Transgender Reflection & Remembrance

By: Jen Laws, Board Member, ADAP Advocacy Association, and HIV/transgender health advocate

The ADAP Advocacy Association would like to honor our transgender brothers and sisters by recognizing the tragic losses, as well as victorious gains affected populations experience throughout the year.

In light of the New York Time’s report the Trump administrations is seeking to create a unified, yet exceptionally limited definition of “sex” to the exclusion and limitations of civil right protections for transgender people, we’d like to recognize our industry partners who vocalized opposition to this move.

Photo Source: Stopstreetharassment.org

In addition to ongoing work in policy and grants support the following actions were taken by key industry partners:

• Gilead celebrated Transgender Awareness Week by issuing a distinct statement reinforcing support of the transgender community
• Johnson and Johnson, Glaxso-Smith-Kline, and ViiV Healthcare signed on to the industry statement in entitled “Businesses for Transgender Equality”

With the recent observance of the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20th), this year, in the United States, 22 documented transgender people were murdered and countless transgender lives lost to suicide. We take the time to honor the lives of our community’s losses and encourage our partners to join us and their local communities in recognizing these lives and the struggles transgender people face every day.

• Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, 42, was the first known case of deadly violence against the transgender community in 2018. A local news outlet reports that she was found dead in her home on Friday night in North Adams, Massachusetts. She was a trans beauty pageant organizer. According to reports, Leigh Steele-Knudslien's husband, Mark, turned himself in Friday night, admitting to killing his wife. January 8, 2018.
• Viccky Gutierrez, 33, is the second reported transgender person killed in the United States in 2018. She died after being stabbed and her apartment in Los Angeles was set on fire while she and her dog were trapped inside. Kevyn Ramirez, 29, of Los Angeles was charged with murder and arson after admitting to stabbing Gutierrez in her home after a dispute and then setting fire to the apartment January 12, 2018.
• Tonya Harvey, 35, is the third known transgender person to be murdered in 2018. Harvey was shot to death shortly before 5:30 pm in Buffalo, New York.
• Celine Walker, 36, was shot to death in Jacksonville, Florida on February 4, 2018. Sources claim that Walker's body was found with fatal gunshot wounds in an Extended Stay America hotel at about 8 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene. Additionally, Walker's family and friends publicly shared their disgust toward Jacksonville Sheriff's Department and the Florida Sun Times-Union misgendering her
• Phylicia Mitchell, 45, was shot in the chest around 6 p.m. outside her home on West 112th Street near Detroit Avenue, in the Cleveland's Edgewater neighborhood.
• Zakaria Fry, 28, was found dead in the town of Stanley, New Mexico, on February 19, 2018. She went missing in New Mexico in mid-January, and her body was later found 40 miles outside of Albuquerque on February 19. Rancher Fidel Montoya found one body in a trash bin along the road, and another body was recovered about two miles away. Police confirmed them to be Fry and her roommate Eugene Ray on Tuesday, February 27, 2018.
• Amia Tyrae Berryman, 28, suffered multiple fatal gunshot wounds outside of a motel in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana on March 26, 2018.
• Sasha Wall, 29, is the eighth known transgender person to be murdered in 2018. Sasha was fatally shot on April 1 in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. Her body was found with multiple gunshot wounds and slumped over her car's steering wheel on Sunday, April 1, 2018.
• Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon, 18, was strangled to death in her Dallas apartment May 9
• Nino Fortson, 36, a transgender man fatally shot multiple times during an argument May 13 in Atlanta.
• Antash'a English, 38, known to friends as Antash'a, died June 1, 2018 in Jacksonville, Florida
• Gigi Pierce, 28, a transgender woman fatally shot dead in a hotel on the Southside of Jacksonville, Florida on June 24, 2018.
• Diamond Stephens was 39 years old Black transgender woman who was shot to death on June 18 in Meridian, Mississippi.
• Keisha Wells,was 54, died in a parking lot due to a gunshot wound to the abdomen on June 23 in Cleveland.
• Sasha Garden was 27-year-old transgender woman, was found dead in Orlando on July 19
• Dejanay Stanton was 24, was shot to death early in the morning of August 30 on the south side of Chicago
• Vontashia Bell was 18, suffered a fatal gunshot wound August 30 in Shreveport, Louisiana
• Shantee Tucker was 30, was shot to death September 5 on a Philadelphia street by someone firing from inside a pickup truck.
• London Moore was 20, was found shot to death September 8 in North Port, Fl.
• Nikki Enriquez was 28, of Laredo, Texas, was found dead near Interstate 35 in south Texas September 15.suspect is Juan David Ortiz.]
• Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier age 31, of Chicago, Illinois, was found dead with stab wounds on October 3, in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

The ADAP Advocacy Association remains committed to providing valuable resources to better serve and advocate for transgender people affected by HIV. Community & industry partners interested in learning more about implementing Transgender advocacy policy recommendations and action can contact us at info@adapadvocacyassociation.org.


Disclaimer: Guest blogs do not necessarily reflect the views of the ADAP Advocacy Association, but rather they provide a neutral platform whereby the author serves to promote open, honest discussion about public health-related issues and updates.