The crowd cheered like trans women beaten in Minneapolis

Two transgender women were brutally attacked at a Minneapolis light rail station while onlookers cheered on the perpetrators and no one offered help.

On Nov. 10, Dahlia and Jess (last names withheld for their safety) were leaving the light rail station near Hennepin Avenue and Fifth Street in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis when a man began yelling transphobic slurs at them.

When Jess asked the man to stop, he hit her, local transgender lawyer Amber Muhm, who is affiliated with the Trans Movement for Liberation, told the British newspaper. The Independent.

Dahlia then struck the man with her staff, knocking him out. At least five other men then rushed in and began beating both women.

Muhm said CBS affiliate WCCO that both women were knocked unconscious, with Dahlia suffering a broken nose and Jess suffering “multiple contusions” to her ribs.

“No one came to help them,” Muhm said. “They actually said people were cheering on the attackers while they were being beaten.”

Muhm and other community advocates held a rally in support of the injured women on November 17 to protest the violent attack. According to one Instagram post from Smitten Kitten, a local gift shop for gender-positive adults, this marks the third such attack on transgender women on the light rail system in the past two years.

Dahlia and Jess reportedly moved from Iowa to Minnesota under the state’s Trans Refuge Act of 2023, which prevents out-of-state laws from interfering with the practice of gender-affirming healthcare.

“A lot of people are moving to Minnesota and have moved since we passed the trans sanctuary law, but I think we’re going to see a real increase after the election,” state Rep. Leigh Finke (DFL-St. Paul), the first elected official transgender in the state, told WCCO.

Muhm said he worries that the frequency of attacks against transgender people could escalate following the shift to the right in this year’s elections.

“People are so encouraged now,” she said. “There’s so much false data, so many false narratives about trans people.”

Munn noted that counter-protesters at the rally accused those gathered of “performing surgery on 10-year-olds,” which “isn’t even close to being medically true.”

Trump’s victory has many transgender people fearing for their future, with advocates urging individuals to stock up on hormones and medication, get their vitals and identification documents in order and take other precautions to to ensure they can continue to confirm their identity.

Others in Minneapolis are taking precautions to protect themselves from future attacks by either taking self-defense classes or seeking permits to carry handguns in public.

“People are talking to me about deleting their social media presence, going back into the closet,” said a speaker at the rally, according to CBS News.

Muhm said The Independent there is a sense of urgency among members of the Minneapolis community to arm themselves and learn how to fend off the attackers.

“People are about to become much more hostile and emboldened in their transphobia,” she said. “So what do we do to protect ourselves when we’re out?”