Robbie Pierce and Neal Broverman and their children endured a vicious verbal attack on an Amtrak train, and hold politicians using anti-LGBTQ “grooming” rhetoric responsible
The man was eventually removed from the train at San José’s Diridon station by police, after initially refusing to disembark. Amtrak has since told the couple that, in Pierce’s words, “they’re trying to put the man on a no-travel list,” but the company did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Beast about that, the incident itself, or what charges, if any, the man will face.
An assistant train conductor eventually came, and then left to get assistance. The family was left to confront the abuse on their own, as it “just continued happening,” said Pierce. He moved the by-now crying children away from the man. The train’s conductor introduced himself, and asked Pierce and Broverman for a written statement to give to the police. Pierce said he understands that Amtrak staff may not be trained in crisis management and de-escalation, but wonders why it took him and Broverman to ask for help before it presented itself.
Yet it also reminded Pierce of the time he had stood up when a person had verbally attacked a trans woman, and he had told the aggressor to leave the woman alone. “That person then turned on me, but doing that shows people saying these things that they do not have the support of others,” he explained.