A transgender woman claims that West Hollywood City Council candidate Kyle Brazeal called her a “tranny” and threw a purse at her at Gym Bar in 2024. 

The Los Angeles Blade spoke with the alleged victim and two people who say they witnessed Brazeal’s actions that night. The Blade has also obtained timestamped video that places Brazeal at Gym Bar that evening and text messages from the following day describing in detail what allegedly occurred on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024.

Brazeal said in a written statement that “I categorically deny the allegations.” He added that while he was involved in “a disagreement” at Gym Bar that night, that “this incident is being deliberately misrepresented and weaponized for political purposes in the final weeks of this election.” Addressing the transgender community in West Hollywood, Brazeal said, “I will continue to stand with you as a Council member, just as I did before I was a candidate,” citing his donation to a GoFundMe for gender affirming surgery as evidence of his support.

Upon requesting comment, Brazeal referred the Blade to Rolandos Liatsos, his current campaign treasurer and friend of Brazeal’s who was with him at Gym Bar that evening. Liatsos gave his account of the night and said he never witnessed Brazeal use any slurs or throw the purse. 

‘Get out of my way, tranny’

On Dec. 29, 2024, Amber says she went to Gym Bar with a group of friends, including Tommy Craven and Rick Turpin. Amber’s real name is not being used to protect her privacy. 

The group arrived at Gym Bar around 5 p.m. The evening started out well. “Just being around friends that night was really good,” Amber said. “There was no problem whatsoever.”

Turpin also recalls having fun. “We were having a good time,” he said. Amber came out as trans a few years earlier and was still adjusting to life as an out transgender woman. “It was nice to see [Amber] embracing her transition and … it seemed like she was feeling herself,” Turpin said. 

After chatting with her friends for an hour or so, Amber left to use the bathroom. At the time, Gym Bar had only two single-occupancy restrooms, so there was a line of people waiting to use them. After a few minutes, the line advanced and Amber went into an open restroom. 

Soon after entering, Amber said she heard knocking on the bathroom door. She yelled, “Hey, there’s someone in here.” A minute later, the knocking began again. It was a “really rude knock,” Amber said. “So, I felt like I needed to rush through. I felt really uncomfortable.” 

For Amber, the situation was especially stressful because of her identity. “I’ve had situations in the past as a trans woman where I have been attacked for using the ‘inappropriate restroom,’” she told the Blade. 

Flustered, Amber said she quickly left the bathroom, leaving her purse inside. After exiting, she asked the line of people waiting, “Who was knocking?” she said. 

“Me,” she said a man replied while looking down at his phone. He then brushed past her and entered the bathroom while saying, “Get out of my way, tranny,” Amber said. She said she later learned the man’s name was Kyle Brazeal. 

Amber was stunned. She had faced transphobia before but not at an LGBTQ bar. Not in West Hollywood. 

“I was in a full moment of just frustration, anger,” she said. Amber said she slammed her palm on the bathroom door and stormed off, going back to her friends who were still chatting at their table.

Amber’s friends saw she was upset. “I sat down, and my friends knew something was wrong,” she said. Then Amber told her friends she was called a slur. 

“They were, like, wait, what?” she said. “Everybody was in fun-drinking mode, so they didn’t understand what had occurred.”

Amber sat watching the bathroom. As soon as Brazeal exited, she walked over to confront him about what he said.

“What did you call me?” Amber loudly asked him. 

At this point, Craven and Turpin heard the yelling coming from the restrooms. The two walked toward the commotion to see what was happening. They saw Amber confronting Brazeal by the door to the bathroom. Craven knew Brazeal beforehand from other community spaces they were both involved with. “I could recognize him right away,” he said. Turpin also said he recognized Brazeal.

Amber said that Brazeal took the purse that she left inside the bathroom and threw it at her, saying, “You left your tranny purse in there.” Craven and Turpin both corroborated Amber’s account of the events, saying that they heard Brazeal use the slur and saw him throw the purse at Amber. 

After Brazeal threw the purse and used the anti-trans slur, Amber shoved him and the two got into a shouting match, according to Amber. Craven also recalled seeing “shoving” but did not specify who did what. The two were soon separated by security and staff. 

Craven quickly called the owners of Gym Bar, Erik Braverman and Jonathan Cottrell, to inform them of what happened. (Cottrell is also currently running for West Hollywood City Council). Craven had known Cottrell and Braverman for years and considered them friends. The owners then told Gym Bar’s general manager about the incident.

Soon, the general manager spoke with Brazeal and “Kyle was asked to leave the bar,” Craven said. Upon being asked to leave, Brazeal began yelling profanities and “used the word ‘tranny’ toward Amber again,” Craven said. Turpin also recalls Brazeal using the slur as he was asked to leave. “He kept saying ‘tranny,’” according to Turpin. 

Video footage taken by Tommy Craven shows Kyle Brazeal outside Gym Bar on Dec. 29, 2024. Craven says the video shows Brazeal after he was asked to leave by security.

The incident left Amber shaken. Afterwards, she sat down with her friends, and Craven and Turpin tried to cheer her up by making jokes about the situation. It didn’t improve her spirits. 

“She was jarred; it happened at a bar that she considers a safe space,” Craven said. He described Amber as “a very private person” and said that she was satisfied with how Gym Bar handled the situation and did not file any complaints with law enforcement. 

