Today is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, where the trans communities remember those of us who died violently almost 40 this year. Given the relative sizes of the LGB and T communities, it’s probably comparable to 400 gays and lesbians being killed annually. (Huuuullo… Mike Huckabee.) Not all identified themselves as trans — i.e. a transsexual, crossdresser, transvestite, drag queen/king, gender queer, etc. The best known of the victims — Lawrence King — may have been on his way to growing to be a trans woman, or as an femmy gay man. But thanks to his killer, we’ll never know. But those who hate us don’t bother to draw the distinctions that those of within the LGBT communities can be so insistent on making.
Some of them died in “classic” hate crimes. Others died as a result transphobia and homophobia that put them at risk — such as those who ended up as sex workers because they couldn’t find work elsewhere — it’s legal to fire someone for being LGBT in 31 states. In some cases, hate crime charges could not be filed, since LGBT are excluded from them in a number of states.
But words fail me, so I’ll let the dead speak for themselves.
Elly “Sayep” Susanna
Location: Jl. Latuharhari, Central Jakarta, Indonesia
Cause of Death: During a police raid, I was pushed into a river by police, who threw stones at me until I drowned.
Date of Death: November 2007
Brandon Griffin
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Cause of Death: I was 17 when I shot several times and found lying face down in the bushes. Police say the alleged killer was angry because he believed I was telling people that he slept with transsexuals.
Date of Death: November 8, 2007
Thanawoot Wiryananon
Location: Patong, Thailand
Cause of Death: I was strangled, stabbed in the neck, and hit in the head with a blunt object, and then dumped in the woods.
Date of Death: November 16 2007
Sally (Salvador) Camatoy
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Cause of Death: I was a Filipina transsexual who performed in drag shows, and featured in the documentary “Paper Dolls.” I was found dead in the street with my head bashed in.
Date of Death: November 19, 2007
Kellie Telesford
Location: Thornton Heath, UK
Cause of Death: I was strangled with my own scarf, which was so tight around my neck that it needed to be cut off. My accused killer Shanniel Hyatt, was acquitted — despite being the only person seen entering and leaving my apartment, and having stolen some my possessions.
Date of Death: November 21, 2007
Brian McGlothin
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Cause of Death: I was 25 and dressed as a woman when I shot in the head with an automatic rifle by Antonio Williams who is serving a six year sentence after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Date of Death: December 23, 2007
Gabriela Alejandra Albornoz
Location: Santiago, Chile
Cause of Death: I was attacked and stabbed. Police suspect a group of neo-Nazis were responsible.
Date of Death: December 28, 2007
Patrick Murphy
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Cause of Death: I was a drag performer and icon in the local LGBT communities. I was 39 when I was shot several times in the head and found dressed in women’s clothes.
Date of Death: January 8, 2008
Stacy Brown
Location: Baltimore, MD
Cause of Death: I was 30 when I was shot in the head
Date of Death: January 8, 2008
Adolphus Simmons
Location: Charleston, SC
Cause of Death: I was 18 when I was shot to death
Date of Death: January 21, 2008
Fedra
Location: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Cause of Death: I was a “known transvestite” in my 20s when I found lying in an alley in a pool of blood, my cause of death was not reported.
Date of Death: January 22, 2008
Ashley Sweeney
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Cause of Death: I was shot in the back of the head and dumped on a vacant lot. In a press release I was described only as a young transgender woman.
Date of Death: February 4, 2008
Sanesha (Talib) Stewart
Location: Bronx, NY
Cause of Death: I was 25 when stabbed to death. In reporting my murder, the New Yorker Daily News referred to me using masculine pronouns under the headline: “Fooled john stabbed Bronx tranny” — despite any actual evidence that I was a sex worker and denials from my neighbors that I engaged it.
Date of Death: February 10, 2008
Lawrence King
Location: Oxnard, California
Cause of Death: I was 15 when shot twice in the back of the head by a classmate because I liked to wear girl’s shoes and clothes, called myself Leticia at times, and had a crush on him.
Date of Death: February 12, 2008
Cameron McWillams
Location: Doncaster, England
Cause of Death: I was 10 when I hung myself after telling my mother that I wanted to be a girl. I had been bullied in school after having been caught wearing girl’s clothing.
Date of Death: February 18, 2008
Note: 11-year-old Cameron MacDonald died that same month in what police described as a copy-cat suicide. There was no indication of whether MacDonald was LGBT.
Simmie “Chris/Beyonce” Williams Jr.
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Cause of Death: I was 17 when I shot to death and found wearing women’s clothing.
Date of Death: February 22, 2008
Luna (no last name reported)
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Cause of Death: I was brutally beaten to death and tossed into a dumpster.
Date of Death: March 15, 2008
Karrie Bone
Location: Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
Cause of Disappearance: I was a 36-year-old sex worker who got into a semi-trailer and was never seen again.
Date of Disappearance: March, 2008
Lloyd Nixon
Location: West Palm Beach, Florida
Cause of Death: I was 45 when I was beaten to death with a brick while dressed as a woman.
Date of Death: April 16, 2008
Felicia Melton-Smyth
Location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Cause of Death: I was an HIV activist on vacation from Wisconsin when I was brutally stabbed to death by Francisco Javier Hollos, who claimed he killed me because I would not pay for sex.
