Feminist to Know: CeCe McDonald

(cw: description of anti-Black and transphobic violence)

CeCe McDonald is a Black, trans, bisexual activist. Originally from Chicago, McDonald was born in 1989 and went on to study fashion at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

On June 5th, 2011, McDonald was at a bar with her friends when a man assaulted them in a racist and transphobic attack. McDonald herself suffered a deep, bleeding wound on her face that would require stitches. As McDonald and her friends tried to escape the bar, the man charged at her; in self-defense, she pulled a set of scissors out of her handbag and stabbed him in the chest, causing his death.

CeCe McDonald was sentenced to 41 months in prison for second-degree manslaughter a year later. Worse, the Minnesota Corrections Department placed her in a men’s prison where she was denied access to health care, namely her hormone medication.

A #FreeCeCe movement gained steam and McDonald was released from prison 19 months into her sentence. Laverne Cox, who was a vocal advocate for McDonald’s release, was among the crowd who greeted her. Through it all, McDonald’s bubbly personality shone and since her release, she has become a public speaker and advocate for prison abolition and Black trans liberation.

McDonald has been named in Advocate’s “40 under 40” list and she was awarded the Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club in 2014. She is a powerful voice in the contemporary abolitionist movement has influenced how feminists understand the intersection of the Prison Industrial Complex, gendered violence, state-sanctioned transphobia, and structural anti-Blackness.