November 17, 2015
Report: Trans Woman Attacked for 2nd Time in San Fran
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
A transgender woman said she was attacked for the second time this year while on a date with her fianc� Sunday night in San Francisco's Mission District, SFGate reports.
Samantha Husley was out with her fianc� Daira Hopwood when a couple threw hot coffee on her and repeatedly punched her in the face, according to police. Cops arrested a man and a woman on suspicion of a string of hate crime related counts.
"I was very frightened," Husley, 25, told SFGate. Hopwood, 40, added that she "was frozen with fear."
"It was almost as if they were going to beat up the next trans person they saw," Hopwood said.
The attack occurred Sunday around 7 p.m., when the attackers allegedly shouted transphobic and anti-gay slurs at Husley and Hopwood. When Husley attempted to respond to the attackers, the woman allegedly threw the hot coffee in her face while the man allegedly "landed a barrage of blows to her shoulder, head and face," SFGate writes.
"I was in fight-or-flight mode. I had fear for my own life," Hulsey told the newspaper. "The person said, 'Do you want to die?' He threatened to kill me."
Witnesses got the attention of a police officer who arrested the couple, Dewayne Kemp, 36, and Rebecca Westover, 42. Westover was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, battery and a weapons violation, police told SFGate. Kemp was arrested on suspicion of felony counts of aggravated assault, making threats and conspiracy. He is also suspected of violating his parole and being in possession of drug paraphernalia.
Kemp and Westover were both booked with hate crime enhancements.
Back in January Husley said she stabbed twice in the chest after an irate man followed her and her partner from a bus in San Fran.
"He started saying a lot of hateful things and messing with us," Hulsey told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. "He was threatening to hurt us. The way he was behaving leads me to believe he was on some kind of drugs. He was obviously not sober."
A man was arrested for the attack and charged with several hate crime enhanced felonies, including attempted murder, SFGate notes.
Hurley told SFGate she moved to San Fran in 2013 from Savannah, Ga., after being the victim of bullying.
"It's disturbing to me," Hulsey said. "I came here for safety and acceptance. It's not OK for people to do this anywhere -- especially here."
Violence against the trans community is unfortunately high. Sneh Rao, senior policy director at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, told SFGate 79 percent of trans people the agency surveyed in 2014 said they were victims of violence in the city. A whopping 88 percent reported harassment.