Date of Death: May 26, 2008
Silvana (Valjdet) Berisha
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Cause of Death: I was 19 when I was stabbed to death in my home.
Date of Death: June 24, 2008
Ebony (Rodney) Whitaker
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Cause of Death: I was 20 when I was shot to death while wearing women’s clothing.
Date of Death:July 1, 2008
Rosa Pazos
Location: Sevilla, Spain
Cause of Death: I was found in her apartment, stabbed in the throat. In the months before my death, I had demonstrated daily outside the local courthouse protesting the “police mafia” in the city.
Date of Death: July 11, 2008
Juan Carlos Aucalle Coronel
Location: Lombardi, Italy
Cause of Death I was 35 when I was severely beaten causing fractures to my head and face before being run over by a car.
Date of Death July 14, 2008
Angie Zapata
Location: Greeley, Colorado
Cause of Death: I was 18 when I was found in her home with my head beaten in with a fire extinguisher. Alan Ray Andrade, who told his girlfriend that “I killed it” and that “gay things need die” has been charged in my murder. His defense attorney argued that Andrade was provoked by discovering Zapata was biologically male and because Zapata smiled at him.
Date of Death: July 17, 2008
Jaylynn L. Namauu
Location: Makiki Honolulu, Hawaii
Cause of Death: I was 35 when I was stabbed to death
Date of Death: July 17, 2008
Samantha Rangel Brandau
Location: Milan, Italy
Cause of Death: I was 30 when I was beaten, gang raped and stabbed numerous times before being left for dead.
Date of Death: July 29, 2008
Nakhia (Nikki) Williams
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Cause of Death: I was 29 when I was shot and left by a dumpster next to my home. Newspaper accounts used masculine pronouns to refer to me, even though I had been living as a woman.
Date of Death: August 20, 2008
Ruby Molina
Location: Sacramento, California
Cause of Death: I was 22 when my naked body was found floating in the America River. Police say my drowning occured under “definitely suspicious” circumstances. Newspaper accounts used masculine pronouns to refer to me.
Date of Death: September 21, 2008
Krissy “Lil’ Romeo” Pye
Location: Browns Plain, Australia
Cause of Death: I was a 25-year-old popular drag king when I was stabbed multiple times during a robbery.
Date of Death: August 24, 2008
Aimee Wilcoxson
Location: Aurora, Colorado
Cause of Death: Undetermined (police have yet to reveal cause)
Date of Death: November 3, 2008
Aimee was found dead in her bed. She was 34 years old.
Duanna Johnson
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Cause of Death: I was 42 when I was shot “execution style” and found dead in the middle of the street. At the time I was suing the Memphis police department for a videotaped incident in which I was beaten while in police custody. I had been living in a house without water or power after they had been shut off because I was unable to pay the bills.
Date of Death: November 9, 2008
Dilek Ince
Location: Ankara, Turkey
Cause of Death: I was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun. I had testified against the suspects who were accused of a series of attacks against transvestites and transsexuals living in Eryaman neighborhood of Ankara, forcing them to flee the area. These suspects were subsequently set free by the court a few weeks before my death.
Date of Death: November 11, 2008
Teish (Moses) Cannon
Location: Syracuse, New York
Cause of Death: I was 22 when I was shot point blank with a rifle while sitting in a car with my brother, who was wounded. Police accuse my murder of getting the gun after “making profane and vulgar comments in regard to the sexual preference of the two victims.” News accounts initially described me as a gay man, my family telling them that I lived as a woman.
Date of Death: November 14, 2008
Ali
Location:Iraq
Cause of Death: After an interrogation, which police recorded on their cell phones for their amusement, I was executed for living as a woman. I had been living in a safe house after receiving death threats.
Date of Death: 2008, Month is Unknown
2 other Iraqi trans woman, names unknown
Location:Iraq
Cause of Death: We were executed at the same time as Ali. Seven gay men were also executed.
Date of Death: 2008, Month is Unknown
Also worth noting… On August 18, 2008 a Philadelphia judge acquitted Terron Oates of murdering of Alexis King and instead convicted him of voluntary manslaughter, apparently accepting his “trans panic” defense, i.e. he was provoked by discovering that King was biologically male (even though the area he picked up King was a known district for transsexual prostitutes). Oates defense attorney argued that King was shot while fighting Oates for his gun — even though she was shot in the back and side. The lesser charge meant Oates could be release after only 30 days because of credit for time served. Also, in Yuma, AZ the killer of Amancio Morales plea bargained down an attempted manslaughter charge. Morales, was a 23-year-old female impersonator, who was dressed in as a women when he was killed by what police called “violent trauma” from numerous stab wounds and was found floating in the river. Court records said Morales killer became enraged when he realized the Morales was biologically male.
Also, a number trans people were attacked in apparent hate crimes, including: an unnamed “man dressed as a woman” in Miami was the victim of a drive-by shooting on Sept. 29. He survive the attack; in Sacramento on May 27, a man described by police as a skinhead attacked two transgender homeless people, stabbing one of them.
Finally, while this is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, let us also remember our LGB brothers and sisters who have been beaten and killed during the past year. This includes 37-year-old Randolph Hunter who was brutally beaten to death in Washington D.C. and several others. (My apologies for not having a complete list of LGB victims.)