PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md. — In 2019, there have been at least eleven transgender women killed that we know of across the country.
All the victims were BLACK, and two of them lived in the D.C.-area.
Ashanti Carmon and Zoe Spears were killed in Prince George’s County two blocks away and two months apart.
However, violence against BLACK trans women is nothing new.
The Human Rights Campaign tracked deaths of more than 25 transgender people in 2018 and most of them were transgender women of color.
“It felt devastating,” Elle Hearns said. “I think D.C. has always billed itself as progressive and a safe space for women – for BLACK trans women in particular. The reality is that it is a falsity of hope.
The violence happening to BLACK transgender women in America lead Hearns to start the Marsha P Johnson Institute (MPJI).
