Third transgender woman killed in Puerto Rico in 8 days

The transgender and gender non-conforming community in Puerto Rico is mourning the death of another murder victim — the third in just over one week.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, 31-year-old Penelope Diaz Ramirez was killed April 13 at the Bayamon correctional complex. Her death, which was reported Monday, took place just eight days after two other women were found dead inside a charred Hyundai Elantra on April 21 in the city of Humacao.

“Never in my career have I seen so many reports of deaths of our transgender and gender non-conforming community in such a short time in one location,” Tori Cooper, HRC director of community engagement for the transgender justice initiative, said in a statement.

Five of the nine U.S. murders of transgender and gender non-conforming people in 2020 have occurred in Puerto Rico, which to local LGBTQ activist Pedro Julio Serrano, constitutes “without a doubt an epidemic” of anti-LGBTQ violence.

“The police have the obligation to disclose the status of the investigations of at least eight murders, one death without a determined cause and several attacks in which LGBTTIQ people have been injured since January 2019,” added Serrano, a spokesperson to the Coalition for the Search for Equity (CABE), an LGBTQ rights group on the island.

“Trans people deserve to live in peace, equality and freedom. Enough of so much hatred,” Ivana Fred, an activist with the group, told the La Perla del Sur newspaper.

“Transgender and gender non-conforming people, especially women of color, are too often the victims of a toxic mix of transphobia, racism and misogyny,” said Cooper.