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A focus on the stories of trans people killed in 2017, and a call to action

Transgender Day of Remembrance is November 20.

Transgender Day of Remembrance is tomorrow, November 20. This year, at least 25 transgender people have been murdered in the United States. There may be more because authorities, the media and families routinely misgender transgender victims of crime.

On Friday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the Trans People of color Coalition (TPOCC) released a report detailing the stories of those killed, details about the statistics of these vicious hate crimes over the last several years, and a list of actions we can take to get this horror to stop.

The report is titled A Time to Act: Fatal Violence Against Transgender People in America in 2017.

“There is still so much to be done to combat transphobia across our country and around the world. Nowhere is that more evident than at the doorstep of the White House, where Donald Trump and Mike Pence have made discrimination against LGBTQ people, as well as so many others, a top priority. Now, more than ever, we must continue to stand with our transgender friends and family in the fight for a world free of fear, violence and discrimination,” wrote HRC President Chad Griffin and Executive Director Kylar Broadus of TPOCC.

Standing at 25, with more than a month left in the year, more transgender people have been killed this year than in any recent year. The record-setting trend tops previous records in 2016 and 2015. Of the 102 killed between 2013 and now, 86 were people of color – African Americans (75), Latinx (10), Native American (1).

The report outlines barriers and systemic discrimination that transgender people experience. They include:

  • Unresponsive and disrespectful law enforcement
  • Unemployment, job discrimination and poverty
  • Denying their identity – many states have barriers on trans people seeking to obtain identity document that accurately reflect their gender identity
  • Exlcusion from health care and social services, and
  • Intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

Attacks from governments are also addressed, including President Trump’s trans military ban, discriminatory ‘Bathroom Bills’ proposed in many state legislatures, the DOJ endorsing workplace discrimination and the use of “Religious Freedom” laws to legalize anti-LGBT+ discrimination.

There is a multipage list of actions that member of the LGBT+ community can take to stop the discrimination and hate crimes against our transgender sisters and brothers.

You can read and download the entire report here.

In remembrance of these lives lost in the United States, we offer their names.

Mesha Caldwell, 41

Sean Ryan Hake, 23

Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, 28

JoJo Striker, 23

Jaqarrius Holland, 18

Tiara Richmond, aka Keke Collier, 24

Keke Collier, 24

Chyna Gibson, 31

Ciara McElveen, 26

Alphonza Watson, 38

Chay Reed, 28

Kenneth Bostick, 59

Sherrell Faulkner, 46

Kendra Marie Adams, aka Josie Berrios, 28

Kenne McFadden, 26

Ava Le’Ray Barrin, 17

Ebony Morgan, 28

Tee Tee Dangerfield, 32

Gwynevere River Song, 26

Kiwi Herring, 30.

Kashmire Redd, 28.

Derricka Banner, 26.

Ally Lee Steinfeld, 17

Scout Schultz, 21

Stephanie Montez, 47

Candace Towns, 30

There are hundreds of names internationally. View that list here.

Copyright The Gayly – November 19, 2017 @ 4:50 p.m. CST

 

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