Two teenagers have been indicted on hate crime charges by a grand jury in Maryland, USA. The development comes one month after a trans woman was violently attacked in a McDonald’s restaurant.

Teonna Brown is charged with first and second-degree assault. The maximum penalty for these charges is normally 25 years, but Brown may face an additional ten years in prison if she is also found guilty of a hate crime.

Brown, 18, is being charged as an adult, but a 15-year-old girl will face the same charges in juvenile court.

Chrissy Lee Polis was assailed after attempting to use the women’s toilets. She was pushed to the floor before being punched and kicked repeatedly. McDonald’s staff and customers alike stood by as Polis was set upon, with only two individuals attempting to intervene.

The attack ended only when Polis appeared to have a seizure and staff warned that the police were on their way.

The brutal incident was filmed by a McDonald’s employee and went viral after being posted on the internet. The employee who made the video has since been fired for his actions.

“Today the State’s Attorney for Baltimore County came to the only possible conclusion in deciding to try the assault on Chrissy Lee Polis as a hate crime,” said Lynne Bowman of Equality Maryland. “As the video shows, the violent attack was directly related to the fact that Ms Polis is a transgender woman.”

Attorney Timothy P. Knepp, who is representing Brown, said that “anything that happened, happened in self-defense.”

State governor Martin O’Malley signalled his support for the charges. “I want to commend Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger for using every available means to prosecute the heinous beating of Chrissy Lee Polis last month,” he said.

“Even with Maryland’s ‘hate crimes’ law, it is clear that more must be done to protect the rights and dignity of transgendered people.”

Maryland currently has hate crime legislation that specifically acknowledges transphobia and homophobia as aggravating factors. However, the state recently failed to pass a law that would protect trans people from discrimination in the workplace and when accessing services.

Trans activists accused Equality Maryland of unnecessary compromise after a provision that would protect trans people’s right to use public toilets was removed from this draft law.

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