[Photo (above):
Amia
Tyrae Berryman, 28, was killed in Baton Rouge in March. Friends on
social media said she worked in home health care and had a "big heart."]
It's impossible to know an exact count. Federal statistics are limited. There's also "serious under-reporting," according to the Williams Institute, a public policy think tank focused on sexual orientation and gender identity issues.
Another issue is that police, media and even family members will often misgender the victims, describing the person using the name and gender with which they did not identify. Of the 28 victims CNN found, the majority were misgendered initially, and in some cases, police and media continue to do so.
[Photo (above):
Viccky
Gutierrez, 33, was active in the trans community in LA, an immigrant
from Honduras, friends who set up a crowdfunding page to raise money for
her funeral called her a "beautiful soul who was really nice to
everyone." She was killed in January.]
It
was the second year in a row that more than two dozen members of the
trans community were known to have been killed; 2017 was the deadliest
on record. At least 29 transgender people were killed in 2017, according
to the Human Rights Campaign.
By the group's calculations, there have been 128 killings of trans
people in 87 cities across 32 states since 2013, of whom 80% were people
of color.
All but one of the victims in 2018 were trans women, and all but one were people of color. That trend has been consistent for years.
[Photo (above):
Tydi
Dansbury, 37, was shot and killed in Baltimore in November, according
to HRC. The local community held a vigil in her honor. Her case remains
open.]
"Transgender
people, unfortunately, are at risk of violence everywhere," said
Beverly Tillery, program executive director with the New York City Anti-Violence Project whose National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs has been tracking violence against the LGBTQ community since 1996.
The LGBTQ community is much more likely to be violently attacked than any other minority group in the United States, says the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy nonprofit that specializes in civil rights and public interest litigation. The transgender community appears especially vulnerable.
[Photo (above):
Sasha
Wall, 29, was killed in April. She lived in small town South Carolina.
Police found her shot in a car that had been running for two hours,
right in the roadway and people were just going around it, a sheriff
told CNN affiliate station WSOC. ]
"When
there is a mix of misogyny, transphobia and racism, people who live in
the intersection of multiple identities, the violence they face can be
inflamed by the multiplying prejudices," said Sarah McBride,
national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign and author of
"Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans
Equality."
"While there certainly
are examples of individuals killed by people they know, including
partners, many of the transgender people who have been killed are
murdered by almost complete strangers," McBride said. "More people need
to understand this epidemic of violence targeting minority people in
this country, including transgender people, is hate-based and a
byproduct of existing prejudice inflamed by politicians all too eager to
appeal to the darker undercurrent of society."
Eighteen
of these known victims were shot. Four were stabbed. The homes of two
victims were set on fire while they were still in them. Four were beaten
to death.
Eighteen of the cases remain unsolved.
[Photo (above):
Vontashia Bell, 18, is thought to be the youngest transgender victims killed in 2018.]
The victims range in age from 18 to 54. Eleven of the 28 victims were under the age of 30. Police found the youngest, Vontashia Bell,
18, lying in the street in Shreveport, Louisiana, in August, shot in
the chest and wrist. She loved video games and was a self-described
geek, according to her social media profile. Her case remains unsolved.
The
oldest victim, Keisha Wells, 54, was shot in the stomach in June. She
had a reputation for making everyone laugh and for spoiling her nieces
and nephews. She was the second trans woman killed in Cleveland in 2018,
and her case remains open.
[Photo (above):
Shantee Tucker, 30, was found shot in the back in Philadelphia in September.]
On September 5, police found Shantee Tucker shot
in the back along Old York Road in Philadelphia. According her Facebook
memory page, she had just celebrated her 30th birthday. Months after
she died, friends continue to post photos and messages of grief. The
images show a joyful woman dancing and posing with friends. Her case
remains open.
[Photo (above):
Diamond Stephens killing remains unsolved.]
Diamond Stephens,
39, was shot in the back of the head, killed while driving home to get
ready for work in Meridian, Mississippi, in June, according to CNN affiliate WTOK. Police had been called to the scene of a van crash and found her inside. Her case also remains unsolved.
The most recent victim, Kelly Stough,
who also went by the name Keanna Mattel, 36, sang in her church choir
in Detroit and was an aspiring fashion designer. In 2015, she spoke out
against the way police handled violence against the transgender
community. Police found her shot to death December 7. The prosecutor's
office said it will present evidence that the murder was a hate crime
against transgender people. Police arrested a local minister, Albert Weathers. Weathers' lawyer told local television affiliates that his client maintains his innocence. Is a serial killer in Florida targeting trans women?
Five
trans women were killed in Florida in 2018, according to Equality
Florida. Three victims were in Jacksonville, one in Orlando and one in
North Port.
"Each one was somewhat
similar: All were trans women of color, in their 20s to mid-30s. And
there were some patterns: Each was shot, usually in the early hours of
the morning, and their bodies were left in isolated areas to be found
the next day," said Gina Duncan, Equality Florida's
director of transgender equality. Some community members remain scared
that there someone is targeting transgender women. "While there are
similarities, law enforcement in Orlando and Jacksonville continue to
insist that this is not a serial killer."
[Photo (above):
Celine Walker was killed in February. The case remains an open investigation.]
"The cycle of violence against the community has become too normalized," said Nadine Smith,
chief executive officer of Equality Florida. "We go through the same
cycle of horror, anger, grief, vigil, dehumanizing of the victim, and
then the next one happens, and no one is shocked. We should be shocked.
These should be rare and seen as a community-wide problem." Vulnerable to violence
"Trans people face an alarming rate of violence in general," said Jody Herman, who worked on the 2015 US Transgender Survey and now works with the Williams Institute. The survey found that violence is not confined to murder.
