“All I Did Was Exist”: Lesbian Teen Speaks Out After McDonald’s Hate Crime Assault Goes Viral
A 19-year-old woman was physically attacked and called “derogatory” names at a McDonald’s in Illinois, with two males — including one juvenile — charged for the incident, according to the Carpentersville Police Department.
The incident occurred on May 13, when police responded to a report of a fight at a McDonald’s in Carpentersville, Illinois, which is about an hour outside of Chicago.
Once on the scene, officials determined the incident “involved an aggravated battery against a female victim,” police said in a press release shared over the weekend.
Officials said the altercation began when two male suspects made “derogatory remarks about the victim’s sexual orientation as they passed by her.”
The female victim, 19-year-old Kady Grass, told ABC News she and her 13-year-old cousin were grabbing food at the McDonald’s when Grass decided to use the bathroom. Both the restroom stalls were full, so she walked out right away, when one boy out of a group of three began calling her a derogatory name, she told ABC News.
She said she “mumbled” under hre breath but walked away and told her cousin to “not give them another reason to talk to us.”
One of the boys, the juvenile who was later charged, approached Grass again, saying they “wanted to fight” her and they should “take it outside,” she said. Grass said she then proceeded to go outside of the McDonald’s, but “no one came out.”
When she returned inside to her cousin, she told Grass she overheard the males and said “they have a gun and they are going to kill you.” Grass later found out that it was an “empty threat” as police did not find a gun in the suspects’ possession.
The other male who was later charged, 19-year-old John Kammrad, approached Grass and said, “You’re a woman, you’re not tough,” to which Grass replied: “I know I’m a woman, I’m a lesbian,” she told ABC News.
She said she then looked at the juvenile, who “had this look in his eyes” and began to smile at her.
“I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen,” Grass said.
Kammrad proceeded to get close to Grass, so she placed her hand on his chest to signal he should “keep his distance,” she said.
Then the confrontation escalated into a physical fight, with one male punching her in the front and the other hitting her in the back, she said. A manager at the McDonald’s attempted to break up the fight, but he also “got hit in the process,” Grass said.
In an attempt to protect herself, Grass closed her eyes and fell to the ground, which led to the two males stomping on her head, causing her to become unconscious, she said. Grass, who does not remember most of the attack, suffered a broken nose, bruises on her shoulders and the suspects’ handprint marks on her shoulders, she said.
“They were trying to kill me,” Grass told ABC News.
Grass sustained severe injuries and was transported to a local hospital, where “she was treated and subsequently released,” police said.
Grass, who claims the whole attack was based on her sexual orientation, said, “It’s so crazy that there are people out there that are willing to go this far or even worse just because they don’t like who you are.”
Police said “multiple felony charges” were approved against the two males involved, including “the most serious” charge being aggravated battery causing bodily harm.
The juvenile suspect turned himself in to police on May 16, and Kammrad was arrested on May 17, officials said.
“This incident underscores the importance of addressing violence and discrimination within our community. The Carpentersville Police Department remains committed to ensuring public safety and promoting respect for all individuals,” police said.
Kammrad was charged with two counts of aggravated battery and mob action-use of force or violence disturbing the peace, according to court records. He was in custody at the Kane County Jail, but court records indicate that on Monday, the suspect was “released to other agency.”
Grass told ABC News the state’s attorney’s office asked for her permission to issue hate crime charges on Kammrad. Additionally, police told Grass that the two girls occupying the bathroom of the McDonald’s were with the males that attacked her and they will face misdemeanor charges for stealing Grass’ wallet, phone and her cousin’s phone, she said.
“Even if they don’t agree with the LGBTQ community, they have no right to make it physical or bully you into something. There was no right to do this to me just because they didn’t like that I date women instead of men,” Grass said.
Kammrad’s status hearing is scheduled for May 22 and his plea setting is set for June 27, according to court records.
Court records indicate that Kammrad has appointed an attorney, but the name of the public defender is not listed.
Bitcoin Hedge Theory Meets a Harsh Boardroom Reality
Key Points
- Shareholder proposals asking Microsoft and Meta to simply assess Bitcoin for their corporate treasuries were rejected by over 99% of voters.
- Both companies’ boards opposed the proposals, claiming they already review all cash management options including cryptocurrencies.
- The lopsided votes may still serve a purpose by forcing more financial heavyweights to at least start thinking about Bitcoin as a long-term investment.
The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) whitepaper compared the cryptocurrency to physical gold in 2008. 17 years later, the cryptocurrency seems ready to take on a more gold-like role in the global economy.
But it’s not all good news. A couple of tech giants have recently demonstrated that the traditional business world still lags behind in embracing Bitcoin as a long-term general asset. Here’s what crypto investors need to know about this development.
How Bitcoin earned its Wall Street stripes
The Bitcoin platform has earned some Street cred in recent years.
- Large-scale investors have access to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on spot Bitcoin prices. These spot Bitcoin funds have nearly $121 billion of digital assets under management in June 2025. Some of the most significant buys of these ETFs come from old-school financial giants such as Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).
- Massive companies like Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Block (NYSE: XYZ) have converted hundreds of millions of dollars into Bitcoin. Running even further ahead of the crypto trend, Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) is more of a Bitcoin investment vehicle than a software developer nowadays. The company formerly known as Microstrategy has built a $61.7 billion Bitcoin portfolio with mostly borrowed money and shareholder funds.
- The Trump administration included crypto support in its campaign messages, and is indeed taking some industry-friendly steps already. There is now an official Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a smaller Digital Asset Stockpile for other cryptocurrencies. Also, this iteration of the Securities and Exchange Commission looks ready to approve crypto-investing policies that the previous group kept kicking down the road. These political twists have to be good news for Bitcoin owners.
