Bisexual New York Woman Assaulted When Mistaken for Trans

A Black bisexual cisgender woman in New York City says she was assaulted by a cashier in a convenience store who mistakenly thought she was transgender and sprayed mace at her, dragged her out by the hair, and kicked her in the head.

Jasmine Adams, 35, filed suit Monday against the West Brighton Deli Grocery & Grill, located in the borough of Staten Island, the New York Daily News reports. The suit was filed in Staten Island Supreme Court.

The suit says the cashier “perceived plaintiff to be transgender,” leading to the attack, which occurred on July 28. Adams was wearing an Apple watch with a rainbow-colored Pride band at the time.

She was buying marijuana for a friend, and while checking out, she called the friend on her cell phone to make sure she was getting the right product. She says the clerk thought she was trying to haggle about the price.

“I said it wasn’t about the price and that I was just trying to figure out what I was buying,” Adams told the Daily News. “So I paid. But he sucked his teeth and got mad and me and threw [the marijuana packet] on the floor.”

She then refused to pick up the packet and asked for her money back, but the clerk wouldn’t give her a refund. “He said I was trying to get him fired and that he was going to call the cops,” she said. “I said, ‘Call the cops! I just want my money back.’ Then I heard him call me a transvestite.” She said she wasn’t a transvestite — an outdated term for cross-dressers, sometimes mistakenly used for transgender people. The assault, of course, wouldn’t have been justified if she were trans, in any case, she told the paper.

She said the cashier then maced her in the face and approached her from behind the counter. The mace interfered with her vision, but she picked up a coffee pot to defend herself. The man then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the store, as was recorded on cell phone video viewed by the Daily News.

“The worker threw her to the concrete and kicked her in the head, the video shows,” according to the paper. The video was recorded by witnesses to the attack and posted on Facebook.

“Next thing I know when I opened my eyes, I was outside next to my car on the floor,” Adams said. “I said to myself that I gotta get outta here because I don’t know if he’s going to kill me.”

She reported the attack to police, but no arrest has been made. The cashier has been fired, and management of the store has not helped identify him, police told the Daily News. The case has been referred to the hate-crimes unit, but Adams said no one from the unit has contacted her.

“I tried to suppress what happened,” she concluded. “It makes you feel vulnerable. I like to believe that I’m a strong woman. To me, I wasn’t so strong. It makes me feel weak.”