TRANSGENDER woman China Diamond was allegedly assaulted at a club on West Bay Street in what is being called a hate crime. The picture on the right shows her with a black eye.
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS
Tribune Staff Reporter
lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
A LAWYER claimed an American transgender woman was beaten “black and blue” during a “hate crime” at a club on West Bay Street on Saturday.
Attorney Mark Rolle Symonette said the woman, China Diamond, 26, intends to file a civil suit against the club after her birthday vacation took a turn for the worse.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Leamond Deleveaux said yesterday he was unaware of the incident, but would look into it.
“We will not support any violence against anyone,” he told The Tribune. “Every human being has the right to coexist and to live, and the constitution is very clear on that. We do not support people being attacked. We cannot. The police are very strongly against that.”
During a press conference, Mr Symonette claimed the club owner found Ms Diamond attractive, offered to buy her a drink and told her she would make a good bartender.
He said, according to his client, an employee told the owner Ms Diamond was “a man”, prompting the owner to demand she leave the place.
He claimed after the woman questioned why she should leave, a security guard snatched her from the chair and manhandled her while trying to remove her from the club.
A bottle of perfume she had in her bag reportedly fell out of her bag and broke in half. Mr Symonette said she picked up the bottle and threw it at the security guard, causing a scratch to his face.
He said “five or six men” then viciously beat the woman, punching, stomping and kicking her about her body.
Mr Symonette said the Memphis, Tennessee, resident was arrested for causing harm and appeared before Magistrate Shaka Serville on Monday.
“That is the first time I’ve ever seen someone before the court literally beaten black and blue,” he said, adding the woman had purple wounds under her eyes. He said people in the court were shocked by her appearance.
He said her wig had been snatched off during the beating, which she showed the court.
“All because of what she described to the court as a hate crime, and I believe that it is a hate crime,” he added.
He said his client is traumatised, describing the incident as a black eye for the country’s tourism industry, which has been celebrating record arrival numbers.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is a human being,” he said. “Transexual or transgender, she is still a human being. She is entitled to her rights under the constitution, all of which were violated. She was cast into a cell and actually spent her birthday in the cell –– over a day and a half in the cell.”
“As a transgender person, whether we agree with the concept or the lifestyle of transgender is not the issue. This is a question of human rights, which were violated.”
Mr Symonette said the magistrate was sympathetic to the woman and merely warned her before discharging the matter.
He said the magistrate noted the men involved in the altercation were not present in court.
“We’re asking the commissioner of police to please investigate this incident fully so that those responsible for beating Ms Diamond can be brought before the courts just as she was brought before the court,” he said.
He called on the Bahamas Christian Council to condemn the attack.
“Shall The Bahamas be known as a nation that tolerates hate crimes against our visitors simply because we disagree with their lifestyle?” he asked. “Surely it cannot be that.”
A review of the woman’s public social media accounts suggested she had not posted about the alleged incident. The most recent posts, including one of her at Baha Mar, posted yesterday, feature glamourous shots of her.
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- VIDEO: Investigation urged over ‘homophobic attack’
- Call to fast-track laws on tackling hate crimes
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Comments
FreeportFreddy 11 months, 1 week ago
Super Brave Men - that was sarcasm!!
JackArawak 11 months, 1 week ago
far too many Bahamian men have the smallest of egos and are terrorfied of any woman who dares to stand out. Only subservient women are tolerated
ThisIsOurs 11 months, 1 week ago
I dont recognize them as a woman, they're a man. Their right to dress like a woman, ok, do as you please. But I do agree that the aggressiveness with which men respond to them is odd. They dont have a contagious disease, you wont feel like suddenly cross dressing too if you're in the same room for any length of time. I think the main problem here was the bartender was actually attracted to them. That's what the issue was. The violence was projection.
GodSpeed 11 months, 1 week ago
That's not a woman though
Sickened 11 months, 1 week ago
If he left the club without freaking out then none of this would have happened. If anyone throws something at a bouncer anywhere in the world then they will get some bruising.
AnObserver 11 months, 1 week ago
Yeah, some serious editorializing going on here in the way they tried to minimize throwing a heavy, sharp piece of glass at someone's face. Getting thrown out of a club isn't fatal. Throwing something heavy and sharp at someone's face/neck potentially is.
John 11 months, 1 week ago
This transgender thing may become a serious issue at Junkanoo since a number of groups have agreed to allow gay participants to ‘shake up, wine up, prance and dance like gals.’ Not a new thing to Junkanoo but a new level where these gay dancers will almost have control of the traditional ‘all female’ choreography section. Expect retaliation. . . So when does this matter at hand become a hate crime? Donald Trump says if he ever becomes president again, ‘every individual will have to identify as either male ir female depending on their sex at birth, regardless of their sexual preferences.’
