Media Releases

On Thursday, June 13, Zoe Spears (23) was killed in Fairmount Heights, Maryland, a Washington D.C. suburb. Spears is the tenth Black transgender woman murdered in 2019. She was killed just a few blocks away from where Ashanti Carmon, another Black transgender woman, was found dead in March of this year. Both Spears and Carmon were members of a tight-knit community; however, authorities deny any connection between their deaths.

According to the Human Rights Campaign nearly 80% of LGBTQ/SGL teens report feeling depressed. Data suggests that LGBTQ/SGL youth experience violence and bullying nearly twice as much as children who are or are presumed to be heterosexual. 74% of LGBTQ/SGL students report feeling unsafe, bullied, and harassed in schools throughout the country according to GLSEN. LGBTQ/SGL students are five times more likely to attempt suicide compared to their heterosexual peers.

Chynal Lindsey is now the eighth Black transgender woman killed this year and reported by the news. This tragic event is especially difficult since last month’s murder of our sister Muhlaysia Booker. While many are celebrating Pride Month, Black women and girls are being murdered  across the country and too few people are acknowledging this reality and trying to stop these deaths.

WASHINGTON -- Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, the Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system. In response to the news and Trump’s reported opposition to the Equality Act, David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), released the following statement:
“Every day, members of the Black community face discrimination as a result of who we are and how we show up in the world. There is much more work to do to ensure that each of us are spared from discrimination and spared from attacks on our constitutional rights and the passage of the Equality Act is a critical step in the right direction.