For so many trans women, simply existing has become an act of defiance, and RuPaul’s Drag Race superstar Jasmine Kennedie discovered that late last month when she was accosted and harassed on the New York City subway. Rather than cower, Kennedie took on the bully head on, not just in the moment, but in the days following. the MAGA-supporting person who accosted her has now been terminated from his job at Gym U and Kennedie has shown people that refusing to have your power and your peace taken from you is always in fashion. I caught up with Jasmine Kennedie for an exclusive chat to discuss the incident itself, the outpouring of love she has received due to it, and what what she would say to the administration if given the opportunity.
Michael Cook: So let me ask you first, how are you?
I’m great, honestly, I thought that that situation that happened would maybe cripple me or make me feel a little bit less, you know, vocal. The main thing is, when I stood up for myself and I had people around me standing up for me as well, I kind of lit a fire under my butt. I’m not going to lie, in this political climate, I’ve kind of tried to go under the radar, not really focus on all the chaos that is ensuing, trying to keep my sanity. But when faced with it in, you know, real life in that situation, and actually confronting it and having that person back down,
It emboldened me and made me a little bit more confident in the realization that these people will cower if you match them with the same energy that they give you, they usually cower. That’s a little bit of a better feeling and I also think it was a great situation in terms of shedding light to the repercussions happening for the actions on the MAGA Republican side towards disenfranchised and minority groups.
MC: I know you well enough to know you’re not going to back down from a fight, but in a situation like that, it’s so unexpected. In this particular case was it fight or flight?
JK: I was trying to leave the situation. I actually on the phone with (my boyfriend) Nicholas. I was just trying to back off, but he kept on following me and at that point, I was like, well, I’m just going to meet them how they meet me and I’m going to pull out my camera and I’m going to record the situation just for my own safety too, as well as the evidence if anything, went that far. Now, I did notice that person was very inebriated and very drunk. His eyes were bloodshot, you know, and I think for me,
I realized in my peripheral that people were coming around and supporting me. If it wasn’t that case, I probably would have tried to leave and walk away. But because of the support of the people around me as well as bystanders and people on the train, it felt it gave me a little bit more confidence to, you know, stand up to the bully.
MC: Do you think that for everybody that’s under attack now, but especially for trans people, do you think that standing up to bullies is paramount and we all should be doing it?
JK: I think that’s very situational for each person. I think being vocal about these things is very important. If you don’t feel like you’re in a safe space or a safe environment, I wouldn’t suggest someone to do that. At the same time, we do have to realize that everybody on the Trump side has been sending so much hate over the last couple of years towards the trans community as well as the LGBTQ and now they’re going after people with ADHD and autism. They’re just trying to attack groups that haven’t necessarily had the ability to defend themselves. I think it’s really important that we remember, we have voices just like they have voices and that we should be able to express ours, just as openly as they feel they’re allowed to as well.
MC: When you got home, what was your boyfriend’s reaction to what happened?
JK: He was nervous because I said i had to hang up & and he was probably freaking out and very scared. He was very proud of me that I stood up and that I was safe. I called him when I got off the train station and I luckily had someone with me on the train all the way up to my stop, just making sure I was safe and making sure that person wasn’t following me.
MC: Do you think there are people that think that, oh, we went too far, you “got him fired”? What do you say to people that think that you went too far and you could have just left it?
JK: That person was working at an LGBTQ friendly gym and for someone in that space, in the public, to be be so open and against trans people, that are a very big part of the LGBTQ community, I don’t think it was safe for the people that go to that gym. At the end of the day, this is Trump’s America, “Trump’s his daddy”, like he said, so maybe Trump can get him a job. If it’s Trump’s America and Trump’s going to do right by you, then please go face the job market right now and see if that’s as easy as you say it’s going to be or if it’s something that is attainable.
I personally at first I thought maybe I went too far, but at the same time, if this was another situation where someone was videotaping a trans person doing that or a person that is in a minority group and they’re doing something that wasn’t necessarily deemed appropriate by a workplace, they they would have the same repercussions.
