In All This Hate And Violence We Are The Easy Targets

We are setting records… unfortunately it is our murders that are setting records.

A Most Deadly Year: Black Transgender Americans Are Being Killed at an Alarming Rate

Data from the FBI and UCLA’s Williams Institute shows that LGBTQ Americans are more than twice as likely to be killed in the United States

Boston 19

By Chase Cain

July 29, 2020

Transgender people have more visibility in America than ever before, but that visibility has come at a deadly cost in 2020.

Through the month of July, at least 22 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been killed in the United States. That puts 2020 on track to be the most deadly year for the trans community since the Human Rights Campaign began tracking violence against them.

The uptick in murders has taken the lives of young, mostly Black transgender people from Philadelphia and Chicago to Miami and Dallas. It also comes as the “Black Trans Lives Matter” movement has gained momentum. Massive rallies in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. drew diverse crowds, hoping to bring attention to the epidemic of violence against the trans community.

And a lot of times those murders go unsolved.

2 months later, still no answers for family of transgender man murdered in Akron

News 5 Cleveland

By: Emily Hamilton

July 26, 2020

AKRON, Ohio — Nearly two months after the murder of a transgender man in Akron, police still have no leads.

In mid-June, Brian Powers was found dead from a gunshot wound on the sidewalk of a church near the University of Akron.

Nearly every waking moment, Vivian Powers-Smith said she thinks back to the last time she saw her little brother the week before he died.

“He was very proud of who he was,” Powers-Smith said. “Never ashamed of who he was and I think that’s a lot.”

[…]

His older sister said she can’t help but wonder if his zest for life and transgender identity made him a target for hatred.

[…]

“They never get justice. It’s never solved,” Powers-Smith said. “It’s like people treat them like they’re just expendable.”

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Transgender Americans are being murdered: Does anyone care? | Opinion

Florida Today

By Gina Duncan Your Turn

July 28, 2020

In the age of the coronavirus global pandemic, another pandemic quietly continues to sweep our nation with deadly consistency: the killing of transgender Americans.

For decades, more than 25 transgender people have been murdered with impunity yearly in the country. Most at risk are Black trans women. These murders are dismissed or ignored by the general population and a majority of state and federal lawmakers.

In 2018, Florida was the epicenter of trans murders. The state led the nation in these horrific crimes as five Black trans women were murdered in Jacksonville, Orlando and Sarasota. So far, in the last three years, at least eight transgender or non-binary identifying Floridians have been killed.

In the past month alone, a total of five Black transgender women —  Brayla Stone, Merci Mack, Shaki Peters, Draya McCarty, and Floridian Bree Black — have been found dead in four states, bringing the national death toll to at least seven since the beginning of June, a month meant to be a celebration for the LGBTQ community across the country.

Despite numerous policy and protocol resources published by state and national LGBTQ advocacy groups and comprehensive guidance published by the Department of Justice, law enforcement consistently “dead-names” (the use of a transgender person’s legal name that is no longer used by the person) and misgenders the victims, demeaning them in death and impeding their own investigations.

“It’s like people treat them like they’re just expendable.”