Police in Philadelphia have arrested a man accused of verbally and physically assaulting a transgender woman.
23-year-old Ryannah Quigley (above) said that when the attacker hurled gay slurs at her, she took out her phone to record the encounter on Facebook Live. The 25-year-old homeless assailant then threw a bag of food at Quigley, punched her in the face and ran away.
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Quigley said she was walking along the 1300 block of Filbert Street in Center City at 4:40 p.m. Friday with two of her friends when an unidentified man began staring at her. She greeted the man, but he continued to stare at her.
“I said, ‘Is there a reason why you’re staring at me up and down?’ And he stopped and turned and looked and he said, ‘Whatever bro.’ So that’s when I said, ‘Please don’t call me bro,'” Quigley said.
Quigley said the man then started shouting at her and yelling anti-gay slurs.
“He just kept telling me, ‘You’re a f—–,’ and ‘You’re going to hell.’ Then he kept saying, ‘You’ll never be a real woman,'” Quigley said.
Quigley told NBC10 she then took out her phone and began recording the encounter on Facebook Live. That’s when she says the man threw a bag of food at her and then punched her in the face before running away.
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Quigley said the video of the attack was later taken down by Facebook administrators because it violated terms of service. She added that she was blocked from accessing her Facebook account. Her friends and supporters have posted updates on her recovery to her page for her.
Although she suffered cuts and bruises during the attack, she said she is doing okay. She added that she has been the victim of violence before but transgender victims are “oftentimes not believed” and “looked at as the problem.”
Watch an interview with Quigley and the Facebook Live video below.
