This story was first published in The Stranger. Warning: This story contains descriptions of violence.

“Go to Pony, go to Pony, go to Pony—there’s more people there,” said a frantic woman as she approached Madison Carstens and her friends next to the Maserati dealership on 12th and Union Street in Seattle. Six or seven young men followed close behind her.

It was September 2, about 11:30 pm on a Tuesday night. Tuesdays are unofficially “dolls night” on Capitol Hill, when trans women hop between Time Warp and Pony, two bars in the city’s queer neighborhood. The frantic woman the men had followed is trans, as are Carstens and her friends, Michelle Caywood and Denise Throckmorton.

The men fanned out on the sidewalk. “Bitch, bitch, bitch” one of the men shouted repeatedly. “Tr—y,” another ye

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