Traces of the victim's blood from the attack could still be seen on the concrete by the station during Sunday's rally following the brutal attack in downtown Minneapolis
Two transgender women were attacked at a Minneapolis light rail station as onlookers cheered, reports suggest.
The incident happened after the victims overheard a group making rude comments about them at the Hennepin Avenue and Fifth Street station in downtown Minneapolis. Physical violence broke out after the pair confronted the group, Minneapolis Police have said.
In response to the attack, community organizers held a rally at the location on Sunday, expressing their support for the victims, Dahlia and Jess. Amber Muhm, one of the rally organizers who spoke with both women after the incident, told The Independent that the assault began when a man started hurling transphobic slurs at Dahlia and Jess as they were leaving the station.
When Jess asked him to stop, he responded by sucker punching her. Dahlia retaliated by hitting the man with her cane, Muhm explained.
Despite the man being knocked out, four or five other people rushed in and began brutally beating the two transgender women, Muhm recounted. "People were cheering the attackers on," she said.
Both women were knocked unconscious, with Dahlia suffering a broken nose and Jess sustaining multiple contusions on her ribs. "No one would help them," Muhm added.
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"It was a traumatic event and they are both still dealing with the physical consequences of that very acutely but the community is kind of what's keeping them grounded right now," she stated. So far no arrests have been made but investigations continue.
Having relocated from Iowa to Minnesota, the pair took advantage of the 2023 "Trans Refuge" law, designed to protect individuals seeking gender-affirming health care from the influence of laws outside of the state.
"A lot of people are moving to Minnesota and have moved since we passed the trans refuge bill but I think we're going to see a real spike after the election outcome," DFL Rep Leigh Finke, the bill's sponsor, expressed optimism to CBS News during Sunday's rally.
The transgender community is bracing for an increase in similar attacks as Donald Trump begins his second presidential term. In the face of potential future transphobic incidents, Muhm asserted to reporters, fully expecting such attacks to increase if Donald Trump were to serve another presidential term.
"People are so emboldened now. There's so much false data, so many false narratives about trans people," Muhm said, citing the fake rumors that there are surgeries regularly being carried out on children.
Trump has taken a firm stance against gender-affirming healthcare for minors during his campaign, going as far as to describe the provision of such care as "child abuse" and "child sexual mutilation." He has also controversially insinuated that children are subject to "brutal" gender-affirming surgeries at school.
Following his re-election, The Trevor Project, a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth, reported "a nearly 200 percent increase in conversation topics related to the election across our 24/7 crisis services," according to Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, in a press release.
"While alarming, we are not surprised to see that the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ politics of the past few years continue to harm young people's mental health," Black added.