Press Conference Addressing MPD's Transphobia 5/20/26
On May 20th, our coalition held an emergency press conference following the news of Catherine Doe's lawsuit against the City and MPD after experiencing transphobic harassment and threats from an off-duty MPD office while working an event at the Convention Center.
We stand in solidarity with Catherine and all victims of police violence and harassment. This incident highlights exactly why we march every year against cops at Pride and why we demand community control of MPD!
Read our press release:
The Minneapolis Police Department is facing yet another lawsuit after an off duty police officer harassed a transgender security guard at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Though the incident occurred in 2024, details about the case are now emerging after an initial investigation found sufficient evidence of discrimination against the security guard, Catherine Doe. According to the lawsuit, MPD Officer Ryan Calhoun, who was off duty but in uniform, followed Doe as she was performing a routine check on the girls dressing rooms, a job she was hired for and trained to do. Calhoun yelled at her, refused to refer to her as a woman, and threatened to arrest her if she went near the dressing rooms. After it was explained to him that Catherine was a woman and the only employee present who was trained to do the task, Calhoun demanded that he, a cisgender man, would patrol the girl’s dressing room instead.
As organizers who are forced to interact with MPD both in the streets and in our work to hold them accountable for the many instances of harm and neglect they’ve perpetrated against our community, this behavior is disgusting but predictable. MPD’s culture of racism and misogyny was detailed in the MN Department of Human Rights report in 2023, and found officer’s use of demeaning, racist, and sexist language on worn body cameras was so widespread and severe that the footage was often unusable in court, negatively impacting case outcomes. In addition, when trans women are murdered or assaulted, MPD is slow to act or does very little to protect victims. In 2024 when two trans women were attacked at the downtown light rail station MPD officers did nothing to intervene despite the area crawling with police and the 1st Precinct being blocks away. When Ra’Lasia Wright was murdered near Powderhorn Park that same year, MPD did not investigate it as a potential hate crime and has yet to update her family, friends, or community on the investigation. We continue to watch MPD put women, cis and trans, and racialized people at the lowest point on their list of priorities.
Community members who have marginalized identities rightfully cannot trust a police force with a culture of misogyny and transphobia; how can we report crimes to officers we have experienced as dismissive of the epidemic of violence against trans people and who perpetrate that same violence? This is not about individual officers but about a culture that is permissive of discriminatory attitudes. This is about a police force that is wholly unaccountable to the people whose taxes pay their salaries as well as their lawsuits.
In addition to our ongoing campaign for community control and independent oversight, The Taking Back Pride Coalition and Twin Cities Coalition for Justice joins the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee, Communities Against Transphobia and members of the Minneapolis City Council in demanding that Ryan Calhoun face harsh consequences for his transphobic harassment. We also reaffirm that this incident is exactly why MPD officers have no business being included in Pride and we demand they not be part of the parade or be present in the park. In a political climate that is increasingly hostile toward LGBTQ communities, police cannot claim they can be trusted to keep us safe when they allow racism, misogyny and anti-queer rhetoric to thrive in their workplace.
Stand with us against police harassment of queer and trans lives- join us for our protest march on June 28th!