Nikita Dragun’s YouTube channel has amassed over 3.5 million subscribers.
After allegedly strolling round bare and assaulting an officer at The Goodtime Resort in Miami, fashionable make-up influencer Nikita Dragun has been arrested. She was arrested for felony battery on a legislation enforcement officer, misdemeanor disorderly conduct and battery, in keeping with Miami’s Local 10 News.
Dragun is a transgender lady and has publicly shared her expertise on social media. On Dec. 28, 2015, Dragun launched a YouTube video titled “I Am TRANSGENDER” the place she described rising up being raised as a male and “continuously feeling that one thing wasn’t proper.” She continued to clarify that the years to come back would maintain a “world of change,” and she or he couldn’t have been extra proper. She launched her make-up model, Dragun Magnificence, in March 2019, and Forbes reported that the entire merchandise in her first launch offered out in 24 hours.
Though undoubtedly profitable within the make-up world, Dragun can be well-known for being embroiled in web drama. In 2022, Netflix launched the eight-part actuality collection “Hype House,” described by Dragun within the first episode as “a fraternity stuffed with individuals who have hundreds of thousands of followers and {dollars} at their fingertips, with highschool drama and … a hoop gentle.” The present has confronted scrutiny, being described as giving “talentless, boring, unoriginal, privileged folks a present” by a Change.org petition advocating for its cancellation that has garnered over 23,000 signatures.
Following her arrest, Dragun was held in a males’s unit of a Miami corrections facility, according to her publicist, Jack Ketsoyan, who described the scenario as “extraordinarily disturbing and harmful.” He continued to say that Dragun has been launched and is now secure.
Her placement in a males’s jail unit is an issue that reaches far past Youtube drama. It’s not unusual to dislike influencers reminiscent of Dragun, however this example demonstrates how this sort of therapy doesn’t discriminate, even with celebrities and is sadly all too frequent.
Based on the Prison Policy Initiative, LGBTQ+ people face a lot larger charges of arrest, incarceration and group supervision, all whereas dealing with distinctive risks and quantity of inhumane therapy.
Federal information offered via the National Center for Transgender Equality states that transgender persons are practically 10 occasions extra prone to be sexually assaulted in jail than cisgender inmates. In truth, 40% of transgender people report sexual assault in jail.
Dragun’s YouTube movies vary from make-up evaluations to ASMR.
Services insisting on housing transgender people solely based mostly on their anatomy, no matter their authorized intercourse or gender id, perpetuates this abuse. Movie star standing doesn’t discriminate — a video posted by Miami’s Local 10 News exhibits Dragun showing in a digital courtroom, the place she asks if she has to stay in a males’s unit, to which the decide responds, “I don’t make the foundations up right here.”
Being misgendered has a devastating impact on transgender and LGBTQ+ of us. “It’s very minimizing,” stated Dee Filecia, Ph.D., a political science and worldwide relations professor. “It’s like a little bit intestine punch each time it occurs.”
Filecia continued to explain being positioned in a bunch that doesn’t align with an individual’s gender id, whether or not in a jail or one other setting, as one which causes an individual to “turn out to be extra invisible. You’re in a system that reminds you of what has been shoved down your throat your complete life.”
Violence and discrimination trigger hurt towards LGBTQ+ people that’s steadily underestimated. Based on The Trevor Project, LGBTQ+ youth are 4 occasions extra prone to try to take their very own lives than their friends. “It will probably trigger despair,” continued Filecia. “Suicide charges amongst trans persons are via the roof … It will probably trigger folks bodily hurt.”
If transgender folks proceed to be compelled to dwell in techniques that don’t align with their gender id and in societies that don’t respect them, the abuse that they face will proceed to feed right into a cycle of additional incarceration and psychological well being points. Dragun’s scenario is a terrifying thought for a lot of, nevertheless it’s not unbelievable that it’ll proceed to occur to many others. Dragun’s story being the headline of many a TikTok and Snapchat information headline calls the fact of the scenario to consideration, and amidst this, extra consciousness for what transgender folks undergo will likely be gained.
That is the opinion of Olivia Silvester, a freshman English main from San Diego. E-mail feedback to editor@theloyolan.com. Observe and tweet feedback to @LALoyolan on Twitter, and like the Loyolan on Fb.