Ohio woman says strangers forced her to prove she was not transgender
CLEVELAND (WCMH) – A woman in Cleveland says she got in trouble because some people thought she could be transgender.
She says they demanded she reveal herself to prove she is a woman.
It started as a casual night out at a local after-hour spot.
“I was talking to one of my friends, we were having a good time, and a young lady had walked up beside us,” said the victim, who did not want her name used.
She began talking to the stranger, but the conversation quickly turned personal.
“She says ‘No, I am not sure. They say you are a man.’”
The stranger, she says, would not let it go, even asking her to reveal herself.
“She was just adamant, adamant about it. You’re a man, show me your vagina.”
The young lady was eventually escorted out. The woman says when she tried to leave 45 minutes later, she was blocked in by two cars. Once again, she says she was confronted by the lady from the lounge and an armed man she brought with her.
“I talked to her and said ‘look babe I was just upstairs rubbing your leg, I thought we were cool. I don’t understand what this is about.’”
And once again, the victim says the woman demanded she expose herself.
“In my mind is, I have a 15-year-old son and my 7-year-old baby. And are you all really on this because you want to humiliate me?”
She says she got out of the car, pretending to do what the lady asked.
“And I closed the door and ran across the street and hit the chirp to lock it.”
The woman was able to get images of the black Chevy Cobalt and a green Honda involved, hoping it may lead to an arrest.
“You wanted to take my life or hurt me because you wanted to see my vagina. You wanted to make sure I was a woman because I was in a bar you were in?”
The Cleveland LGBT center has also spoken out on this woman’s behalf. Ryan Clopton-Zymler says in recent years, hate crimes targeting transgender people have been on the rise.
“The fact that the person isn’t necessarily trans doesn’t negate the fact that this person still demanded to see another person’s body,” Clopton-Zymler said.
“This comes down to sexual assault. This was someone being publicly discriminated against, publicly attacked based on the assumption of their gender identity.”
Cleveland Police are investigating this as a kidnapping and criminal damaging offense case.
They are asking anyone who may have information to call them.