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WATCH: Houston Trans Man Blasts Police Response to Alleged Assault

WATCH: Houston Trans Man Blasts Police Response to Alleged Assault

Lucas Young

Weeks after Houston rejected a trans-inclusive equal rights ordinance, a trans man in the city says police mocked him when he reported being threatened at gunpoint. 

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A gay Houston trans man is calling for an internal affairs investigation after he says police officers mocked him and failed to arrest the assailants who accosted him in the parking lot of his own building.

Lucas Young tells Houston TV station KRIV that the altercation began when a neighbor allegedly slammed his car door into Young's car. When Young got out to take a photo of the driver's license plate, he says the passengers got out, too, and threatened him with a gun and knife.

"The dad pulled out a knife and drew it toward me, and I said, 'are you going to shoot me or stab me?'" Young told the station. "And they were like, 'If you don't leave, we will.' I said, 'Is this how you want it to go down?' I said, 'Over you hitting my car and me taking a picture of your license plate?'"

Young recorded a portion of the altercation on his phone, and police were called. But when officers arrived to find a visibly shaken Young, he says they mocked him and refused to take his complaint seriously.

"This officer was smirking while I'm crying," said Young, who identifies as gay and trans. "My voice gets higher when I cry. I come across as either gay or trans, especially when I'm upset, emotional. That's when I put two and two together. They are just not taking this seriously."

Young and his attorney, Quanell X, have filed a complaint with the Houston Police Department, which confirmed to KRIV that an internal affairs investigation is currently underway. Both men argued that Young was treated unfairly because of his sexual orientation and gender identity. The station notes that Young's attorney has raised the issue with the Houston Mayor's office -- currently occupied by outgoing mayor Annise Parker, an out lesbian who championed the city's controversial and since-repealed Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

After reporting the incident, Young says the management company at his building served him with an eviction notice that allegedly belittled his sexual orientation, though the company has "since given him notice saying they are giving him another opportunity" to stay at the apartment complex, according to KRIV. Creative Property, which owns the complex where the alleged assault took place, did not respond to the local network's calls for comment.

Young's reported assault comes on the heels of a series of antigay beatings that have plagued Dallas's gay neighborhood in the past several months, and in the same month that Houston voters decisively repealed a trans-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance, known colloquially as HERO. Just last week, a gay man reported missing from a Houston suburb was found dead near his burned-out truck. Police on Thursday arrested a man in connection with that murder, reportedly the best friend of the victim's boyfriend.

Watch Young and his attorney recount the incident below.

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Sunnivie Brydum

Sunnivie is the managing editor of The Advocate, and an award-winning journalist whose passion is covering the politics of equality and elevating the unheard stories of our community. Originally from Colorado, she and her spouse now live in Los Angeles, along with their three fur-children: dogs Luna and Cassie Doodle, and "Meow Button" Tilly.
Sunnivie is the managing editor of The Advocate, and an award-winning journalist whose passion is covering the politics of equality and elevating the unheard stories of our community. Originally from Colorado, she and her spouse now live in Los Angeles, along with their three fur-children: dogs Luna and Cassie Doodle, and "Meow Button" Tilly.