Trans activists climb 250-foot construction crane to protest anti-trans laws & police

Two transgender women were arrested Wednesday after they climbed a crane at an Atlanta construction site to protest the city’s controversial “Cop City.”

A statement from the Defend the Atlanta Forest/Stop Cop City campaigns posted on X said the women were also highlighting recent violence against trans people in Atlanta and anti-trans legislation currently making its way through the Georgia legislature.

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According to a joint Instagram post from Stop Cop City, Defend the Atlanta Forest, and independent Atlanta magazine Mainline, the pair climbed the 250-foot crane at the Brasfield & Gorrie construction site in Midtown Atlanta, unfurling a banner that read “Drop Cop City” before securing themselves to the crane, shutting down construction.

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Video posted to X by the Atlanta Police Department Wednesday shows officials cutting through the duct tape with which the activists attached themselves to the crane’s ladder system and helping them down. They were subsequently arrested and taken into custody.

According to FOX 5 Atlanta, police identified the pair as a 23-year-old and a 22-year-old. Names have also been reported in local media, but it’s unclear if those are their actual names or deadnames.

“Just a few weeks ago in Atlanta, Chevy Hill was murdered. Just a few days ago, Georgia introduced legislation to further restrict access to life-saving medical care for trans children,” one of the activists is quoted as saying in Defend the Atlanta Forest/Stop Cop City statement. “In this political moment, we must act now, consolidate our power, and fight for the world we deserve.”

“Our trans womanhood underscores this action,” a post to Our Common Foe’s Instagram stories quotes the two activists as saying. “We, as trans women, will confront the state with our bodies, because our bodies exist and our bodies will continue to exist. In our own power and agency, we fight the police state by asserting our personhood.”

Wednesday’s action marks the third time in recent months that Brasfield & Gorrie, the lead contractor on the 85-acre, $90 million police training facility in the South River Forest commonly known as “Cop City,” has faced protests. Activists similarly shut down construction at two other Brasfield & Gorrie sites in late January and earlier this month.

As FOX 5 notes, “Cop City” opponents say the facility will lead to further militarization of Atlanta’s police force and to environmental damage affecting the majority Black area around the South River Forest.

In a statement, organizers of the “Drop Cop City” campaign said they would continue to take action until Brasfield & Gorrie ends its contract to build the facility. By blocking a referendum on the project, they said, the City of Atlanta and Mayor Andre Dickens “have given residents no other choice but to engage in direct action.”