Local Drag Queen Viciously Assaulted Sunday

Christi Long, a local transgender activist and drag queen who performs under the name Christi Foxx Paris, was raped and beaten by a longtime friend Sunday morning. Though she survived the brutal attack, her injuries required 12 staples to her head – where she was hit repeatedly with a hammer.

“I really haven’t cried yet,” Long told the Chronicle. “Until yesterday, when an acquaintance said online that none of this happened to me. I have a police report and staples in my head. There’s still blood in my hair because I can’t shower. I couldn't believe it, but I have to do something because trans people think they won't be believed or get treatment [when something like this happens].”

Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be fun: an extra day to kick back, relax, and enjoy the start of summer. That’s what Long had planned for her Sunday. Shortly before noon, she and an unnamed friend – someone she’d known “for years” – were hanging out in her Austin home when her friend began pressuring Long for sex. “I said no. No means no. I told him to get off me and shoved him, but he grabbed my head and forced me down.”

Afterward, Long said her abuser refused to leave her house. No matter how loud she yelled, “it didn’t faze him, he wasn’t scared of me.” But when Long grabbed her cell phone and threatened to expose him, her rapist lunged at her. Long ran to her bathroom, but he followed – “breaking open the door,” she recounted. “It happened so fast – he swung out with the hammer and everything turned off like an old TV.”

Long came to lying on the bathtub. She wasn’t sure what happened, but was aware that she was bleeding. Her attacker, before leaving the room, threatened to “smash her head in” if she got up. Long said, “But I realized, if I don’t leave I’m going to die. So I just ran.” Dripping blood, she managed to get downstairs, grab a kitchen knife, and escape outside where she slashed her assailant’s rear tire. But before she could do anything else she heard him coming and hid as he drove off – the rim of his tire scraping on the pavement.

“I went back inside – he had my phone, the hammer. I freaked out.” Long purposefully set off her security alarm to alert the police – whom, she said, didn’t take her as “seriously as I’d have liked,” at least not at first. She was taken to the emergency room, but it wasn’t until she called victim services that she learned SAFE – a local organization that helps survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence – is the only place in Austin currently providing sexual assault forensic exams (aside from University of Texas).

A report against her assailant for rape and aggravated assault has been filed with the Austin Police Department, but it’s currently unclear whether an arrest has been made or charges filed. Long said she’d missed a call from the detective working her case and has not yet received an update.

Originally, Long (and her friends) were determined to change the aggravated assault charge to attempted murder. But on Wednesday, she told the Chronicle that an APD victim’s service counselor explained aggravated assault is easier to prove in court and carries the same sentence. “That brought me a little comfort … but I just can’t help feeling that – because I’m trans, I’m less valuable. That me being raped and hit with a hammer is less of a thing. This isn’t new to Austin – remember Monica [Loera]? Transwomen need to be treated with dignity and respect.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Long cover her “absurd” medical expenses. Elysium will also host a benefit party for Long on Sat., June 24, at 10pm.