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A trans girl was violently attacked in a school bathroom

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A transgender student at a Minnesota high school suffered a broken jaw after another student attacked her outside a restroom. Local police are investigating the attack as a hate crime.

Cobalt Sovereign is a 17-year-old student at Hopkins High School in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka. She came out as transgender to a supportive family in 2021, and while Sovereign has experienced her share of transphobia, it never crossed the line into physical violence — until last Thursday (May 30).

According to Sovereign in a video interview with Square 11she went to a men’s bathroom at school. Although Hopkins has gender-neutral bathrooms, Sovereign said they are secluded and often occupied. “I feel very uncomfortable when I’m in the men’s bathroom,” she explained, adding, “I’d rather be uncomfortable than make other people uncomfortable by using the women’s bathroom.”

While Sovereign was trying to use the restroom, a male student looked into the stall and repeatedly shouted homophobic slurs at her. Sovereign left the restroom and the student followed her outside, where CCTV captured the argument. “I brought myself to verbally confront the boy,” she said. “He had no reason to have anything against me. I had never spoken to him, never done anything bad to him.”

“I was insulted and then at the end I got a punch in the jaw.”

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Sovereign was soon taken to hospital, where she not only received treatment for her shattered teeth and multiple jaw fractures, but was also finally able to use the toilet again. Her family said she was still unable to eat solid food, and Sovereign described nightmares after the attack.

Talking to a local dealer WCCOSovereign’s brother Wilder expressed his disgust at what happened. “She was punched in the jaw and hit from behind so hard that she later had to go to hospital and have jaw surgery to treat the injuries,” he said. “She has experienced signs of transphobia before, as most, if not all, trans people have. But it was never this bad, it never got to the point of an outright attack.”

Local families, students and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, including the Queer Equity Institute and Transforming Families, held a rally outside the school on Wednesday. The school district said it was working with police to “minimize disruption to school life during the rally,” but added it supported “a rally that calls attention to what is wrong in the world.”

“We will address any issues that threaten the safety and inclusivity of our school environment,” the district said in a statement. “We support and stand with any group that is marginalized, including our LGBTQ+ students and staff.”

Disciplinary action was taken against the attacker, whose identity was not disclosed for privacy reasons, on the day of the attack.

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