Police are investigating after two trans women of color and a gay man were violently removed from downtown Los Angeles bar Las Perlas on Friday night following an altercation sparked after a heterosexual couple allegedly began attacking the group with homophobic and transphobic slurs.
The trans women and gay man were staff and volunteers from Bienestar Human Services, a non-profit social services organization for Latino and LGBTQ groups, who had been attending the local LGBTQ festival, DTLA Proud.
The incident, in which bouncers drag the women out using chokeholds, was captured on video and posted to Facebook. The video has been viewed more than 76,000 times and a protest was held outside the bar on Saturday night.
According to Bienestar, the man and woman who attacked them “began to aggressively misgender them, call them ‘men’ and shout transphobic slurs. The group of trans women tried to de-escalate the situation, then the couple shouted and threatened the group by saying, ‘We will come back and kill you.’ … While the heterosexual couple was asked to leave the establishment, the group of trans women were approached by bar security staff and eventually physically and aggressively removed from the bar.”
Las Perlas released a statement: “Last evening, an escalated verbal altercation broke out among two groups of guests at Las Perlas. Our manager on duty asked both groups to leave as the safety and security of our patrons and employees is our top priority and we have zero tolerance for this type of behavior in our establishments. The guards removed the guests that were not compliant with the manager’s request to leave and did so in accordance with company policy. This was a rare and unfortunate incident as Las Perlas has provided an inclusive and welcoming environment since it opened almost 10 years ago. We will continue to value and celebrate the diversity of the downtown Los Angeles community we are so proud to be a part of and all profits from Las Perlas during this weekend’s DTLA PROUD (8/23- 8/25) will be donated to Bienestar Human Services.”
The police said they are investigating.
A protest was held on Saturday night outside Las Perlas demanding its closure.
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