Alarming Spike in Violence Against Cleveland’s Transgender Community Demands Action

A transgender woman was stabbed and wounded this weekend in her Cleveland apartment — the fourth known violent attack against a transgender person in the Ohio city this year, according to news reports.

While the survivor’s name is not yet public, Cleveland.com reported that police charged Ulious Brooks, 36, with felonious assault in the attack. According to police reports, the woman was found wounded in her apartment by her aunt, who heard the fight with Brooks.

This most recent attack occurred against an alarming backdrop of violence against transgender people in the city. During the last six months, two transgender women have been murdered and a homeless transgender woman was sexually assaulted in the Cleveland area.

Phylicia Mitchell, 45, was shot and killed outside her home on February 23. Her longtime partner, Shane Mitchell, described her as his soulmate.

“Everyone loved her,” Mitchell said. “My nieces and nephews opened up to her so much. She was just so funny and kind.”

On May 21, a 31-year-old transgender woman was sexually assaulted while sleeping in a Cleveland homeless shelter, according to Cleveland.com.

The woman, whose name was withheld, told the news outlet that she is too scared to return to the shelter, and fears for her safety when she passes a man on the street.

Keisha Wells, 58, was found dead with a gunshot wound to her abdomen in the parking lot of an apartment complex on June 24.

A longtime friend of Wells described her as “the nicest person ever” but also a “tough cookie.”

HRC stands with the Cleveland transgender community during this difficult time and urges a thorough investigation of these attacks. Elected leaders and policymakers must act to end this epidemic of violence.

Sadly, 2018 has already seen at least 14 transgender or non-binary people fatally shot or killed by other violent means nationwide.

Last fall, the HRC Foundation and the Trans People of Color Coalition released a report documenting the senseless acts of violence that made 2017 the deadliest year on record for transgender people, particularly for trans women of color.

To learn more about HRC’s transgender justice work, visit hrc.org/Transgender.

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John McCain Rips Trump’s ‘Tragic’ Putin Summit: ‘No Prior President Has Abased Himself More Abjectly Before a Tyrant’

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) tore into Donald Trump after Trump threw the FBI under the bus and sided with Vladimir Putin on Russian election meddling.

McCain’s statement:

“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.

“President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.

“It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout – as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.

“Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.

“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.”

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John McCain Rips Trump’s ‘Tragic’ Putin Summit: ‘No Prior President Has Abased Himself More Abjectly Before a Tyrant’