. . If a man is in a club dressed as a woman and his nature is found out, wasn’t his intention to deceive people into thinking he was a female/woman? And if the security, by orders of the proprietor of the club asks you to leave, but refuse and end up ( by your own admission) ‘bursting the security guard/bouncer in or near his eye with a perfume bottle, that accidentally fell from your bag, during a scuffle with the bouncer, then didn’t your provoke yourself into getting the beating that you got, or at least some of it? . .You hear guys talk all the time of how they traveled to Nee York, LA and other parts of the US and went into a club and had an unintentional encounter with a transsexual woman. Not only are men traumatized by the experience, but the heckling and teasing that comes from their friends afterwards.
. . And NO, proprietors of clubs may not have the right or need to ban people with alternative lifestyle from their clubs, but they have a duty to maintain the integrity of the club and protect other patrons. Once the word gets out ‘bey don’t go in there, that’s a sissy club.’ Either the club will eventually become a gay club because straight guys will refuse to go there, or it will close down.
Sickened 11 months, 1 week ago
Good point on Junkanoo. I hope that police are prepared for the potential of stuff being thrown at gay dancers. Especially if the gay dancers start throwing stuff back at the audience. Could be a cluster fook.
ThisIsOurs 11 months, 1 week ago
"A number of groups have agreed to allow gay participants to wine up"
I did not know that people needed a permission slip to dance. Now if you want to talk generally about vulgarity that's something else. But dancing is a expression of joy particular to being human. Theres nothing more beautiful than someone who's good at it, whatever form, classical, urban, folk, and again I distinguish vulgarity. "Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." (junkanoo in the bible)
John 11 months, 1 week ago
Junkanoo may not be in the Bible but the book does address feminism and men carrying on like gals. And yes dancing is an expression of many emotions, but Junkanoo is also a family event. Female gyrations in dance is acceptable and even men dancing in that style in Calypso, Rake and scrape also. But a man dancing like he is a woman is another story. Just like a man going in a club dressed as a woman. What was his intentions?
ThisIsOurs 11 months ago
I say Miriam led the junkanoo parade.
I dont know what this gentleman's intentions were, I een in his head, maybe to attract the owner... and the owner was attracted to him, that's why he's so upset.
concernedcitizen 11 months, 1 week ago
John I will bet my last dollar no Junkanoo group in the Bahamas is going to have a chorus line of openly gay dancers .We are so homophobic and such hyporites we had gay people from the Church ,shhhh , protesting the gay Cruises lmao
John 11 months, 1 week ago
I agree it will be sometime before you see that. And part of the reason is these people don’t want to be recognized as ‘ gay’ in this instance but as ‘females’ Remember they had to change the Carnival route a few times because some guys decided to overdue the dancing and wining like gals part. They were met with violence. Remember now Junkanoo supposed to represent Bahamian Culture. And whilst Bahamians may tolerate the gay people dem to a certain degree, tge average Bahamian does not endorse or promote homosexuality. And even Black families in America are still coming to grips with it. Many gay males have been cut off by their families and were told point blank by parents ‘ do what you want to do when you out there, but you ain’t bringing no other man in this house. And tge gay marriage thing was more for show than anything else because even many gay ( Black) men who are active in that lifestyle will not go to the point of getting married to another man.
stillwaters 11 months, 1 week ago
This is a sad story. I am left wondering if individuals like China Diamond won't find it easier to get lovers dressed as a man rather than a woman. Just wondering because I'm not too 'woke'
birdiestrachan 11 months, 1 week ago
She did pass the first blow.just the same leave them alone they have their own deacons to fight
birdiestrachan 11 months, 1 week ago
Their own deamons not deacons. Sorry to all the deacons
Porcupine 11 months, 1 week ago
No surprises in the comment section here. Educational scorecards be damned. Enlightenment may somehow, some way reach. But not this century.
GodSpeed 11 months, 1 week ago
Yes it's going to take a lot of "enlightenment" before I ever call a biological man a woman.
ThisIsOurs 11 months ago
You dont have to. Noone controls your belief as noone controls this persons right to dress how they please. While any individual can decide to do whatever, you can only "hope" people will be civil in their interaction but you cannot control their belief or their ultimate reaction even if it is inhumane.
joeblow 11 months, 1 week ago
... its really quite simple, a bull is not a cow, now can it be. Removing the horns or castrating a bull will not make it become a cow, just a castrated bull without horns! That was far more enlightening and also undeniably true!
joeblow 11 months, 1 week ago
... if you were born with a prostate, you are not a woman! If you have a Y chromosome, you are not a woman. Your feelings are one thing, your objective reality another! He is a he and not a 'she'. I will not deny objective reality to support another person's delusion!
Porcupine 11 months, 1 week ago
Nor be reminded that they are human.
joeblow 11 months, 1 week ago
... his humanity was never in question, just his grasp on reality!
