Transgender Awareness 2020
By: Zada Kent
Tags: Trans Awareness Week, LGBTQ, Transgender Rights, Transgender, Equality

TW: Some of this article includes graphic details regarding the abuse and murder of trans individuals.

This week is special. It is Transgender Awareness Week in the US.

To remind everyone how important equality, acceptance, support, and empathy all are for the transgender community, this article is only one of six that will be honoring those individuals who have been robbed of their lives much too soon for living as their most authentic selves.

Sadly, 2019 saw at least 25 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means. We say at least because too often these stories go unreported — or misreported.

There have been at least 37 transgender or gender non-conforming people murdered so far in 2020. This upward trend needs to stop.

Here are the names of some of the transgender individuals who have been murdered — or suspected of being murdered — in 2020.

Dustin Parker, 25, Oklahoma

Dustin Parker created with Canva

This young transgender man was fatally shot on New Year’s Day while working as a taxi cab driver in McAlester. Dustin is remembered as a good friend, and loving husband and father. He was a founding member of Oklahomans for Equality-McAlester Chapter: Southeastern Equality, a local LGBTQ organization.

Alexa Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, 29, Puerto Rico

Alexa Neulisa Luciano Ruiz created with Canva

Alexa was a homeless transgender woman who survived an onslaught of transphobia in Puerto Rico for many years. On her 29th birthday, she was found shot multiple times on the side of a road in Toa Baja after last reported being seen entering a bathroom at a local McDonald’s.

Her murder was videoed and later posted to social media. Although four teens were questioned by police, they were let go without charges and there has been nothing new to report.

The Puerto Rican government and large religious population are quick to state there is no such thing as hate speech or hate crime. Although there are a few good people trying to create positive change for the LGBTQ+ community in Puerto Rico, it is a steep uphill battle.

For now, like so many other places in the world, Puerto Rico is not a safe place for transgender individuals.

Yampi Méndez Arocho, 19, Puerto Rico

Yampi Mendez Arocho created with Canva

In March, Yampi Méndez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender man, was fatally shot in the face and back in Moca, just hours after being assaulted by an unknown woman. Arocho’s mother reportedly called the police about the assault, but it’s not clear if there was ever an investigation.

Monika Diamond, 34, North Carolina

Monika Diamond created with Canva

Ms. Diamond was the business owner of a successful event promotion company for ten years in Charlotte, NC. After being loaded into an ambulance due to shortness of breath, a local man hopped inside and fatally shot Monika Diamond. The man has since been charged with her murder.

Lexi ‘Ebony’ Sutton, 33, New York

Lexi Ebony Sutton created with Canva

According to her friend, Lavonia Brooks, Lexi (a nickname) was a prostitute in New York, NY. She said she looked up to Lexi because she had such a “beautiful heart.”

Lexi was fatally stabbed in the neck by an unknown person in a park after an argument broke out between them over a wig. Lavonia told police that Lexi had pulled off the wig of someone the previous night. The murderer was seen fleeing the scene on a motorized scooter. No arrests have been made.

Johanna Metzger, 25, Maryland

Johanna Metzger created with Canva

According to her mother, Johanna was a self-taught musician of multiple instruments as well as a college graduate. She was fatally stabbed on April 11 in Baltimore.

I was unable to find any information regarding the circumstance surrounding her murder or the status of any investigation with police.

Penélope Díaz Ramírez, 31, Puerto Rico

Penelope Diaz Ramirez created with Canva

This trans woman was beaten and hanged to death inside the Bayamon correctional complex — a men’s prison in Puerto Rico — on April 13. Her death was not reported for almost two weeks.

Penélope did not deserve to die. Transgender people do not deserve to die. Every single advocate, ally, elected official, and community member must stand up in light of this horrific news and say ‘No more.’ What we are doing is not enough. — Tori Cooper, director of the Human Rights Campaign‘s transgender justice initiative

The individuals listed here were not granted the same freedom and equality so many are given in this country. Their lives were cut short in the most heinous of ways all because they were brave enough to live as their most authentic selves.

According to a 2018 report from the Human Rights Campaign, over a hundred trans and gender-expansive people have been killed in the U.S. since 2013. About 80% of anti-transgender homicides are directed towards trans women of color.

This hatred-spurred violence needs to stop.

Stand up and speak out for trans folks and everyone within the LGBTQ+ community.

Here are 10 Questions Every Parent Should Ask Their Transgender Teen.

Zada Kent is creator of LGBTQueer-ies & proud parent to her transgender son.