Say Their Names: The Transgender peril in Detroit   

Photo: Getty Images

Hayden Davis. Dede Ricks.   

Do you know who they are?   

They are the underreported, underrepresented, and often, tragically, overlooked – seemingly in life and in death.    

 
Davis, whose smile was bright, was not alone sadly in this type of death in Detroit.   
 
Dede Ricks, a 33-year-old Black transgender woman was also shot and killed in the city on August 27.   
 
Ricks’ death is at least the 28th violent killing of a transgender or gender non-conforming person in 2022 and the second killing of a Black transgender woman in Detroit within a month over the summer, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reported.   
 

 

“Every day across our country, we are faced with the reality of violence against our community, particularly against Black and brown transgender women,” Tori Cooper, HRC director of Community Engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative, said recently. “Violence is one of the horrific results of anti-transgender stigma and ugly rhetoric. Every person has a responsibility to stop the spread of anti-transgender stigma – to stand up for the respect and dignity of every human being. We demand more to protect transgender lives. The violence must end.”   

Cooper described the murders as an “ongoing pandemic” that Cooper is “always fighting.”   

More than 10,000 hate crimes in the U.S. involve a firearm each year, which equates to more than 28 each day, according to a 2020 report from HRC, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, Giffords Law Center, and Equality Florida titled “Remembering and Honoring Pulse: Anti-LGBTQ Bias and Guns Are Taking Lives of Countless LGBTQ People.”   

The report also notes a marked increase in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes, especially against transgender people. According to the 2017-2022 Transgender Homicide Tracker, the vast majority of confirmed homicides against transgender people have involved a gun, with Black transgender women accounting for 73% of all transgender gun homicide victims. Further, advocates saw a 43% increase in the formation of anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups in 2019.   

Cooper, based in Atlanta, told the Michigan Chronicle that as a Black transwoman, moving the needle forward for HRC to be more inclusive is crucial, along with equally important equitable efforts.  

This looks like incorporating voices of Black and Brown and queer people across the state,” Cooper said, adding that with growth comes pain in these untimely deaths. “It is really, really unfortunate. … Black and brown trans women are being murdered and there is no other way to say it. .. Detroit is one of the places we’re repeatedly seeing this type of violence.”  

At the state level, transgender and gender non-conforming people in Michigan are not explicitly protected from discrimination in employment, housing, education, and public spaces, the HRC reported. Michigan does include gender identity as a protected characteristic in its hate crimes law.   

“Though we have recently seen some political gains that support and affirm transgender people, we have also faced anti-LGBTQ+ attacks at many levels of government this year. As of this writing, more than 270 anti-LGBTQ+ bills are under consideration in state legislatures across the country, more than 110 of which directly target transgender people,” according to the HRC.  

Though the HRC is not a direct-service organization, a lot of people have that in mind.   

The organization works with policymakers and incorporates different aspects to ensure that communities obtain the resources they need to work “even better” to avoid future atrocities.  

“We are working with several advocates and organizations and really throughout the U.S. so we have laws that are representative of people living in those places,” Cooper said.  

“We must demand better from our elected officials and reject harmful anti-transgender legislation at the local, state, and federal levels, while also considering every possible way to make ending this violence a reality,” according to the HRC. “It is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, especially Black transgender women. The intersections of racism, transphobia, sexism, biphobia, and homophobia conspire to deprive them of the necessities to live and thrive, so we must all work together to cultivate acceptance, reject hate, and end stigma for everyone in the trans and gender non-conforming community.”  

Find out more information at hrc.org. 

About Post Author

Comments

From the Web

Skip to content