‘The way my sibling moved in life, it was . . . take it or leave it: “This is how I am.”’
At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Rasheeda Williams finally had her moment to shine. A breakout star of “Kokomo City,” D. Smith’s acclaimed documentary about Black trans women and their experiences as sex workers, she made one of the film’s most emotional comments, one that could serve as a mantra for all trans people: “I want people to understand that it’s OK just being something you was born to be.”
That was in January. Three months later, Williams, known as “Koko Da Doll,” was shot and killed in Atlanta.
In a statement at the time of Williams’s death, Smith, who is also a Black trans woman, said, “I created ‘Kokomo City’ because I wanted to show the fun, humanized, natural side of Black trans women. I wanted to create images that didn’t show the trauma or the statistics of murder of Transgender lives. I wanted to create something fresh and inspiring. I did that. We did that! But here we are again.”
Williams was one of at least 26 trans or gendernonbinary people killed nationwide and in Puerto Rico this year. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, at least 237 transgender people have been killed since January 2017, 73 percent of them with guns. And, like Williams, 66 percent were Black women.
That’s also the case in 2023 — and every year that I’ve dedicated several columns in December to memorializing the trans and gender-nonbinary people lost to violence. Greater visibility has meant increased danger for trans people. But the pain of living a lie can outweigh the risks of dying for living their truth.
Tasiyah Woodland, 18, on March 24 in Mechanicsville, Md.: On a GoFundMe page, Lizzy Woodward remembered her niece as “high spirited and protective of those she loved,” and “never too far when you needed her. After her and her 3 siblings lost their mom, someone whom she deeply resembles and looked up [to], she got the courage to start living in her truth and started her transition, which her family accepted with open arms.”
Ashley Burton, 37, on April 11 in Atlanta: A makeup artist and hairstylist, Burton was remembered by her brother as someone who was proud of her identity. “The way my sibling moved in life, it was . . . take it or leave it. ‘This is how I am,’” Patrick Burton told an Atlanta TV station. “You can respect it or neglect it, but Ashley put it out there and let that person know. It’s not going to be a secret.”
Rasheeda Williams, 35, on April 19 in Atlanta: After “Kokomo City” became a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, Williams told a reporter, “My biggest objective is to make sure that other girls don’t have to go through what we went through . . . a lot of girls that are coming up now feel like they have to be in sex work — they don’t. We can do anything. They can be music artists, we can be actors. We can be whatever we want to be.”
Banko Paso, 24, on April 27 in San Francisco: A community-organizing intern for the Young Women’s Freedom Center, a nonprofit providing support for young women and trans youth, Paso had been involved with the organization since age 12. Julia Arroyo, the center’s co-executive director, said, “He reached my heart. He really did reach my heart. He was so funny and he was bold too, he knew what he was striving for.”
LaKendra Andrews, 26, on April 29 in Dallas: Because she was misgendered and deadnamed — referenced in official reports and accounts of her death by her birth name and gender — it would be nearly seven months before her name was added to this year’s tally of trans people who died by violent means.
Ome Gandhi, 16, on May 16 in Salt Lake City: At a vigil for Gandhi after she was killed by her father, Gandhi’s best friend and neighbor, Ella Udell, said, “I want Om to be remembered as the warm, kind, loving, intelligent, creative, funny person that [she] was.”
Ashia Davis, 34, on June 3 in Highland Park, Mich.: Shortly before her death, Davis had completed nursing school and was preparing to start a new job. Her brother, Alantae Martin, told a Detroit TV station, “She was ready to take on the world, she was ready to help, she was ready to care for others, and she was ready to give back to her community.”
Chanell Perez Ortiz, 29, on June 25 in Carolina, Puerto Rico: As a background on her Facebook page, Ortiz displayed a quote often credited to Coco Chanel, the French fashion designer: “Be who you are, not who the world wants you to be.” For Ortiz, a cosmetologist who loved fashion, those words were a signpost toward becoming the person she believed she was meant to be.