[Photo (above):
Sasha
Garden, 27, originally from Wisconsin, was found dead in July in
Orlando with signs of trauma, according to HRC. She was remembered as a
"firecracker" and a talented and aspiring hair stylist.]
Half
of the nearly 28,000 transgender people surveyed experienced some form
of intimate partner violence. At least 10% experienced violence at the
hands of family members after they told them they were transgender, and
9% said they had been physically attacked for being transgender in the
year before they took the survey; 10% were sexually assaulted in the
same time period.
The root of instability
"We
are oftentimes rejected by family. Turned away by the homeless shelter.
Can't get jobs. Are not accepted at school or at church," said the
Transgender Law Center's Noyola. "We remain vulnerable and often remain
in survival mode. Too many people want to cause harm and think they will
get away with it."
When people are denied equal opportunity for justice, jobs, education and health care, studies show, they are at a much higher risk for violence.
[Photo (above):
Antash'a
English, 38, was shot to death in Jacksonville in June. Friends told
local media she was a loyal and unapologetic person. She performed
regularly at a local nightclub, InCahoots.]
For
example, 30% of transgender employees report that they have been fired,
denied a promotion or mistreated at work due to their gender identity,
according to the 2015 Transgender Survey. Their unemployment rate is
three times higher for transgender people than the general population,
and 42% report having been homeless at some point -- more than five
times the rate of the general population.
Without
jobs, some transgender people have to turn to the "underground
economy." Sex workers are three times more likely to experience physical
or sexual violence, studies show. The Human Rights Campaign estimates that one in three transgender victims of fatal violence was engaged in sex work. Hatred hurts
FBI statistics show that hate crimes
against all groups in 2017 were up 17% from the previous year, and 106
of those incidents targeted transgender people. That's a 1% increase
from the year before, according to the Human Rights Campaign,
but those numbers probably don't reflect the actual crimes. FBI
statistics rely on reporting from local law enforcement, and in addition
to the misgendering of victims, many victims avoid reporting incidents.
The 2015 transgender survey found that 67% of black transgender
respondents feel "somewhat" or "very uncomfortable" asking police for
help.
[Photo (above):
Tonya
Harvey, 35, was killed in February. Friends in Facebook posts said she
was "beautiful" and "strong," and "everything she put her mind to she
did it with conviction."]
Activists say anti-trans rhetoric stigmatizes the community and raises the risk of violence. There were 21 bills to restrict trans rights introduced in 10 states in 2018, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. At the national level, the Trump administration suggested several ways in which it intended to roll back Obama-era protections.]
Tillery,
of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, feels that Trump has
created a "really scary time for the whole LGBTQ community."
"Every
week, there is another news event that is equally triggering and
terrifying, that leaves people not knowing where they can be safe. They
are left with an uncertain future in this country," Tillery said. "When
you dehumanize people and try to erase them completely from existence,
it emboldens those who hate this community, and no one is really
stopping them, aside from the community rising up."
The community rises
The Fair Michigan Justice Project
is working on the case involving the December killing of Mattel in
Detroit. The program is a collaborative project with the prosecutor's
office. It helps to investigate and prosecute hate crimes and helps
transgender crime survivors navigate the criminal process. The group
also created guidelines for police and prosecutor interaction with
transgender crime victims.
"Detroit
made this program because too many people have been raped and murdered,
and none of those were investigated or solved. There were so many times
victims were misgendered or shown a lack of respect," said Julisa Abad,
the program's director of transgender outreach and advocacy. "If people
in authority don't show respect, my community is not going to report a
crime, and in turn, violent hate crime continues. When you know you will
have a prosecutor that will fight for you, the system works."
[Photo (above):
Nino
Fortson, 36, was killed in Atlanta in May. Fortson was an active member
of the ballroom community and had children, according to local media.]
Equality Florida put its transgender inclusion initiative to work in Jacksonville. After the third slaying there, the community requested a town hall with law enforcement.
"The
community was fearful of their lives and concerned that they were not
being adequately protected and treated as equal citizens," Duncan said.
The sheriff's office created a task force and named an LGBTQ community
liaison. Equality Florida has also been training law enforcement on how
to better work with the community.
"It's
important to determine how we can get at the root cause of this and
what is putting our community in harms way," Duncan said. "We definitely
saw a gap in the cultural competency of law enforcement. Work with the
community has improved matters, but there's still much work to be done."
[Photo (above):
Phylicia Mitchell, 45, died in Cleveland in February. She and a partner had been together 30 years, according to the Advocate.]
"There hasn't been enough general outrage about the number of murders of our community," Duncan said.
The Human Rights Campaign will continue to encourage Congress to pass the Equality Act,
which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in
employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal
funding, credit and the jury system.
"We
need to address the root factors. Being likely to face violence has a
direct relationship to the problems the transgender community has with
employment, housing and other places where there is discrimination," the
campaign's McBride said.
[Photo (above):
London
Moore, 20, was killed in North Port, Florida in September. Friends
remembered Moore as "hillarous," someone who made everyone laugh
constantly, according to HRC.]
Tillery said violence has galvanized the community.
"There
is more mobilization happening, and trans folks are finding each other
and working together," Tillery said. "The community is resilient, and we
see grass-roots efforts like groups that are literally going
door-to-door checking on people. We are at a place right now where you
could be on your way to work and not know whether you are going to come
back."
Behind these efforts, death remains a motivator.
"In
of the first community spaces where we started a program for trans
Latinas, at the heart of it, we have an altar. And on it are all our
community members we've lost," Noyola said. "We keep that in the middle
of our space as a reminder of what is at stake and why we must continue
doing this important work."