Sacoya also deserves Gabby Petito attention
I knew every rock would be overturned to find Gabby Petito the moment I first saw her beautiful face on my computer screen.
In the same way, I knew beautiful Sacoya's disappearance would not garner a fraction of the attention as Gabby's did before she was tragically found dead Sept. 19 in Teton County, Wyoming.
Gabby is white, 5 feet 5 inches tall and 110 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Sacoya is Black, 5 feet 5 inches tall and 145 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.
Gabby's family received a last text from her on Aug. 30.
Sacoya was last seen here in Columbus the following day around Howey Road and Weldon Avenue. Both are loved.
Both were searched for, but Sacoya's story will not generate the public outcry or grab the national and international headlines Gabby's did.
Sadly, the disappearance of Sacoya, a Black transgender woman, has barely gotten attention even in her own city.
I would like to say Gabby's disappearance gained so much attention because there was so much audio and video of her cross-country trip with her fiancé, Brian Christopher Laundrie.
That's not the only reason and this is not the first time this discussion has come up.
You can probably rattle off a long list of gorgeous, young white women who have tragically gone missing: Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy, Natalee Holloway...
Do you remember Latoyia Figueroa?
The Black and Hispanic Pennsylvania resident was pregnant when she went missing around the same time Holloway vanished in 2005 in Aruba.
Gabby fit the All-american girl stereotype, but stereotypes are meant to be shattered. Sacoya is America's girl, too.
I am glad rocks were overturned to find Gabby and I hope Laundrie is located soon, but there are so many other missing, sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers that deserve attention that we never hear about.
They are Black, white, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, LGBTQ, young and old, men and boys.
Most of the 600,0000 people reported missing each year return on their own — and I hope that is what happens in Sacoya's case. Some are never found.
On December 31, 2020, the FBI'S National Crime Information Center contained nearly 87,500 active missing person records.
Forty-four percent of the missing person records were for people under age 21.
A disproportionate number of those reported missing each year are Black.
Black people — appropriately 13 percent of the nation's population — made up nearly 40 percent of the people reported missing in 2020, according to the Black and Missing Foundation, a nonprofit based in Maryland.
Add to this the fact that Sacoya is a trans black woman.
In June, the Human Rights Campaign reported that 2021 was on track to be one of the deadliest years since 2013 for transgender and gender nonconforming people in the US.
They tracked 28 killings.
At the same point in 2020, there were 13 killings of transgender or gender non-conforming people. Most of the victims were Latin or Black women.
reported that 2021 was on track to be one of the deadliest years since 2013 for transgender and gender non-conforming people in the US.
They tracked 28 killings.
At the same point in 2020, there were 13 killings of transgender or gender non-conforming people. Most of the victims were Latin or Black women.
The Petito family recently announced the Gabby Petito Foundation to help find other who have gone missing.
“I want to ask everyone to help all of the people who are missing and need help,” Petito's father, Joe, said Tuesday. “It's on all of you, everyone that's in this room to do that. And if you don't do that to other people who are missing, that's a shame because it's not just Gabby that deserves that.”
That includes Sacoya.
Let's hope she is reunited with her loved one soon. Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch’s opinion and community engagement editor.
@1Ameliarobinson on Twitter.