As of Jan. 13, CeCe McDonald is a free woman. 

Although her arrest and subsequent sentencing created much backlash in the trans* community, the case made few waves in national media. Until her release a little more than a week ago, few people had heard McDonald’s story.

According to ABC News, on June 5, 2011, McDonald and a few of her friends were passing a tavern on their way to a convenience store. As they passed the open door of the drinking establishment, a group of drunken men and women began shouting racial slurs at McDonald and her friends (McDonald and her friends are all African-Americans, and the group of drunken antagonists were white). Initially, McDonald recounted, they had continued to walk past, ignoring the shouts. The ad hominem verbal attacks, however, quickly escalated. In her court statement, McDonald wrote that one man in particular, Dean Schmitz, identified her as a transgender woman, causing his slurs to become transphobic and homophobic, calling on his friends to “mess up that tranny.”

Although tensions between the two groups were running high, the encounter became violent when a female from Schmitz’s group hurled her drink at McDonald, shattering the glass and cutting her face. McDonald’s friends attempted to remove her from the scene, stepping out into the street. According to eyewitness reports and the police blotter, Schmitz followed McDonald, who onlookers said appeared to be holding a blade. McDonald maintains that as Schmitz aggressively launched himself onto her, he collided with the scissors she held, causing a fatal wound in his chest. When police arrived on the scene moments later, McDonald flagged them down and identified herself as the source of the strife, cooperating with authorities. Of course, a third-party view of the encounter lends itself to questioning McDonald as the center of the attack in any regard besides being a victim of violent phobias. 

In the aftermath, McDonald was offered the chance of a plea bargain, requiring her to admit only to second degree manslaughter due to criminal negligence rather than second degree murder. This led to her 41-month stay in prison.  

However, in the case of trans* people serving prison sentences, states reserve the right to determine which gender facility would best suit the inmate, neglecting the wishes of the inmate and putting their gender identity in the hands of prison officials. McDonald asked to be placed in a women’s facility, and the prison system of Minnesota ignored her wishes, electing to place her in a men’s correctional facility. This is harmful and derogatory on many levels. First and foremost, the gender binary as it exists in today’s society leaves no room for trans* people to exist, much less establish legal rights for their identity. For trans* people in any prison system across the globe, being placed in a facility for the gender they do not identify with can put them directly in the way of violence. It is a sad reality in this country that trans* people are attacked and ostracized at an alarmingly high rate outside of prison. Incarceration locks trans* people in with potential attackers, with little hope of justice. In McDonald’s case, the Huffington Post reported that McDonald would be allowed to appeal her placement in the male correctional facility had she felt unsafe, allowing for the possibility of a reassignment. However, there would be no guarantee it would be to a women’s prison.

Ultimately, McDonald served 19 months of her sentence in the male correctional facility. 

“I have faced things worse than prison in my lifetime,” McDonald said. 

Her case caught the attention of Laverne Cox, an African-American trans* woman currently portraying a trans* woman incarcerated for credit card fraud on Netflix’s hit show “Orange is the New Black.” In the interest of raising awareness for the rate of hate crimes directed toward trans* people, Cox is currently producing a documentary about McDonald’s case and subsequent time spent in prison for defending herself against an attack based in hatred and phobia. 

McDonald may be free, but her struggle is far from over. In the coming months, she not only will have to adjust to life beyond prison walls, but come to terms with her ongoing transition from male to fully female. In the United States, transgender identity is still widely misunderstood. It is my sincere hope that McDonald’s documentary and story bring attention to the persecution the trans* community faces on a daily basis.