John 11 months, 1 week ago
Well if a male goes into a club looking for hamburger and he finds something and carries it home only to find it s not a hamburger, but a hotdog and two boiled eggs, what should he do
concernedcitizen 11 months, 1 week ago
A lot of closeted gay men go w transsexuals somehow not fully opening up to the fact they are gay ., and before you opine about my sexuality ,I,m heterosexual .Thats why there are 33 flavors ice cream , everyone likes a different one .What two consenting adults do w there bodies is their business .Dare I say we have had people of different lifestyles in very high positions in in our country ,perhaps the highest ,and still do ,and the nation has not collapsed
Porcupine 11 months, 1 week ago
"has not collapsed"? Perhaps not for the reasons you suggest, but is there a closer point to collapse that you can imagine?
concernedcitizen 11 months, 1 week ago
yeah after fifty years from independence we cant even keep the lights on ,supplying electricity from diesel generators is a proven and quite simple technology yet we are unable to do it reliably and lets not even talk about our debt bc every government contract has the added millions , and tens of millions , for family ,friends and lovers
IslandWarrior 11 months, 1 week ago
Regardless of the constructs that say any differ, 'we ain't fah that'!
mandela 11 months, 1 week ago
I don't think he/she should have been beaten black and blue, so for the persons who did this, this is wrong, but I also don't think a man dressed like a women should enter a place where heterosexual men are looking and expecting to interact with heterosexual women, every country is different, tourist should inform themselves, because they wouldn't try alot of certain things in other countries that might be acceptable in there countries. This person should have stayed at the hotel where they are more tourist tolerant. Sorry this happen to you sir but people in different countries look at things differently and this has to also be respected.
John 11 months ago
I don’t know if you saw the video footage of the incident, but they were mostly white peoples in the establishment where the incident took place. So most likely tourists. And when the man threw the cologne bottle at the bouncer, it flew across the bar and hit other patrons, white people, who may have retaliated. AND this confused man who claims he was beaten ‘ black and blue’ kicked the bouncer in his balls :groin. Any beating after that is one well deserved.
GodSpeed 11 months, 1 week ago
lol this ain't America buddy
concernedcitizen 11 months, 1 week ago
You mean we don,t have gay and trans people here , or you mean we are allowed to beat the crap out of them ,,lmao
John 11 months, 1 week ago
Well if you were watching the news earlier this year, FIVE GAY CLUBS were supposed to open downtown this year in the vicinity of the cruise ships. According to the proprietor of two of them, this was one of the ‘demands’ of cruise ship passengers to make downtown more exciting. And according to the report his clubs were to be membership only where cruise passengers can join online and this was to ensure that they ( and locals) knew they were going to a gay club and knew what to expect.
Bonefishpete 11 months, 1 week ago
Between the sharks eating the tourists and beating up gay people a whole lot of walking back by the politicians will be forthcoming.
concernedcitizen 11 months ago
Guess you all too young to remember Sweet Richard up and down Bay st lol
SP 11 months ago
This whole LGBQ-Alphabet-people agenda has been perpetuated by the US and welcomed with open arms by the wackos we call government and religious leaders, is unnatural and CONDEMNED by biblical Scripture!
1 Corinthians 6: 9-10 "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
This is not excuse to abuse these deviant people. Leave them to GOD himself who has already cast judgement upon them.
However, regardless that the US agenda is to pervert the entire world, the "Alphabet people" must understand that they have no right to force their divergents upon straight people, and should stay among others that understand and accept them, straight people DO NOT!
ThisIsOurs 11 months ago
It's fine for it to be condemned. It's fine to say its immoral. I agree with you. But these are people. A breathing human being. You wouldnt condone 5 men kicking and punching a dog black and blue. One thing I know about Jesus, he went where the sinners were and he tried to win them over with love. What manner of man is this?
John 11 months ago
BRAVE DAVIS comments are n this matter is so offbeat. Obviously he is ignorant of the facts. This is not a hate crime! If some one asks you to leave their property and you not only refuse but attack and injure the person who is doing the job, you are the hater and not the victim. If you as a spectator or MP refuse to leave the Housr of Assembly but instead attacks the police who attempt to enforce the law and remove you, not only will you not be arrested and charged with numerous counts but you will be banned from the House for life. Tell Brave to keep flying and stop doing this country a disservice with his wrongful comments based on misinformation!
Sickened 11 months ago
Brave's only trying to side with his majority LBTGQ+?+ cabinet members. I feel for him though. Because I hear that he's very religious but yet has to satiate his cabinet's views. Thankfully the white poodle party era seems to have come to an end. That was another level of NASTY!!!
Twocent 11 months ago
Time to clearly define our culture….Christian or Lucifarian “enlightenment” ! This is where Common Law stands in this country with cases like this, the precedent will be set and what will the people accept? Surely a biologically defined male who goes into a club appearing as a female and not disclosing that fact up front is guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation? Isn’t broken glass to cause injury intended assault? And bringing the case to court is a disingenuous manipulation of the law, probably also for money! Will our courts uphold our Christian values and uphold God’s law or are they so corrupt that Lucifer will win the case?
John 11 months ago
THE PM needs to view the footage of this incident and edit his comments accordingly! NOT only was the tranny man the aggressor in the incident but he was one of the biggest persons in the club. He was clearly manhandling the staff, who was trying to control and eject him. Not only did he burst the bouncer with a bottle of cologne that flew across te bar and hit other patrons. BUT this confused mad KICKED the security in his GROIN! Yes in his nutz and not the ones they threw at HUbert! Mr PM when a ‘man’ kicks another man in his jewels, NO holds are barred. He got away easy and you know it, MR PM!
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