Amber said that time constraints also factored into her decision to not speak to the police. She was living in a housing program with an enforced 10 p.m. curfew, meaning she had to leave the bar soon after the incident occurred to get home in time. 

Amber took an Uber to go home and did not see Brazeal again. 

‘No throwing of the bag, no hate speech or anti-trans stuff’

But according to Rolandos Liatsos, the incident that evening played out very differently. Liatsos said he went to Gym Bar with Brazeal and a few others to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The two have known each other for more than a decade and are good friends. Liatsos is also Brazeal’s campaign treasurer.

According to Liatsos, after hanging out at the bar, Brazeal went to get in line for the bathroom and was on the phone. Once Brazeal entered the bathroom he saw Amber, whom he had never met before, return to a table with her friends. She seemed very upset. 

Brazeal soon exited the restroom, carrying the purse Amber had left. Brazeal walked up to the table and attempted to hand the purse back to Amber but was stopped by her friends who moved to stand between them. Then they started arguing and yelling at each other. 

But never at any point did Brazeal throw the purse, according to Liatsos. “There [was] no throwing of the bag, no hate speech or anti-trans stuff,” Liatsos said. 

He also claims that he did not see anyone get shoved, or the two parties getting physical in any way. “There was no physical contact,” he said. 

After the arguing between Brazeal and Amber’s friends, Gym Bar staff asked Brazeal and his friends to leave. “Good, let’s just go, … let’s defuse the situation,” Liatsos recalled thinking. Soon after, he, Brazeal, and their friends left the bar. 

Liatsos later learned from Brazeal that he knocked on the bathroom door as Amber was inside, which he believed upset her. “I see this as a situation escalating from knocking at the door, feeling rushed,” and nothing more, Liatsos said. 

He said the claims of transphobic and aggressive behavior were not consistent with what he saw that night and contrary to who he knows Brazeal to be. “I’ve known Kyle for so many years and we’ve been out so many times,” Liatsos said. “I’ve never seen him attacking … any individual.”

Aftermath

The next morning, Dec. 30, Craven sent a text message to a group chat that included Jonathan Cottrell describing what happened and naming the alleged perpetrator as “Kyle (seen in video),” referring to the video that shows Kyle Brazeal outside Gym Bar on Dec. 29.

Screenshot of an excerpt of the message sent by Tommy Craven to a group chat with Jonathan Cottrell on Dec, 30, 2024. Identifying details have been redacted.

Braverman and Cottrell told Craven that Brazeal was banned from Gym Bar. However, both Craven and Turpin claim to have seen him at the establishment multiple times after the incident. Cottrell said in a written statement that “it was a temporary ban,” but would not discuss why or when the ban was lifted because Gym Bar “(doesn’t) share internal incident matters.”

This temporary ban is contradictory to a message from Cottrell’s Instagram account that was sent to Amber on Dec. 30, 2024. In it, he states that he would make sure that the “individuals” involved in the incident “don’t ever come back” to Gym Bar. 

Screenshot of a message sent by Jonathan Cottrell’s Instagram account to Amber’s account on Dec. 30, 2024. Identifying details have been redacted. 

The race for City Council

Brazeal announced his candidacy for City Council in April 2026. Craven heard about his campaign in June. “I was aware it was the same person,” he said, immediately recognizing him as the man who allegedly berated his friend a year and a half ago. 

Later that month, Craven reached out to Braverman and Cottrell, who had recently announced his own campaign for City Council, to inform them that Brazeal was the same man from the night. “They were definitely surprised by it,” Craven said. 

After being made aware that Brazeal was allegedly the same man from the transphobic incident at their bar, the owners did not state anything publicly, following Amber’s wishes. Cottrell has not mentioned anything on the campaign trail even as he and Brazeal have been endorsed by some of the same organizations like Equality California and Sunset West Alliance. 

“At the time of the incident, our staff asked the woman involved whether she wanted us to take any further action, and she said she did not,” Cottrell said in a written statement. “This was never our story to tell. Gym Bar has always been a safe space for everyone in our community, and that will never change.” 

Craven and Turpin waited to talk publicly about the incident because they wanted to keep their friend’s experience private.  

“Ricky and I thought … something [else] would be said to kind of give light to the kind of person that Kyle is without us having to use our friend’s story,” Craven said. “But now because it’s closer to the election [and] stuff has not come to light, I feel the community would be safer knowing.”

Amber did not hear about Brazeal’s candidacy for City Council until last week, when she was informed by friends that a reporter for the Los Angeles Blade was investigating allegations of a transphobic incident involving him. These days, she splits her time between the Los Angeles area and other parts of the country so she has not been following local politics closely. But when she looked up his campaign, she instantly realized that this was the same man from that night. “I saw the face and pictures … and I made the connection,” she said. 

“This is something that I need to address,” she added. She said that it can feel “impossible” as a trans woman to call out people who express bigotry without facing “repercussions.” Brazeal’s bid for City Council motivated Amber’s decision to speak publicly about the incident. “He is seeking a position of power in the city,” she said. “He needs to understand that this is stuff that just doesn’t go away.” 

Reflecting on the incident, Amber said she’s still shocked and upset. “I was floored that he would use that word in that bar,” she said. By speaking out, she hopes to heal some of the pain caused by Brazeal’s alleged actions and regain her confidence. 

“Words do matter and they do hurt and the T-word [used] toward me hurt,” Amber said. “Now I’m trying to use my words to share my story.” 

Caleb Kaufman is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.