CeCe McDonald Biography

CeCe McDonald (/ˌsiːˈsiː/; born 1989) is an African American bi trans woman and LGBTQ activist. She came to national attention in June 2012 for accepting a plea bargain of 41 months for second-degree manslaughter of a man she stabbed after McDonald and her friends were assaulted in Minneapolis outside a bar near closing time. The attack, a year prior, was widely seen as racist and transphobic, and became physical when McDonald was struck in the face by the man's friend with "an alcoholic drink" glass causing a bleeding gash that needed stitches. According to Mother Jones, when McDonald was getting away from the bar the man came after her, she "took a pair of scissors out of her purse and turned around to face [him]; he was stabbed in the chest and died from the wound." McDonald said she saw how her case was progressing so took the plea bargain rather than face trial and risk a possible 20-year term.(p6) According to the Bay Area Reporter her conviction "sparked outrage, and was viewed by many as an act of transphobia and racism against a woman who defended herself." Although a woman, McDonald was housed in two men's prisons. An online petition "led to the state department of corrections administering the full regimen of hormones she needed."