Last Updated 22:48:49 UTC Monday, January 4, 2021

US — Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Ambridge Police say a dispute between minors escalated once an adult became violently involved, assaulting children at their home with pepper spray before throwing a brick through a window. The suspect, a prominent transgender rights activist from Pittsburgh, claims to be the victim, and local police have expressed surprise that he is successfully crowdfunding for his expenses.

On Tuesday, October 29, Dena Stanley, President and Founder of Trans YOUniting and a board member of the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, drove to a residence on Beaver Road in Ambridge and began fighting a 15-year-old, witnesses say.

“I hit [Stanley] with a brick, to get her off my 15-year-old child,” Cecilia Melvin would later tell reporters. “When they dropped to the ground, my son said he can’t see, he can’t see, he couldn’t breathe. He has asthma very, very bad.”

Ms Melvin said she realized her 15-year-old and seven-year-old children had been pepper-sprayed, and rushed them into the home to wash out their eyes. It was then that a brick crashed through a window.

“I heard a big boom, and I heard glass shattering everywhere, and my 10-month-old baby was laying there and glass was all over my baby,” Ms Melvin said. The brick had barely missed the infant.

Mr Stanley is described as the “aunt” of minors involved in an ongoing conflict with a teen who lives in the Beaver Road home. The victims had not met Mr Stanley prior to the incident.

Mr Stanley, a man who identifies as a woman, insists that he was defending himself from an anti-transgender hate crime. He claims he was subjected to “slurs”: they “called me a man and a he/she. I was thrown to the ground and bricked in the head. I was fearful for my life.”

The suspect turned himself in on Friday morning after learning there was a warrant out for his arrest on more than a dozen charges, including felonies. He and his family are demanding the Beaver County District Attorney dismiss the charges. His crowdfunding campaign for medical and legal expenses has raised nearly $2,000 of its $10,000 goal.

Ms Melvin, a lesbian, denies that she would ever target a person for being transgender.

The idea of “me hating and targeting this person because they are transgender is BS. It really gets me very upset,” she said. “It hurts. It really hurts because I fought my whole life because when people found out I was gay, they targeted me because I was gay. I would never do that to anybody or want anybody to feel that way.”

Sergeant Glen Sovich expressed surprise that Mr Stanley is claiming to be the victim and that his crowdfunder campaign is receiving support. “[Stanley’s] the one who attacked the kids,” Sgt Sovich confirmed. Accounts from the victims and “multiple independent witnesses” said the activist drove to the children’s home, got out of the car and “started a problem there.”

Mr Stanley was a speaker at the March 24, 2016 panel discussion, “Singular ‘They’ at Pitt,” which was hosted by the Women’s Press Club at Pittsburgh. The panel discussed whether journalists will “have to adapt to using the singular ‘they’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’ to become more gender inclusive, similar to ‘Ms’ decades ago.”

UPDATE 22:48:49 UTC Monday, January 4, 2021

In September 2020, Mr Stanley pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of Simple Assault. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors withdrew 13 felony and misdemeanor charges.