A transgender woman told the Washington Blade she was subjected to repeated anti-trans name calling by four young men and a young woman on the section of 17th Street, N.W.
near Dupont Circle where two gay bars and many LGBTQ-friendly restaurants are located. Brooklyn Arbona, 39, an Alexandria, Va., resident, said she was taken aback when the woman in the group shouted, “Hi miss and you know that’s not a miss, that’s a man.
What are you doing? That’s a man.” Arbona, who works as a piano teacher and is one of the female singers associated with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, said the group continued to yell names at her as she walked past Annie’s Paramount Steak House.
She said they followed her, prompting her to enter the McDonald’s restaurant out of fear that the group might attempt to assault her. “They were kind of like walking near me, and it was real harassment,” Arbona said. “They were saying all this stuff and it was real vile stuff.