A transgender activist said he encountered two women allegedly posting transphobic stickers in New York City and decided to confront them.
“You know being transphobic kills people? You want to kill innocent people with your hatred?” Simon Chartrand can be heard telling the women in a video he recorded and shared with NBC New York.
The neon-pink stickers read, in part, “Transwomen are men.”
Chartrand, who was with his partner when he confronted the women, said that once he “made sure it was them putting the stickers up, I had to act, I had to record it, I had to call it out. I had to call out the hatred for what it was.”
The video shows the unidentified women walking away from Chartrand, with one of them responding to him with just one word: “misogynist.” To that, Chartrand responded, “It’s not misogynist, you’re transphobic.”
Chartrand, who is transgender and works for Translatinx Network, a trans advocacy nonprofit, told NBC New York that the incident has motivated him to work even harder for equality.
“I want you to feel it from our hearts. We are human beings, and we deserve the same rights as every other human — no more, no less,” he said.
Activists and politicians have also condemned the transphobic stickers.
“This is bigotry that inflicts pain & violence on transgender New Yorkers. We reject and condemn this hateful act,” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer tweeted.
Transgender singer and activist Mila Jam shared an Instagram post about Chartrand’s encounter, shutting down the “rancid narrative.”
Drag performer and LGBTQ activist Marti Gould Cummings shared a Twitter post about the incident, saying “transphobia has no place” in New York City and telling friends to “stay safe.”
New York City Council member Mark D. Levine responded to Cummings’ tweet, writing, “This is disgusting and dangerous,” and ending his message with the hashtag “#TransWomenAreWomen.”
Last year was the deadliest year on record for transgender and gender-nonconforming people in the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The organization, which has been tracking trans deaths due to violence since 2013, reported that at least 44 transgender and gender-nonconforming people were killed due to violence in 2020.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
