Living on Borrowed Time: 6 Young Trans Women of Color Have Been Murdered in America This Year

Living on Borrowed Time: 6 Young Trans Women of Color Have Been Murdered in America This Year

Trans woman activist Elle Hearns declares, "You can't kill us all"
By Terrell Jermaine Starr / AlterNet

When Kristina Gomez Reinwald was found dead in her Miami home on February 15, she became the sixth trans woman of color to be murdered in 2015. The average age of the women who have been killed so far is 31 years old, according to an estimate based on news reports of the women’s ages.

LaSaia Wade, an African-American trans woman and activist, is just 27 years old. “I cry every time I hear about it,” Wade, who runs the nonprofit Trans Justice Project in Nashville, Tenn., told AlterNet. “It angers me every time I hear about it. I don’t know who I am going to talk to about it other than my sisters and brothers about the situations that are happening because society sees us as something that should not have been born.”

Two of her trans female friends, Alejandra Leos, a Latina, and Gizzy Fowler, an African American, were killed last year in her home state of Tennessee. Citing a widely quoted statistic, Wade said, “The average age of a trans woman is 35. If I live to be that old, I’m lucky.”  

Wade and other trans women activists who spoke with AlterNet say the recent murders reveal systemic failures at government and community levels that have pushed trans women—especially women of color—to the margins of society. Employment discrimination, the threat of transphobic violence and lack of government resources are all barriers that keep transgender women from living normal lives.

If a trans woman is assaulted, she is less likely to seek help from law enforcement. According to a 2014 report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, trans women are six times more likely to experience violence from police compared to overall survivors.

... "...It appears that a lot of domestic violence-related incidents are going on as well. So I think that highlights the problem of domestic violence for transgender people in general and transgender women, in particular.”

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... Any shelter that takes VAWA money can’t turn away a transgender person. Still, there have been complaints from trans women who have claimed they were denied equal access at shelters. ...

Wade says trans women also face isolation within the LGBT community because even many gay people do not recognize the “T” in the acronym.

"It’s really difficult,” she said. “I have a couple of gay friends who came up to me and said, ‘She should never be involved in the LBG because it’s not a mental thing, it’s a body thing.’ It bothers me because I believe a lot of gay people think this but they don’t realize and acknowledge that we started this movement and we get forgotten about.”

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The downside to increased media attention for crimes against trans women is consistent misgendering of the victims. ...

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http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/living-borrowed-time-6-young-trans-women-color-have-been-murdered-america-year?akid=12826.1924881.JokS5t&rd=1&src=newsletter1032415&t=21
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