Locals have protested in Sydney this evening after transgender woman Stephanie McCarthy, bassist for Sydney band Love Maul, was reportedly bashed at Newtown’s Town Hall Hotel on Friday night, 5th June, as she was waiting to perform with her band.
As The Sydney Morning Herald reports, Ms McCarthy says the incident involved five men bashing her in an unprovoked attack.
“There was four or five of them following me around, yelling ‘faggot’ at me. One of them kept deliberately bumping into me. I had my ponytail pulled a couple of times,” Ms McCarthy has said.
She allegedly confronted the men verbally after having her hair pulled, but was then grabbed by her shirt. Ms McCarthy grabbed the man’s shirt in return and says she was then punched in the head and face repeatedly.
Ms McCarthy has accused Town Hall Hotel of not doing enough to prevent the attack, and of allowing the alleged offenders to escape. “One of the security guards was standing five metres away behind a glass door which he didn’t even open. He ran downstairs, leaving me to get bashed,” she said.
A protest against violence and transphobia was held at the Hub on King Street this evening, before moving to in front of the Town Hall Hotel. Ms McCarthy spoke at the gathering, and told Music Feeds reporters Mike Hohnen and Mitch Feltscheer that the response she’s seen has been overwhelming.
“From such a horrible incident and such horrible violence, to see this amount of people in our community come up and stand up and say ‘enough’, it’s really really special.
“This has been a really awful time for me, but to see this gives me strength to know that hopefully we can make this stop. The diversity in Newtown is what makes it so special and to see it slowly getting eroded by the violence which has been brought in here because of the lockouts — We’ve gotta stand up and stop it.”
Sydney punters have been migrating to the inner-west and southern parts of the city in a bid to escape 1:30am lockout and 3am last drink laws which were introduced in the CBD and Kings Cross in February 2014.
Police are investigating the bashing. Inspector Andrew Garner, duty officer at Newtown Local Area Command, said CCTV footage of the incident is “not great”, and that police have attempted to obtain better footage from the hotel.
The Town Hall Hotel’s management team have also released a statement regarding the incident, saying, “It is our policy to immediately and respectfully act on any potential or reported incidents of antisocial behaviour.”
The full statement is available below, along with photos and video from the protest.
UPDATE 10/06/15: Police have arrested a 23-year-old man in relation to the bashing. He has been charged with affray and granted conditional bail, to front Newtown Local Court on Thursday, 9th July.
UPDATE 13/06/15: Police have also now charged a 22-year-old man in relation to the bashing.
https://twitter.com/tallpunksteph/status/606947333398396928
Sydney Anti-Violence & Anti-Tronsphobia Protest, The Hub, Newtown, 08.06.15 / Photos: Mike Hohnen, Music Feeds
Click photos to expand
Crowd gathering for anti-transphobia rally in Newtown in response to recent bashing incident at The Townie pic.twitter.com/pTMF4z7xP2
— Mitch Feltscheer (@mitchfel) June 8, 2015
Signs are out at the Newtown anti-transphobia rally. pic.twitter.com/k5JqKPzsLn
— Mitch Feltscheer (@mitchfel) June 8, 2015
The Town Hall Hotel is a small locals venue. Our goal has been to create an environment that both promotes and reflects…
Posted by The Townie on Saturday, 6 June 2015
