NBJC

Today, NBJC joins communities across the nation and world to recognize International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Annually on this day, we pause to honor the lives of transgender individuals who are no longer with us due to senseless acts of hate violence. We remember our transgender and gender nonconforming family whose deaths often go unspoken and are not properly covered by mainstream media. We recognize that hate and biased violence permeates the lives of many transgender people, especially transgender women of color. According to a 2014 report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), 72 percent of LGBTQ homicide victims in 2013 were transgender women and 89 percent of those victims were people of color.

This month, our nation reached an incredibly alarming reality. The recent news of Gizzy Fowler, a 24-year-old transgender woman murdered in Tennessee, marks the 10th known murder this year of a transgender woman of color in the United States. This trend of violence towards the transgender community is not a new phenomenon, yet our nation remains deadly silent.

Allies and transgender people, together, can change this epidemic of violence by pressuring law enforcement, elected officials and all community leaders to take a stand. We all must play a role in holding our justice system accountable by ensuring acts of violence towards transgender people are prosecuted with unyielding persistence and authority.

TDOR reminds us that too many in our community are victimized and killed without thorough investigations. The case of Sage Smith, a Black transgender woman that went missing in Charlottesville, VA after heading to meet a male acquaintance, exemplifies this somber fact. Today marks the second year Sage has been missing and local police have yet to find her or the male acquaintance. As Sage's family and friends continue to await answers, the NBJC family stands in solidarity with them and demands justice.