Honoring the lives and acknowledging the deaths of trans victims of violence
The disappearance of trans and queer identities from federal and national databases is having a terrible impact. This is especially true for missing living members of our community who might be found alive and safe. But the sadness of unnamed decedents, of those whose names are known but remain unclaimed in morgues, for those whose names are simply wrong – left behind by the individual, but weaponized to deny their identity in death.
These are the memorials I have yet to write. I’m sure some have been found safe and for that I am so grateful. Some did not die due to external violence. But I’ve already blogged about one unidentified trans woman and two trans folx whose deaths are unexplained. We learned about a trans woman who died in 2022 and no one claimed her body.
That doesn’t include all of the posts I didn’t write in 2024 and 2023 and so forth. These neighbors deserve to be acknowledged.
- Unnamed Trans Man in YouTube video
- Unidentified Black Trans Woman found in San Francisco
- Aubrey Dameron
- Shaun Lanry
- Melanie Davidson
- Gabina Leal
- Elisa Wilson
- Unnamed Trans Woman in Arizona
- Jordan Rogers
- Charlotte Fosgate
- Maria Lopez was murdered in Indio, CA
- Meka Shabazz
The two trans folx I mentioned above – Ezra Hulett and Blair Lumpkins Crabb. I can find almost no friend or neighbor or former teacher or anyone. I’m banging the drum in Upstate New York media to get someone’s attention to Ezra and in San Francisco for Blair. But it is like chasing rainbows.
That’s well over a dozen unknown stories of life and death.
If you do not believe that the unrelenting anti-trans narrative in politics, pulpits, and media has had a deleterious impact, you are a fool. If you think that won’t spill over into the lesbian and gay cisgender community, you are despicable.
Our trans neighbors are being erased from the community, LGBTQ and larger. Their identities are severed from their names, their names unknown, their bodies left to molder, and they are not even mentioned in narratives about their deaths.
This is barbaric. If you remain silent, you choose complicity over decency.
Show up to actively support trans folx. Donate, volunteer, attend events, contact legislators, listen, don’t turn away.
Don’t turn away.
Gavin Newsome is not a leader. Don’t betray trans kids by supporting him. Demand he do better.
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