MC: As it turns out, he worked at a Gym U in Manhattan, correct?
JK: Yes. They have not made a public statement about it yet which is probably their lawyers asking them not to comment on it. I do think because I did write a formal complaint, they should have reached out to me personally. I understand that the situation didn’t happen at their gym, so they can’t hold responsibility for the situation. They could at least make a comment about, you know, the situation that happened; but they don’t owe me anything. They handled the situation firing him in less than 24 hours. At the end of the day, you can’t really ask for anything more than someone to be held accountable.
I think a lot of employees have felt uncomfortable as well. Some have messaged me anonymously and said that they’ve gotten complaints about him before. It was very nice to hear that, but it wasn’t nice to hear that this person has done this before. I’m happy that I could also bring justice to the coworkers that didn’t feel as comfortable working around this person.
MC: What is it like for somebody living in today’s America, day to day, as a trans person?
JK: I think right now, a lot of trans people are scared that we’re going to be the next people shipped off to El Salvador or we’re going to be the next people to be to a concentration camp or stripped of our rights or unlawfully imprisoned by this an administration. They focus so much on the sports and patrolling all the bathrooms. In reality, in this country before Trump got into the presidency, trans people had a little bit more light and hope going towards them in the recent years. People were being more open & more accepting and really taking the time to understand the trans experience. Being someone that kind of helped open that light to to the community a little bit more about the trans experience is something that I took pride in. Now I’m almost in fear that what I did in the past is somehow affecting how people are looking at us in the future. Maybe the Trump administration said “it was too far or, you know, we can’t handle this” Because at the end of the day controlling people’s genders and controlling people’s ideology, is is to stay in the system of the man on top, that they understand.
The trans community right now is living in fear. They’re scared to go outside and get groceries. They’re scared to take public transit. They’re scared that they are going to be the next number that has already been murdered every single year. They think that they are just going to be forgotten and, you know, no one’s really going to care if something does happen to us.
MC: What do you feel is the first step that all of us can take as members of the LGBTQ community and allies?
JK: We have to find hope in our community. I think we when we stay in our bubbles and we stay in our safe spaces, we feel protective and safe. In a world right now where trans people are the number one political talking point, it’s scary to think that who you are as a person is up for the chopping block in terms of politics and games, but it is.
MC If you could sit down with a member of the current administration and could get past the emotional anger about it, what would you say to them?
JK: If I was given the opportunity, I would probably say to them the same way you’re coming after the trans community right now the same reason you’re coming after immigrants and everything that has made this country beautiful and what it is intended to be, you’re doing a disservice to the world’s view of what this country stands for. This country was believed to be thought of life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness. If it makes me happier to strip my privileges of being born as a white male and becoming a female or the closest to it, I think you should allow that person to do that. I would like to specify; we are not trying to replace biological women. We were biologically born the opposite gender of what we feel in our hearts. So in no shape or form are trans people trying to take away the rights and the freedoms of women. If anything, we’re trying to add to the beautiful culture of what being a woman in the society is.
I think women are so many different things in this world. Trans is just an adjective in terms of what type of woman I am. I think sometimes they forget that context and in your soul is really what matters at the end of the day. You believe in different religions. You can believe in different ideologies. You can believe your own views on the trans community or the queer community. You take those beliefs and turn those beliefs into laws or bills eliminating access for trans people to get easier health care and to have access to getting job opportunities is not really fighting is not really what people want in this country in terms of, you know, a of a government.
MC: There is someone that will read this or that saw the video, someone that watched you on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Something clicked in their head when they saw that happen “don’t treat trans people like that”, or if they’re a trans person it made them say, “stand up for yourself”. You made a difference. I hope you know that.
JK: That means a lot, thank you. I’m continuing the same energy towards the trans community as I did when I came out on the show, which is, you know, explaining more and getting people to connect on a personal level of what it’s like to live as a trans person on the day to day.
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Featured Image by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images for MTV/Paramount
