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April 26, 2012

Transgender African-American Woman Faces Controversial Murder Trial 
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A transgender African-American woman is facing trial for murder after an
incident outside a Minneapolis bar where she was reportedly harassed and
then physically attacked. Ce Ce Mc Donald, who is 23 years old, is
scheduled to stand trial later this month for second-degree murder. But
supporters say Mc Donald was the victim on June 5, 2011, after two women
and a man, all of them Caucasian, began harassing her and her friends
outside a bar, calling them racial and homophobic slurs. One woman then
allegedly hit Mc Donald in the side of the face with a glass beer mug.
While the events remain unclear, a fight then ensued that left
47-year-old Dean Schmitz dead after he was apparently stabbed by a pair
of fabric scissors that had been in Mc Donald’s purse. Police arrested
Mc Donald, but did not arrest anyone else at the scene. Mc Donald
received 11 stitches after her salivary gland was lacerated and the side
of cheek sliced open by the beer mug. She was reportedly interrogated
without counsel and placed in solitary confinement. There were reports
the dead man, Dean Schmitz, had a swastika tattooed on his chest and was
known for making hateful remarks. Mc Donald supporters have compared the
case to Trayvon Martin and said it highlights bias against transgender
people and African Americans in the criminal justice system. She could
face up to 80 years in prison.

 

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