Transphobia is an elusive serial killer

Transphobia is a serial killer. An elusive and insidious murderer. An attacker that’s terrorized trans people for decades.

This past week marked the 12th anniversary of Angie Zapata’s murder. She was a young Latina living in Greeley who was murdered 19 days before her 19th birthday. Zapata was a loving aunt, sister and daughter. A woman who deserved to grow into a mother, lover, or wife if she chose. She deserved to chase her wildest dreams. But a transphobic man robbed her of that.

Black and brown trans women often face the deadliest effects of transphobia. In the past two weeks, three Black transgender women have been killed in the U.S.: Brayla Stone in Arkansas, Shakie Peters in Louisiana, and Bree Black in Florida. The National Anti-violence Project tracks violence and killings of LGBTQ individuals. So far this year, 21 trans and gender non-binary people have been killed. That’s six deaths away from last year’s entire tally.

We say their names to remember and to honor their existence. Angie was a year younger than me and was a friend of a friend. Chances are high we shared a sweaty dance floor as teens on a Thursday night at Tracks, a Denver gay nightclub.

It seems young trans and non-binary people can’t dodge this violence. It comes from bullying in schools, street harassment and at times hate waiting at home.

Zoraida ‘Ale’ Reyes was an activist for immigrants in Santa Ana, Calif. She was beloved by her community and adored by her family. In 2014, a man choked her to death during a sexual encounter.

A few years before her death, Ale spent a summer in Denver as an intern for a community-based group. She and my wife became friends. They talked, celebrated and danced into the morning in my living room years before I lived in this house. Now every June my wife mourns her friend.

If someone can’t love trans women, leave them alone. They deserve love not death.

Those responsible for children who might be trans, gender non-binary or two-spirit must love them. Remember they don’t suffer from who they are; they suffer from callous transphobic people. Accept trans children and grandchildren so they may grow to be brave and confident.

Let’s check the people around us who display transphobic behaviors. Every unchecked joke and putdown opens the way for worse behavior. It minimizes the existence of trans people. It dehumanizes non-binary and feminine people.

Fred F.C. Martinez was a Diné/navajo two-spirit 16year-old in Cortez. The high school student was bludgeoned with a rock and left to die in a canyon in 2001 by an 18-year-old man.

Martinez is one of the nation’s youngest hate crime victims. The case inspired the PBS Independent Lens documentary Twospirits. Two spirit is a term used for Indigenous people of third and fourth genders.

Martinez’s killer Shaun D. Murphy bragged about the killing. Murphy who is now in his mid-30s has been out of on supervised parole since May 2018. He only served 17 years of a 40-year sentence. State officials have reported that Murphy lives in Greeley. No other details about Murphy’s supervised release have been shared with the public for safety concerns.

What about the safety concerns of trans, two-spirit and non-binary people living in Greeley today — the same city where Zapata was killed? They and their families deserve to know if someone who has committed a hate crime lives in their neighborhood. Has Murphy been rehabilitated? Is this what justice for the Martinez family looks like? It’s time to create a hate-crime offenders list to keep LGBTQ communities safe.

Let’s expose the hate that drove Zapata’s killer, who is serving life in prison, as he struck her one last time with an extinguisher. Let’s expose the evil core of Reyes’ murderer as he drove with her corpse in his trunk for two days before dumping her half-naked body in some bushes.

The killings were preventable. If we shunned transphobia like we shun killers, these people could have lived on.

We must resolve that no level of violence can strip the names of these young ancestors from our lips. And in that way, we honor their tender smiles; their beauty and their feminine. In their deaths, like in their lives, they give us strength.