Trans teen ‘attacked, stamped on, beaten and called homophobic slurs’ at Massachusetts party

An alleged attack on a Massachusetts trans teenager is being treated as a possible hate crime.

Sixteen-year-old Jayden Tkaczyk, who is trans, claimed he was attacked and called homophobic slurs at an outdoor party in a wooded area of Gloucester, in Cape Ann.

The assault, during which, he claimed, his head was “stomped” on, left him with a broken bone in his face, nerve damage, a head injury and bruises over his body. He has since been released from hospital.

Tkaczyk said the attackers included classmates and members of his school’s football team, with more than two dozen people engaging in the incident.

“One second, I was having fun, the next, I was on the ground getting my face stomped and beat up,” he told NBC Boston. “They were just saying the F slur over and over as they were punching me and stomping me.”

He thought he was going to die during the “terrifying” attack.

His mother said her son had suffered years of bullying at school because of his gender identity.

“Seeing the condition he was in, this has always been my worst fear as a mom of a trans teen,” she said. “Getting that phone call was one of the most terrifying things to experience. Having to go to the hospital to see him in that condition. When I got that call, I was just praying that he was alive.”

Tkaczyk said the bullying was carried out “not just mentally, but physically… over 11 years”, adding: “It’s been a terrible struggle for me, and I don’t open up to anybody about how really bad it is.”

Craig Rourke, Tkaczyk’s lawyer, told ABC News he sees the case as a hate crime. “The motives of the perpetrators seem pretty clear in their own words,” he said.

However, Marc Randazza, who is advising those alleged to have been involved, claimed that Tkaczyk had taken a knife to the party and the students who attacked him, none of whom have been publicly named, were afraid of being stabbed.

Gloucester police confirmed that the incident was “being investigated as a possible hate crime” and an officer who specialises in civil rights investigations has been assigned to the case.

Police chief Edward Conley said on Wednesday (4 September) that it was still too early to say definitively whether there was a transphobic motivation for the attack.