Top Twenty Posts of 2015

best of 2015

I took a look at the most ‘popular’ posts/pages from 2015. AMPLIFY didn’t even crack the top twenty which is interesting because the individual posts do quite well. Clearly, my regular blogging is still driving most of the traffic to the website. So that’s an important lesson for me to keep in mind. And a […]

Update on the Murder of Candra Keels #SayHerName

Candra Keels

Domestic violence within the LGBTQ community is a taboo topic. Much like family based violence, it is something that we disregard and shoosh off to the side of the conversation around the epidemic of violence sweeping through our community, particularly among QTPOC. In January, a 20 year-old young woman of color named Candra Keels was […]

66 Year Old Trans Woman K.C. Haggard Was Murdered in Fresno on Thursday

K.C. Haggard

K.C. Haggard was on the street, reportedly during a routine nocturnal walk around her neighborhood, when she was brutally stabbed and left to die in the street. She was 66 and newly out. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) has learned of the homicide of K.C. Haggard, a transgender woman who was stabbed to […]

India Clarke is Tenth Trans Woman of Color Murdered #SayHerName

India Clarke

Horrifying news out of Tampa – 25 years old India Clarke was found murdered near her parents’ home early this morning. From Transgriot: 25 year old India Clarke’s body was found after the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department received a phone call at 9 AM EDT this morning from an employee at the University Area Community […]

Mercedes Williamson 17 Year Old Trans Woman Murdered in Alabama

Mercedes Williamson

17. 17 is still a girl, a young woman. This 17 year old was an aspiring cosmetologist with people who cared about her. Yet at 17, Mercedes Williamson joins the ranks of trans women who have been murdered in the United States. According to The Advocate, Mercedes was estranged from her family and living with […]

Kristina Grant Infiniti, 47, is 11th QTPOC To Be Killed in 2015

Kristina Grant Infiniti

A 47-year-old trans woman, Kristina Grant Infiniti (also known as Kristina Gomez Reinwald) was found murdered on Sunday, February 15, 2015.  Kristina was a Latina with Cuban heritage. The police according to a NBC6 report are now calling the case a homicide. Note that this news report uses Kristina’s old name. Police didn’t find any sign […]

Nine QTPOC Killed Nationwide During First 41 Days of 2015

I was at a conference last weekend with 800+ progressives folks from across Pennsylvania. I repeatedly tweeted about the disappearance of Andre Gray, asking my colleagues to share the information. About five did. Then I stood up during the LGBTQ panel to speak his name and ask again for acknowledgement. No one shared it. Another […]

Penny Proud of New Orleans is Fifth Trans Woman of Color Killed in 2015

Penny Proud

This time of year, Mardi Gras and New Orleans are in my mind – I lived in Louisiana for three years in the early nineties. I was terribly saddened (and angry) to learn that another trans sister of color has lost her life to violence in New Orleans. Earlier today, police found the body of […]

Another QTPOC Murder Underscores Epidemic of Violence

Transgender Candle

I saw a tweet when I slipped into my car after some grocery shopping. It was impossible, I thought to myself, that another transgender sibling was dead. Not again. I just wrote about two trans sisters who had been murdered as well as the murder of a lesbian and the death of a 51 year […]

Candra Keels, 20 Year Old Queer Woman of Color, Murdered in Domestic Dispute

Candra Keels

This morning, the family of 20-year-old Candra Keels of Rochester, NY are burying their loved one who was murdered allegedly at the hands of her girlfriend. Officers responded to 15 Denver Street about 3 A.M. for the report of a fight. There they found Candra Keels with a stab wound to her torso area. Keels […]