Violence Against Transgender People of Color: A Response to the Deaths of Latiesha Green and Duanna Johnson
by Woo Wood

On November 20, 2008, people worldwide are gathering for the Transgender Day of Remembrance, not only to celebrate trans people’s lives, but to question why acts of transphobic violence persist, go unreported and are often left unresolved. According to the Remembering Our Dead Web Project, 27 transgender individuals died as a result of transphobia in 2008. Since 2004, there have been 119 deaths—about 2 people per month.

The recent murders of Latiesha Green in Syracuse, New York and Duanna Johnson in Memphis, Tennessee represent the human aspect of these statistics, while offering powerful reminders of the often invisible nature of violence against trans people of color. They drive home the reality that transphobia often goes unchecked within communities of color, moving us to understand the complex cultural stigma and discrimination trans people of color face across their ethnic and gender identities.

In the case of Duanna Johnson, transphobia was enacted when two police officers brutally beat her while she was in custody last February, and in her recent murder, for which there are currently no suspects. The death of Latiesha Green demonstrates the ways in which transphobia and homophobia are confused and conflated, a process which inadvertently erases transgender bodies. In media news coverage, many reporters blatantly disrespect Green by continually using her legal name and male pronouns, even alongside quotes from friends and family referring to her identity as a transgender woman.

Other news coverage cites Green’s sexual preference or sexual orientation as what moved Dwight DeLee to murder her, in a way that purposely invalidates Green’s gender identity. In educating our communities, police officers, health care providers and policymakers about how to respectfully refer to and care for transgender people, the discussion must focus on the definitions of and differences between sexual orientation and gender identity.

A person who identifies as transgender must continually negotiate their inner sense of gender with their outer body and the perceptions of others. Many people have been socialized to believe that one’s sex and one’s gender should always be aligned, that one should follow the other without question. It is the transgender body that disrupts that “integral” sense of what should be unchanging in the world.

Some communities of color, particularly immigrant communities of color, may be challenged by a lack of language regarding transgenderism, and may be unable to find words to speak about gender identity as separate from sexual orientation. Often the needs of trans people are expected to be contained within the needs of gay and lesbian communities. While some of these needs are similar, such a conflation may become implicitly and complacently transphobic, where those capable of supporting lesbian, gay and bisexual communities lack the knowledge and resources to support transgender people.

The murders of Green, Johnson, and other trans people of color make painfully visible the need for support, health care, education and advocacy designed specifically by and for these communities. TRANS:THRIVE and A.T.E. are two programs at Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center serving trans communities of color, but which are currently being impacted by reduced funding. Community-based responses to violence, such as today’s Transgender Day of Remembrance march from TRANS: THRIVE to City Hall, are needed to alter the conditions that make trans people of color vulnerable to alienation, discrimination and violence.

Join us in remembering:

10th Anniversary of the Transgender Day of Remembrance
Thursday, November 20th
TRANS:THRIVE, 815 Hyde Street, 2nd Floor
6:00 – 8:00PM.  

A candlelight vigil march through San Francisco's Tenderloin Neighborhood will take place from 7:00PM to 8:00PM and end at San Francisco's City Hall with a balloon launch honoring transgender community members.  

(Organized by SF-TEAM in collaboration with TRANS:THRIVE, El-La Program Para Trans Latinas and other community-based organizations.)

For more information on recent coverage of crimes against transgender people, see:

The Associated Press
“Accused killer of gay man is arraigned in Syracuse”

WSYR
“No bail for murder suspect; hate crime charge a possibility”

Syracuse Post-Standard
“Gender motive in death, cops say: Dwight DeLee is accused of killing Moses Cannon, 22, who was a transsexual”

New York Times
“Murder of Transgender Woman Revives Scrutiny”

Additional articles:
Transgender Day of Remembrance

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