A man tried to defend a trans woman who was getting harassed but ended up the victim of the hate crime himself. In the aftermath, he was able to get his surgery covered by strangers who heard his story.
“It irked me to ask for help,” Jarod Adkison, whose jaw was broken so badly that a piece of bone ended up in his ear canal, told the Austin American-Stateman. “A lot of people donated. It was overwhelming.”
Related
This past July, Adkison, 33, visited Barton Springs Pool near Austin, Texas, and he talked with a group of women there. As he was leaving, he saw a group of three men go to the women and start harassing one of them.
“It all stemmed from the men seeing the trans lady and making a lewd gesture,” he said. Earlier reporting says that one of the men pointed at the trans woman and said, “I don’t agree with that lifestyle, it’s gross.”
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Adkison said he tried to “tell the guys to move on,” and that’s when one of them started punching him. “I wasn’t trying to fight,” he later recounted.
A man came up to him from behind and hit him on the head, and he fell to the ground. His jaw was broken, he had a concussion, and he had to be rushed to the hospital. He said that he blacked out when he was hit, and he came to in the CT scanner at the hospital.
Adkison works in construction, and his employer does not provide health care, but he also earns too much to qualify for Medicaid. Doctors told him that his ear canal had a piece of his jawbone in it and was full of blood and told him to come back for reconstructive surgery, but he didn’t know how he was going to pay for it.
So his parents set up a GoFundMe. His story got attention in the media nationwide, and a video of the assault was shared on social media, bringing attention to his case. They were able to raise over $74,000, which was still not enough to cover the surgery, but it at least helped to cover the income he missed from having to stay home from work for three weeks.
He then met Dr. CJ Langevin, a plastic surgeon who had heard about Adkison through one of his patients. He said he would do the surgery for free if Adkison would pay for the surgical suite time, which was $1,400. Dr. Lagevin wired Adkinson’s jaw shut for two weeks so that it could heal properly, and then had his jaw held in place with rubber bands.
“Ice cream and milkshakes were a big staple,” Adkison said about the time his jaw was wired shut.
“He was an amazing patient,” the doctor said. “It was pretty minimal work from my side.”
Adkison believes that he did the right thing by standing up for the women.
“Honestly, I think I might have done the right thing,” he said. “I would have felt awful if I had not helped out.”
Two people have been arrested in the assault, and friends had to convince Adkison to pursue charges. “I don’t hold any ill will,” he said, saying that they were “young guys.” The two men who were arrested are 28 and 29.
Adkison has a 9-year-old son who was with his mom the weekend his dad was assaulted. He said he hasn’t told his son all the details about what happened, but he is aware of the attack and says, “My dad’s a hero.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.