Protestors Supporting Black Trans Womens’ Rights Interrupt Pete Buttigieg at LBGTQ Town Hall

Protestors supporting trans rights interrupted Mayor Pete Buttigieg at the very beginning of his portion of CNN’s LBGTQ town hall, unfurling banners that read “We Are Dying” and yelling ‘Trans Lives Matter!”

CNN host Anderson Cooper began to introduce the first questioner from the audience when several protestors quickly approached the stage and held up light blue, pink and white banners — the colors for trans rights — that read “We Are Dying!” Buttigieg, the first openly gay presidential candidate, and Cooper, a gay man, stood back and let them speak briefly before, growing concerned, admonished the event security guards who began to scuffle with the protestors.

“Okay. It’s okay. Be cool. It’s okay. It’s okay. Hey, hey, hey, hey, guys, guys, guys!” Cooper said from the stage.

“Whoa,” Buttigieg added, reacting to the struggle.

“Yo, guys, chill out. Relax, relax,” Cooper added.

As the protestors began to be peacefully led away, others in the audience stood up and began to chant: “Trans lives matter!”

Cooper responded by offering solidarity with the protestors.

“Let me just point out there is a long and proud tradition in history in the gay and lesbian and transgendered community of protest, and we applaud them for their protest,” Cooper noted. “And they are absolutely right to be angry and upset at the lack of attention, particularly in the media on the lives of transgendered.”

Once the interruptions subsided, Buttigieg took time out of his first answer to address the protestors.

“Well, thank you for your question. And before turning to it, I do want to acknowledge what these demonstrators were speaking about, which is the epidemic of violence against black trans women in this country right now,” Buttigieg said. According to the Human Rights Campaign, so far in 2019 19 transgender people have been murdered, a vast majority of them black trans women. “And I believe or would like to believe that everybody here is committed to ending that epidemic, and that does include lifting up its visibility and speaking to it,”Buttigieg added.

Watch the video above, via CNN.