Transgender woman Chay Reed shot and killed in Miami
Miami has lots one member of its transgender community. On Friday, transgender woman Chay Reed, 28, was shot and killed in Miami, Florida, WPLG reported. An earlier report, which misgendered Reed, said that she was shot while running across the street. Her attacker fled the scene.
The list of trans women killed in 2017 thus far.
- Mesha Caldwell – Mississippi (January 4), 41 years old
- Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow – Sioux Falls (January 7), 28 years old
- JoJo Striker – Toledo, Ohio (February 8), 23 years old
- KeKe Collier – Chicago (February 21), 24 years old
- Chyna Gibson – New Orleans (February 25), 31 years old
- Ciara McElveen – New Orleans (February 27), 26 years old
- Jaquarrius Holland (Brown) – Monroe, Louisiana (February 19), 18 years old
- Alphonza Watson – Baltimore (March 22), 38 years old
- Chay Reed – Miami-Dade (April 19), 28 years old
I don't want in any way minimize the tragedy of these deaths. However, it is difficult to fully comprehend the nature of the crime or to determine whether the murder took place because the individual was transgender. The reporting on most of these cases is a one-off. Sometimes these crimes are more about the circumstances of the individual (drug deals, etc.) than their gender identity. Admittedly sometimes an individual is murdered for no other reason than who they are ( a true hate crime), but many times there simply is more to the story. The classic example of this is the tragic death of Mathew Shepherd. Again I don't want to make light of the horrific nature of his death, but a good deal of the story was simply not told at the time and is conveniently left out of the mix whenever this event is brought up.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Jack Nicholson in the movie A Few Good Men, "Senseless murder? Is there any other kind?"