Introducing The Next Generation Of Leaders And Thinkers

Why We Must Protect Trans Lives

Written by Gage Tarlton

Brandon Teena was born on December 12, 1972. He grew up in the Pine Acre Mobile Home Park, located in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a young child, him and his sister were sexually abused by their uncle. His classmates from high school remember him as being “socially awkward.” Teena skipped school quite frequently and received failing grades, leading to his expulsion just three days before he would have graduated. In 1993, Teena moved to the Falls City region of Richardson, Nebraska. Here, he met and began dating Lana Tisdel. Their relationship was beginning to get more serious when Teena was murdered on December 31, 1993. Brandon Teena was 21 years old. Brandon Teena was a transgender male.

Rita Hester was born on November 30, 1963. Rita was described as being an “incredibly, vivacious, outgoing woman” by people that knew her. She made a living by performing overseas, which she thoroughly enjoyed. In 1998, Hester returned home just in time to enjoy Thanksgiving with her family. The Saturday after Thanksgiving in 1998, November 28th, police were called to Rita’s apartment after someone reported a disturbance. Upon arrival, they found Rita Hester in cardiac arrest, having been stabbed multiple times. She was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead soon after her arrival. Rita Hester was 34 years old. Rita Hester was a transgender, woman.

Nireah Johnson was born in 1986. On June 18, 2003, Nireah, and her friend, Brandie Coleman, were riding around with another friend when they saw a man by the name of Paul Moore. They pulled into a gas station and exchanged numbers. Moore was attracted to Johnson upon their meeting. Just after midnight on July 23, 2003, Nireah’s friend, Brandie, called Paul Moore’s home to speak to his friend, Curtis Ward, whom Brandie was attracted to. Nireah and Brandie went to the home of Paul and Curtis, where the four split into pairs (Nireah and Paul, Brandie and Curtis) and entered separate rooms. After discovering Johnson’s true identity, the two men tied the two girls hands’ behind their backs and put them in the backseat of Paul’s vehicle. Curtis followed Paul in a separate vehicle to a wooded area in Fall Creek Corridor in Indianapolis. Paul Moore shot both of the girls in the back of the head before setting the car on fire. Nireah Johnson was 17 years old. Nireah Johnson was a transgender, woman!

Angie Zapata was born on August 5, 1989, in Brighton, Colorado. She grew up with three sisters and a gay older brother. Angie loved to cruise up and down Federal Boulevard in Denver, listening to music and smoking cigarettes and dance at the local nightclub with her friends, during her teenage years in high school. She’s described by her friends as being silly and “always telling jokes,” as well as being “strong and toughened” from years of teasing. On July 15, 2008, Zapata met up with a man named Allen Andrade, whom she met online. After spending three days and having a sexual encounter with him, he subsequently beat her to death. Angie Zapata was 18 years old. Angie Zapata was a transgender, woman.

India Clarke was described by her mother as being, “a good-hearted person, a very loving person. India was different but loved to laugh and make people smile. She was currently studying cosmetology. On July 19th, India Clarke said to her parents, “Mom, I love you, dad, I love you.” On the morning of July 21, 2015, India’s body was found in a grassy area of a local park. India Clarke was 25 years old. India Clarke was a transgender, woman.

These are only a few of the many transgender people to have been murdered simply for being transgender. The sole reasoning behind most, if not all, of these murders, is because of the victim’s gender identity. In January and February of this year, transgender women were being killed at an estimate of almost once a week.

So far, atleast 10 transgender people have been murdered in America in 2015. This may not seem like a lot but put into consideration that only 0.5 percent of the population has taken some steps towards transitioning from one gender to another (Olyslager and Conway, 2007).

Not only are transgender people being murdered at an incredibly high rate, they’re also attempting suicide at rates higher than any other group in America.

 According to a recent study, 4.6 percent of the American population have attempted suicide. Of that 4.6 percent, nearly half of them (1.886 percent) have been transgender or gender nonconforming people. The percentage of transgender or gender-non-conforming people that have attempted suicide is higher among those that are young (18-24), those that are out about their gender identity, those that have lower levels of educational attainment, and those that have a lower annual household income (less than $10,000). In one of my recent articles, I talked about the importance of transgender representation in television.

 Maybe the attempted suicide rate of transgender people would decrease significantly, if they had people to look up to in the media, people to let them know that they aren’t a freak, people to let them know that there are more like them, people to let them know that it’s okay to be themselves!

A statistic not known by many is that transgender women are also very likely to face abuse by cops. According to the NCAVP, transgender women who survive hate attacks are 6 times more likely to experience physical violence when interacting with the police than are other gay, lesbian, and bisexual survivors. That statistic is even higher for transgender women of color. Too many times people excuse the jeopardies faced by transgender women of color, due to the success of Laverne Cox.

Laverne Cox has become a huge voice for the transgender community, specifically transgender women of color, however, the success of one does not dismiss the struggles faced by the majority of transgender women of color. Princess Harmony Rodriguez, a transgender woman of color, says of police brutality against people like her, “There are thousands of us, on any given day in any city, who are harassed and abused by police. It’s why, even when we’re the victims of crime, we don’t ask for help. We’re often the ones who end up arrested, injured, or emotionally traumatized even in the process of asking for their help. There have been times, in Philadelphia, where cisgender people get into fights with us. Like anyone else, we respond by defending ourselves but what happens when we do? We’re often the ones carted away.”

Transgender people may be the most victimized by hate violence in this country. There is no exact number that exemplifies the crimes against transgender people because many of the cases are unreported, however in 2013, a survey revealed that 344 transgender people survived a violent attack. That’s almost one hate crime against a transgender person per day. ”We’ve had people burned in their homes,” Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, a policy adviser for the National Center on Transgender Equity, told SPLC journalist Don Terry. “We’ve had people’s genitals mutilated after they’re dead. It’s absolutely rooted in transphobia and hatred and it’s absolutely a national crisis.”

The deaths of transgender people are not declining as we evolve through time, they’re increasing. It is not safe for transgender people in this world. It is up to everyone, transgender, and cisgender people alike, to work together to help make it safe for them. Transgender people deserve acceptance and respect for who they are, just like everyone else in this world. We, as a society, need to learn to embrace, not exclude.

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