CeCe McDonald

In 2016, McDonald teamed up with gender non-conforming activist and prison abolitionist Joshua Allen for a Black Excellence Tour.

McDonald was released in January 2014 after serving 19 months. She was profiled in Rolling Stone among other publications and included as part of Advocate's annual "40 Under 40" list. FREE CeCe, a documentary about McDonald's experiences told through interviews by Laverne Cox, started production in December 2013. The film centers on the attack on McDonald and her friends including the stabbing, her imprisonment, and violence experienced by trans women of color. In August 2014 she was awarded the Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club.

McDonald was released on January 13, 2014, after serving 19 months and will remain under the supervision of the Minnesota Department of Corrections through her 41-month sentence. Laverne Cox was among those who greeted her. Roxanne Anderson, the program director for the Trans Youth Support Network, said "CeCe is doing great. She looks good and she is good spirits," and that McDonald was not ready to comment publicly. Chase Strangio, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said "This is a day to celebrate, and to honor CeCe for all she's done from the day of her arrest to draw attention to the systemic violence women of color, and particularly LGBT women of color face everyday. Her message from the start was not to sensationalize the story, but to bring attention to the issue."

In 2014, McDonald was profiled by the Rolling Stone and included as part of the Advocate's annual "40 Under 40" list. In August 2014 she was awarded the Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club.

Her story got international attention including in May 2013 when an Ebony.com article about the case won the GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding Digital Journalism Article". She also received support from transgender activist and actress Laverne Cox, star of Orange Is the New Black, which includes story lines about trans women of color and hate crimes. Cox says McDonald is the image she has of her OITNB character, Sophia Burset, and that she plays Burset as an homage to McDonald. Cox also identifies with her experiences, "So many times I've ... been harassed, any of them could have escalated ... I very easily could be CeCe."

Following her conviction, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Corrections said officials had decided to place McDonald in the Minnesota Correctional Facility – St. Cloud, an adult male facility, though her final destination had yet to be determined; and that the state would make its own determination of McDonald's gender. The state's gender assessment concluded that McDonald would be held in a men's facility. During her imprisonment a petition caused the Department of Corrections to administer the correct regimen of hormones. Despite being transferred to a second facility McDonald remained quartered with men throughout her imprisonment.

FREE CeCe, a documentary about McDonald by Laverne Cox and Jac Gares, started production in August 2013. The film is told through an interview with McDonald conducted by Cox, and deals with the events in 2011, McDonald's imprisonment and violence experienced by trans women of color. FREE CeCe was the kick-off film at the 2016 San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, the world's first and longest-running transgender film festival. Jac Gares, a New York City filmmaker, directed the film with Cox as executive producer. Gares had previously produced the LGBT PBS series In The Life and raised $300,000 to fund FREE CeCe.

In April 2012, author Kate Bornstein spoke about McDonald on MSNBC cable television program Melissa Harris-Perry, comparing McDonald's situation with George Zimmerman's in the aftermath of the shooting of Trayvon Martin regarding self-defense issues and how the case is viewed through the media focus. The case also attracted national attention from LGBT activists including author Leslie Feinberg, who wrote that "the right of self-defense against all forms of oppressions—the spirit of Stonewall—is at the heart of the demand to free [McDonald]". Cam Gordon, a member of the Minneapolis City Council, announced his support for McDonald and called the incident "another example [of] transgender women of color being targeted for hate- and bias-related violence", and Susan Allen, a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, called on Freeman to consider the "extenuating circumstances" of McDonald's case. In May 2013, an article by Marc Lamont Hill for Ebony.com entitled "Why Aren't We Fighting for CeCe McDonald?" won the GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding Digital Journalism Article". McDonald also received the support of transgender activist and actress Laverne Cox, who stars in the television series Orange Is the New Black.

A May 2012 press release by McDonald's support committee said the sentencing proceedings included statements from community leaders, clergy, and members of McDonald's family. McDonald's supporters held dance parties and rallies outside the Hennepin County jail in her honor, and over 18,000 people signed a Change.org petition calling for Freeman to drop the charges against McDonald.

In June 2012, a group calling itself the "Queer Attack Squadron" claimed responsibility for a Portland, Oregon incident throwing an unlit molotov cocktail through the window of a Wells Fargo bank as a gesture of solidarity with McDonald. Katie Burgess, executive director of the Trans Youth Support Network, said the group had no connection to McDonald's supporters in Minneapolis. Burgess said the growth in support for McDonald and her self-defense argument was due to the perception McDonald was "on trial for surviving a hate crime."

Days before the trial was to begin, Moreno offered a plea bargain under which McDonald's charges of second-degree murder would be reduced to second-degree manslaughter, and under which she would have to admit only to criminal negligence rather than murder. On May 2, 2012, the defense and prosecution agreed on a 41-month sentence, the minimum sentence for second-degree manslaughter, as a compromise. In accepting the plea deal, McDonald had to relinquish her argument that she killed Schmitz in self-defense or by accident, and had to forego a trial by jury. McDonald said she accepted the plea deal for her loved ones: instead of risking decades in prison, the deal was expected to result in her being freed in a fraction of the time. On June 4, 2012, Moreno sentenced McDonald to 41 months in prison. At her sentencing hearing McDonald told the court "I'm sure that to Dean's family, he was a loving, caring person, but that is not what I saw that night. I saw a racist, transphobic, narcissistic bigot who did not have any regard for my friends and I." McDonald was given credit for 245 days' jail time, and required to pay $6,410 in restitution for Schmitz's funeral expenses.

While awaiting trial, McDonald was held in segregated custody and spent time under house arrest. In May 2012, Michael Friedman of the Legal Rights Center said there was "no way" McDonald would be "sent to a women's prison." Burgess said "People tend to think about how CeCe identifies as a woman and say she should be able to go to a women's facility ... But there's really no history of transgender people being placed according to their gender identity. So once CeCe is placed in a permanent facility, she'll look around and decide if she feels safe there. If she doesn't, she'll move forward with a civil suit against the Department of Corrections to be relocated to a safer place. That may or may not be a women's prison." After she was sentenced, McDonald expressed resignation, saying "I've faced worse things in my life than prison."

Flaherty, Schmitz's ex-girlfriend who was among those verbally assaulting McDonald and her friends outside the bar, was charged in May 2012 with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and third-degree assault causing substantial bodily harm for attacking McDonald with "an alcoholic drink" glass causing a bleeding gash to her face needing eleven stitches. Her case was referred to the Washington County Attorney's Office in order to avoid a conflict of interest. In April 2013, Flaherty was sentenced to six months' jail time and probation after pleading guilty to third-degree assault, and was given credit for 135 days served in jail.

At around 11:30pm on June 5, 2011, McDonald, her roommate Latavia Taylor, and their friends Larry Tyaries Thomas, Zavawn Smith, and Roneal Harris, all of whom are African-American, walked the half-mile from McDonald and Taylor's apartment in Minneapolis to a Cub Foods to buy groceries. On the way, a police officer briefly stopped and questioned the group without provocation; he then followed them for a short time and departed.

CeCe McDonald (/ˌ s iː ˈ s iː / ; born May 26, 1989) is an African American trans woman and LGBTQ activist. She came to national attention in June 2012 for accepting a plea bargain of 41 months for second-degree manslaughter of a man she stabbed after McDonald and her friends were assaulted in Minneapolis outside a bar near closing time. The attack, a year prior, was widely seen as racist and transphobic, and became physical when McDonald was struck in the face by the man's friend with "an alcoholic drink" glass causing a bleeding gash that needed stitches.

McDonald, who was born in 1989 and is originally from South Chicago, studied fashion at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.