A transgender woman was beaten in her own home after she told people outside to quiet down.
“They called me a tra**y, they said, ‘You’re a man, we’re gonna get you.’ And they were repeating this all throughout the beating, said that I deserved it,” said Kendall Stephens, 34, about the Monday night attack.
Related: Gay basher in horrific Philadelphia hate crime now claims self-defense
Stephens said that she was spending a quiet night at home with her husband, her 12-year-old goddaughter, and another kid when she heard a fight break out outside her home in Philadelphia.
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“It was a brawl, people were fighting, people were throwing around liquor bottles all in front of my property while I had kids inside,” she told ABC 7 News.
Stephens asked the crowd to quiet down and said that she would call 911 if they didn’t, and that’s when the crowd turned on her.
“This lady comes balling at me like a bull and starts swinging at me, I tried to close my door, front door, and as I’m doing this, she kicks it open and starts attacking me all about the face,” she recounted.
“My lips are swollen, my jaw is very sore, barely even able to chew it’s so bad,” Stephens said about her injuries.
She said that she has not been able to sleep since the attack because she is “in fear of my life” because the attackers threatened to come back and kill her.
“They already showed what kind of monsters they are, they’re savages.”
Police at first reported it as an assault, but later Stephens had to seek medical attention at a hospital, and hospital staff called the police.
“I was grateful that Kendall was alive, but I am angry at some that this happened. I am also angry at some of the ways it was handled,” said Deja Alvarez of the Philadelphia LGBTQ Police Liason committee. “There will be an example made that it is not going to be open season on trans people.”
No arrests have been made so far but police are looking for people who were caught on a nearby surveillance camera.
