Amid Rising Threats, Transgender Community Builds Bonds at This SF Self-Defense Class

Updated 11:15 a.m. Tuesday

Alexis Jimenez said a stalker came to her house and knocked on her door years ago.

“[It was] kind of scary,” she recalled. “After that incident, I thought about scenarios of what could have happened and whether or not I’m prepared to defend myself in those situations.”

Jimenez, who had taken a few years of taekwondo, wanted to gain new skills, so she registered for free self-defense training offered by the Transgender District, a nonprofit in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood founded by and for trans women.

Carolina Osoria, program associate with the Transgender District, helped launch the inaugural training with support from the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives and the nonprofit LYRIC SF. She said the goal of the class is to empower trans people during the second Trump administration.

“Trans people are really resilient,” she said. “I hope that’s a facet we’re able to feed into because there’s a lot that’s trying to diminish us.”

• Where LGBTQ+ people can find self-defense classes in the Bay Area 

President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders targeting the gender-expansive community, including defunding gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth and banning trans, intersex, and nonbinary people from using the X gender marker on their passports. There are legal challenges to these efforts, but Osoria said the federal actions have had an impact already, creating a climate of fear even in a transgender sanctuary city like San Francisco.

“This time, it just feels a little bit worse,” she added. “The landscape he’s creating is very much rooted in violence.”

Research shows that trans women of color disproportionately bear the brunt of violence. According to a 2021 study, more than half of the physically violent crimes reported by trans women in the Bay Area were committed against Black and Latina trans women.

That’s why Osoria said it’s important the self-defense class take place in the Tenderloin, where the majority of the neighborhood’s trans population is Black trans women.

“If we’re able to help Black trans women … feel empowered and we are able to guide them through resistance, we’ll be helping all folks,” she said.

The self-defense training, held in February at the Transgender District office on Market Street, drew around a dozen participants.

Martial arts instructor Joseph Bautista of Self Defense for the People ran partnered drills and gave lessons that touched on how to be aware of one’s surroundings, how to verbally de-escalate a situation, and, if things get physical, how to safely slap and push away attackers.

“Hopefully, you never have to use [it], but like insurance, it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it,” Bautista told the class.

Participants ran through scenarios, like practicing how to escape from being choked and how to use a ballpoint pen as a weapon. But people were also having fun. Laughter and squeals echoed through the room as people cheered on their partners to push harder, slap swiftly and repeat moves.

“I thought it was really good. I had a lot more fun interactions than I was expecting,” said Moss O’Neal, who was flushed and smiling after the two-hour training.

O’Neal said he was interested in the class because he has been in situations where he wished he had known how to defend himself.

“[Now] I feel a lot more confident about walking home,” he said.

O’Neal also came hoping to find more queer community. After the training, he and some participants stuck around to hang out and eat pizza.

Spots for the self-defense class sold out just days after it was announced, so the Transgender District said it plans to organize another training soon.

“With everything going on, folks have kind of felt jolted and afraid,” Osoria said. “And the remedy to fear is being in power with other folks.”

Where LGBTQ+ people can find self-defense classes in the Bay Area

Organizations offering regular or occasional self-defense classes that are inclusive of, or specifically geared toward, LGBTQ+ communities in the Bay Area include the following:

• The Transgender District
• Impact Bay Area
• Misfit Combat
• Trans Fighters
• Four Elements Fitness