This article discusses acts of transphobic violence.
A video taken on June 1 shows the brutal beating of a Black trans woman named Iyanna Dior inside a store in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The clip, which is circulating on social media though will not be linked here, depicts a group of at least a dozen people, most of whom appear to be Black cis men, senselessly striking Iyanna until she finally takes cover behind the cash register. According to Out, the incident occurred following a “fender bender.”
A day after the attack, Iyanna took to Facebook Live to confirm that she had survived the terrifying encounter, though had sustained a slew of injuries. “The whole side of my face is swollen. It hurts so bad… On my forehead, if you run your hands across it, these are knots. That’s a whole patch of scratches [points to scratches on forehead], but those are knots [underneath],” she says. “My fucking arm is just swollen, it hurts so bad. I need to go to the hospital… My lips are cut on the inside. A lot of shit happened.”
Iyanna followed the live up with a post that read, “BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER.”
Amid the national rebellion incited by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade by police, plus the recent killing of Nina Pop, activists are calling for Iyanna’s beating to draw attention to the fact that Black liberation must include all Black folks, especially the Black trans community. As the writer and director Janet Mock tweeted, “We must stop centering cis heterosexual men and their needs. We will not ignore the violence some of these men enact on our sisters’ and our siblings’ lives. We need our black cis siblings to roll up RIGHT NOW. We are your family.” She added, “Speak Iyanna Dior’s name — all our black trans siblings’ names — just as much as we’ve been screaming yours. We love y’all. We show up for y’all. ROLL UP! Now show up for us.”
“What happened to Iyanna Dior (a black trans woman) is a demonstration of what many black lgbt people already knew: we don’t have anyone to depend on but ourselves,” wrote the activist and vlogger AdrianXpression. “We gotta fight racists whites AND transphobic/homophobic blacks at the same time. Protect black trans women.”
Raquel Willis, a writer and former national organizer for the Transgender Law Center, wrote, “What will happen to us Black women, Black LGBTQ+ folks, Black trans women if we continue to only rally around the state violence that cishet Black men face?”
“The police, the state, and white supremacy are killing us, but so is an insecure version of masculinity that views Black womanhood, transness, and queerness as a threat,” she continued. “If you aren’t rallying behind Black trans victims of violence as much as you are cishet Black men, you don’t really believe that Black Lives Matter.”
Black liberationist organizations including Black Visions Collective and Black Women Radicals also offered comments on the transphobic act of violence.
“Transphobia is violence and we are NOT going to be free unless our Black trans sisters, brothers, and siblings are free/safe. A sister was attacked last night. Her name is Iyanna Dior,” wrote Black Visions Collective,
As Black Women Radicals put it, “If your concept of Black Liberation does not include Black trans, queer, & disabled folxs, you’re not for Black Liberation.”
To support Iyanna during this painful time, her Cashtag ($NajaBabiie) can be found here.
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