- Bitcoin-based investments used to be pure high-risk ideas, with sky-high beta values indicating massive volatility. That’s no longer the case. Last year’s ETF introductions and Bitcoin halving event threw some cold water on the cryptocurrency’s volatility. Recently, Bitcoin ETFs have explored negative beta values, suggesting that this asset often moves in the opposite direction of the American stock market. That’s taking the hedging thesis to a new extreme. Low beta values signify below-average price swings, while negative ones belong to investments that often move in direct opposition to the stock market.
Long story short, there are many reasons to treat Bitcoin as an effective market hedge nowadays. The largest and oldest cryptocurrency can counterbalance many quirks in the American and global economy.
Tech giants face the crypto conversation
Inspired by these newfound stability qualities, activist investors have been asking some of the world’s largest tech titans to buy some Bitcoin. Actually, not even that — two different groups asked Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) to just look into the idea. The proxy statements for both companies’ annual shareholder meetings asked the board of directors to simply assess whether some Bitcoin exposure would be good for shareholders.
As usual, Meta and Microsoft opposed these proposals. Microsoft’s board recommended shareholders to vote against the measure, since the company already considers every cash management option — including Bitcoin. Meta’s board offered the same recommendation, citing its own comprehensive review of every reasonable idea.
“While we are not opining on the merits of cryptocurrency investments compared to other assets, we believe the requested assessment is unnecessary given our existing processes to manage our corporate treasury,” the recommendation ended.
The votes are in — and they’re brutal
Putting these Bitcoin proposals on the proxy statements didn’t exactly change the game. The policy assessment requests got almost no support from shareholders.
Microsoft’s vote results were published in December 2024. Every shareholder proposal fell short of approval. The top performers got more than 30% approval ratings, but the Bitcoin topic fell between the cracks with just 0.55% “yea” votes.
It was Meta’s turn to vote on this stuff last Wednesday. A few proposals got the thumbs-up vote from at least 20% of shareholders, but the Bitcoin assessment was barely there. Approval rating: 0.08%. I mean, that’s barely a shadow of a forgotten thought experiment.
Reading between the voting lines
At first glance, the overwhelming downvotes look like a total condemnation of Bitcoin as a hedging instrument. Fractions of a single percent simply don’t show any real support for that idea. Take your Bitcoin and go home, dear activist investors.
But there’s more nuance to this situation.
The negative company board recommendations came with careful language explaining that they’re already thinking about this stuff anyway. Therefore, some investors may simply be satisfied with the ordinary review of financial management options — if Bitcoin ever becomes a no-brainer wealth management holding, the strategic committees of the world’s largest tech giants will surely figure it out and take action.
At the same time, there’s some truth to the anti-Bitcoin sentiment seen in these lopsided votes. The vast majority of Microsoft and Meta Platforms shares are held by institutional investors, led by ETF managers and retirement fund portfolios. Getting the first hint of Bitcoin investment support from those groups should drive Bitcoin prices dramatically higher in a hurry — but the mega-investors aren’t ready to make that commitment yet.
All in all, I find the lack of investor support surprising but the proposals may have served a worthwhile purpose anyhow. Just asking people to think about Bitcoin as a long-term investment could have positive long-term effects. In this early stage, lots of investors just haven’t taken Bitcoin seriously yet. If each vote proposal got just one more financial heavyweight to start thinking in those terms, I’d say it was worth the mountains of proxy-filing paperwork.
If You’d Invested $100 in Trump’s Crypto in January, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today
President Donald Trump launched a crypto coin just before his inauguration in January 2025. And if you saw the hype train coming from a mile away, you might have thrown some fun money into TRUMP coin.
After a few months of insane volatility, here’s a breakdown of exactly how much you’d have now if you invested $100 in Official Trump coin back in January.
Trump Coin Price History
The Trump meme coin was launched on Jan. 17, 2025 — just three days before Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States of America.
The coin launched quietly at first, being sold on the Solana blockchain. Traders wondered if the coin was a fake, but Trump officially announced his backing of the coin in a Truth Social post that evening.
After the official endorsement, the coin soared in value over the coming hours and days.
Trump coin started trading around $1.20 per coin when it first launched, according to CoinMarketCap. After Trump himself endorsed the coin, the price skyrocketed within minutes.
Trump coin went from trading at just over a dollar to trading near $75 per coin!
The price plummeted a few days later — as most crypto meme coins do — but it is still trading at just over $11.40 per coin as of June 3.
How Much It’s Worth Today
If you invested $100 in $TRUMP on Jan. 17, 2025, you would have been able to purchase it at a price of $1.21 per coin. That means you would own about 82.64 Trump coins.
On June 3, 2025, Trump coin is trading at around $11.40 per coin. Your 82.64 Trump coins would now be worth $942.10 — an $842 gain in just a few months!
But if you were one of the many unfortunate ones who decided to buy just a day too late, at around $70 per coin, your $100 would now be worth about $16.
Is Trump Coin Still a Good Investment?
Ultimately, there is no way to say for sure whether the Trump meme coin is a good investment — crypto is notoriously volatile, and meme coins even more so.
Trump coin is a meme coin, and most of them end up dying within a year. But Trump is the president of the U.S. and one of the most recognizable people on the planet right now.
For investors who aren’t trading crypto for fun but rather looking to establish their future financial security, Trump coin may be too risky to put money into.
But if you are looking for a possible quick-flip profit with some “fun money” on a highly volatile — and popular — meme coin, Trump coin might work for you.
More broadly, don’t put more than you can afford to lose into any cryptocurrency.
And while $100 might be fun speculation to put into something like Trump coin, don’t risk your retirement on volatile assets like meme coins.
