Killings of transgender women have reached an alarming high
Officials: At least 22 such slayings reported this year
For a few transgender Americans, this has been a year of glamour and fame. For many others, 2015 has been fraught with danger, violence and grief.
While Caitlyn Jenner made the cover of Vanity Fair and Laverne Cox prospered as a popular actress, other transgender women have become homicide victims at an alarming rate. By the count of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, there have been 22 killings so far this year of transgender or gender-nonconforming people — including 19 black or Latina transgender women.
The toll compares with 12 last year and 13 in 2013 and is the highest since advocacy groups began such tallies a decade ago.
“Most Americans think it’s been an amazing year for transgender rights,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “But for the transgender community, it’s been one of the most traumatic years on record.”
Death by death, the details are horrific. Kiesha Jenkins was beaten and shot dead by a cluster of assailants in Philadelphia. Tamara Dominguez was run over multiple times and left to die on a Kansas City street. Police said the most recent victim, Zella Ziona, was fatally shot in Gaithersburg, Md., last month by a boyfriend embarrassed that Ziona showed up in the presence of some of his other friends.
“She was just amazing,” a friend, Barbie Johnson, told NBC Washington the day after the killing. “When Zella’s around, there’s not a single frown in the room.”
There’s no question that transphobia has fueled many of the killings, yet activists and social-service professionals say there are multiple factors that make transgender women of color vulnerable. They have documented that numerous victims were killed by intimate partners, and many were murdered while engaging in prostitution.
“For many of these women, it’s chronic unemployment or participation in survival sex work,” said Louis Graham, a professor of community health education at the University of Massachusetts who has studied the experiences of black transgender women.
Many are beset by homelessness and economic desperation, sometimes ending out in coercive and violent relationships, Graham said.
Chase Strangio, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT Rights Project, said that for many perpetrators of the violence, “there’s a sense of transgender people being less than human.” ‘No other choice’
Among those killed in Detroit was Ashton O’Hara, whose body was found in a field in July with stab wounds. O’Hara was described by friends as “gender-fluid,” embracing feminine attributes but also comfortable being addressed with male pro- nouns.
His mother, Rebecca O’Hara, said she noticed the tendencies while Ashton was still a toddler.
“How could you be against a person for being happy about who they are?” she asked during a telephone interview.
She marveled at Ashton’s skills as a hairdresser and makeup artist, yet worried about potential nastiness from others. As he grew older, her fears deepened.
“For years, I was afraid I was going to get that phone call, telling me he’s hurt or dead,” she said. “He’d say, ‘I’ll be all right. Nothing will happen.’”
Police arrested a 37-yearold man and charged him with Ashton O’Hara’s murder; the case is pending.
The other victim in Detroit this year was 20-yearold Amber Monroe, shot dead in an area frequented by transgender prostitutes. A friend, transgender-rights activist Julisa Abad, said Monroe had twice previously been wounded by gunshots in that area.
“To go back to that same place, life has to feel like you have no other choice,” said Abad, 31, who described Monroe as a funny, outspoken person who “always defended herself. She was very good at living her truth and demanding respect.”
In the wake of Monroe’s slaying, Detroit police held an “LGBT community chat” in an effort to build trust.
“We need information, and we know that the streets talk,” said Police Chief James Craig. “The only way we’re going to get information is if we have a
strong relationship.” ‘Survival economies’
The high death toll this year may stem in part from greater awareness of anti-transgender violence, and more vigorous efforts by activists and police to identify homicide cases in which this was a factor.
“The violence has been going on for a long time,” said Chai Jindasurat of the New York City Anti-Violence Project. “We’re now able to identify and document and report on it better.”
On Tuesday, amid a week of nationwide events remembering transgender victims, the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus held the first-ever hearing in Congress on anti-transgender violence. Among those testifying about the specter of violence were two transgender women — LaLa Zannell and Joanna Cifredo.
Zannell said problems for many transgender women begin in school where bullying prompts them to drop out, leading to unemployment that drives them into high-risk “survival economies.”
Two national advocacy groups — the Human Rights Campaign and the Trans People of Color Coalition — recently issued a report on “the epidemic of violence” against transgender people, notably black and Latina transgender women. The report called for passage of a federal nondiscrimination act that covers transgender people, as well as initiatives to improve their options regarding health care, emergency housing, employment and education.