The protagonist and her girlfriend are ambushed and sexually assaulted by a man. They are eventually rescued. The protagonist's roommate's boyfriend masturbates near her when he thinks she is sleeping. He then moves on to raping her while she is pretending to sleep. There is passing mention of a queer male character putting a little boy on his lap. There are multiple scenes of street harassment, particularly street harassment motivated by gender nonconformity. There are a few mentions throughout of the police rape of Abner Louima.