CeCe McDonald

Cece McDonald (born May 26, 1989) is an African American trans woman and LGBTQ activist.

McDonald, who was born in 1989 and is originally from South Chicago, studied fashion at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

At around 11:30 pm on June 5, 2011, McDonald, her roommate Latavia Taylor, and their friends Larry Tyaries Thomas, Zavawn Smith, and Roneal Harris, all of whom are African-American, walked the half-mile from McDonald and Taylor's apartment in Minneapolis to a Cub Foods to buy groceries.

On the way, a police officer briefly stopped and questioned the group without provocation; he then followed them for a short time and departed.

McDonald said she and her friends were confronted outside the Schooner Tavern by Dean Schmitz and others.

According to the charges against McDonald, this occurred shortly after midnight.

Schmitz, his girlfriend Jenny Thoreson, and his ex-girlfriend Molly Flaherty had stepped out of the bar for a cigarette.

McDonald said they shouted racist and transphobic slurs, while Thoreson, in interviews with police, characterized the remarks as derogatory and sarcastic.

Thomas recalled Schmitz, Thoreson, and Flaherty saying "oh you faggots, you nigger lovers, and whoop-de-woo, you ain't nothing but a bunch of nigger babies," and that in response he went over to talk to Schmitz.

According to Thomas, Schmitz then walked off and "started talking this stuff, like, 'Oh, look at the tranny over there, look at that tranny. McDonald said in a letter from Hennepin County jail that Schmitz called everyone in McDonald's group niggers.

McDonald testified that she and her friends tried to walk away, but that Flaherty started a fight by smashing a glass of alcohol against her face, cutting her and requiring 11 stitches.

McDonald was asked in court whether Flaherty then said "I can take on all of you bitches", to which she replied in the affirmative; Thoreson recalled that at this point Flaherty threw the first punch.

According to McDonald's testimony, at one point Schmitz said "look at that boy dressed like a girl and tucking her dick in".

David Crandell, Flaherty's boyfriend, then stepped out of the bar to find multiple members of McDonald's group attacking Flaherty, and tried to pull them away from her.

Gary Gilbert, a security worker at the Schooner Tavern, recalled seeing Schmitz pull McDonald away from Flaherty, and that Schmitz and McDonald then moved into the street.

McDonald's defense characterized this move as McDonald having "attempted to leave the scene, attempted to get out of harm's way", and added that she was followed by Schmitz.

Gilbert recalled that McDonald appeared to be holding a blade, while Schmitz had his fists clenched and said to McDonald "you gonna stab me, you bitch?"

Schmitz then hunched over, put his hand to his shirt and said "you stabbed me," to which McDonald replied, according to a witness, "Yes I did."

Schmitz was stabbed in the chest with a pair of scissors.

McDonald told police that Schmitz charged at her, running into scissors she was holding.

After those present saw Schmitz bleeding, the fighting stopped; McDonald and Thomas ran towards Cub Foods while some of their friends boarded a Metro Transit bus.

Schmitz's wound was more than three inches deep and pierced his heart in the right ventricle.

Anthony Stoneburg, who was in the neighborhood visiting his aunt, tried to plug the wound, but Schmitz died in the ambulance.

She came to national attention in June 2012 for accepting a plea bargain of 41 months for second-degree manslaughter of a man she stabbed after McDonald and her friends were assaulted in Minneapolis outside a bar near closing time.

The attack, a year prior, was widely seen as racist and transphobic, and became physical when McDonald was struck in the face by the man's friend with "an alcoholic drink" glass causing a bleeding gash that needed stitches.

According to Mother Jones, when McDonald was attempting to escape the bar, the man came after her.

McDonald "took a pair of scissors out of her purse and turned around to face [him]; he was stabbed in the chest and died from the wound."

McDonald said she saw how her case was progressing so took the plea bargain rather than face trial and risk a possible 20-year term.

According to the Bay Area Reporter her conviction "sparked outrage, and was viewed by many as an act of transphobia and racism against a woman who defended herself."

Although a woman, McDonald was housed in two men's prisons.

An online petition "led to the state department of corrections administering the full regimen of hormones she needed."

Her story got international attention including in May 2013 when an Ebony.com article about the case won the GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding Digital Journalism Article".

She also received support from transgender activist and actress Laverne Cox, star of Orange Is the New Black, which includes story lines about trans women of color and hate crimes.

Cox says McDonald is the image she has of her OITNB character, Sophia Burset, and that she plays Burset as an homage to McDonald.

Cox also identifies with her experiences, "So many times I've ... been harassed, any of them could have escalated ... I very easily could be Cece."

FREE Cece, a documentary about McDonald's experiences told through interviews by Laverne Cox, started production in December 2013.

The film centers on the attack on McDonald and her friends including the stabbing, her imprisonment, and violence experienced by trans women of color.

McDonald was released in January 2014 after serving 19 months.

She was profiled in Rolling Stone among other publications and included as part of Advocate's annual "40 Under 40" list.

In August 2014 she was awarded the Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club.