his side. Jamie had suffered a concussion and bruising.

Initial responses highlight the dissonance between the transgender and LGB communities. The LGB community was surprised that a hate crime would occur from within. Meanwhile, the transgender community is angry at the LGB community’s response.

“I’m more shocked at how everyone else seems to think this came out of nowhere – this kind of thing happens a lot. Transphobic and cissexist violence comes at us all the time, and it cuts across just about every demographic,” said Sadie.

The story, which made numerous trans blogs, listservs and news outlets, generated disgust from DC’s local transmasculine community. The Washington City Paper also published a piece on it. Yet, The Blade is the only major LGB outlet to cover the incident.

“The Blade stated that the assailants were women,” said Kasey. “While they explicitly detailed the victims’ transition process and orientation, they never mentioned that the assailants were also lesbians. It just felt like the greater community was trying to conceal the fact that this was a queer-on-queer assault.”

Before hate is erased outside the LGBT community, we must erase it from within. As a community, we need to own up and say we are wrong. We must actively combat transphobia and challenge our gender comfort level. The best way is to educate yourself and those around you. Trans101 can be found easily on the Internet and in publications. Read pieces by transgender individuals over scholarly works. Learn how gender affects you and others and how to respect gender identity.

Originally, this case was classified as an assault. Skip Coburn of the DC Nightlife Association and Lieutenant Brett Parson met with police to reclassify the incident as a hate crime. Mitch and Jamie are lucky that such a classification is possible here.

Only 11 states and DC have hate crimes laws that make is illegal to commit a hate or bias crime on the basis of gender identity. Of all types of hate crimes reported, gender identity is the third highest category, making up about 16 percent, according to the Human Rights Campaign’s legal team. These daunting statistics increase the urgency for the LGB community to help fight not only with outreach, but also with policy.

Mitch and Jamie are still working to track down the perpetrators. Running the license plate yielded no useful results. They urge anyone who knows the women to come forward. Mitch has since become a transgender activist, sharing his story as much as he can, reaching out to the local transgender community through organizations like the DC Area Transmasculine Society (both Alex and Kasey are members).

“This does not change our relationship, except to the extent that it makes us closer,” said Mitch.

Be willing to call others out on transphobic speech. Vocalizing hate contributes to a social, political and moral atmosphere that breeds and enables hate. By remaining silent and allowing hate to be voiced, you help to perpetuate violence.

“If you refuse to call us by our correct pronouns,” said Sadie, “Even if you aren’t the one throwing punches or think you never would be, you’re still justifying that sort of violence by dehumanizing us and taking away our right to exist.”

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