It was just getting dark when Julia Dupuis was handcuffed on a curfew violation and walked by two Los Angeles police officers to a fence on the side of an empty church, beyond the watchful eye of nearby apartment residents and a good 15 feet from the next protester.
“Do you think it’s a female?” she heard one of the male cops say to the other, with a laugh.
Dupuis, who is gender nonconforming but identifies as a woman, felt paralyzed with fear. The officers had already taken her ID, which identifies her as female, and asked her name. They didn’t appear confused about her gender, she said, just keen to mock it.
One of the officers then stepped up to her, jokingly patted down a few of her pockets, and felt one of her breasts, she said.
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