Tired Of My Sisters Getting Killed
06/30/14
by Monica Roberts
http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2014/06/tired-sisters-getting-killed/After a relatively quiet year so far in terms of US based trans women facing murderous anti-trans violence aimed at us, the month of June has suddenly become a deadly one for my trans sisters of color.
First there was 40 year old Kandy Hall, whose lifeless body was found June 3 lying in a northeast Baltimore, MD field near a school and playground. While I and other members of the national trans community were gathered in Philadelphia for the 13th annual Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, on June 13 the body of 28 year old Latina trans* activist Zoraida 'Ale' Reyes was found in an Anaheim, CA Dairy Queen parking lot.
The very next week, the shot and burned body of 31 year old Yaz'min Shancez was found behind a dumpster in a Fort Myers, FL alley. To add more emotional baggage to the horrific way that Shancez was killed for her family and friends, her death happened two years to the day her 16 year old sister Cha'Riah Owens was shot and killed.
Now we complete a deadly month for transwomen of color with the news that on June 26 the body of 28 year old Tiffany Edwards was found at 8 AM EDT shot to death and lying in the street by a sanitation worker in the Cincinnati suburb of Walnut Hills, OH.
That is four transwomen of color, three African-American, one Latina who were killed in the month of June. That is four trans women whose lives were brutally snuffed out. That is four families who instead of planning future birthday parties and celebrating their lives are mourning them and planning funerals. The other common thread besides the fact all of these ladies were trans women of color is that they were age 40 and under.
