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Transgender People

Two Black transgender women were killed last week, thousands showed up to protest

Cara Kelly
USA TODAY

Riah Milton was 25 and a joyful person, her sister says.

Dominique "Rem'mie" Fells, 27, was always smiling.

Both were found dead last week – their deaths the latest in what advocacy groups have called an epidemic facing transgender people, especially Black trans women. Calls for attention to their lives on social media in recent days quickly grew into protests this weekend, a time typically marked by joyful celebrations of LGBTQ Pride.

On Sunday, thousands stood outside the Brooklyn Museum in New York, largely wearing white and spreading the message Black Trans Lives Matter. More attended the Drag March for Change in Chicago, according to ABC7. Others knelt in Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, reported ABC4.

Asbury Park held a rally for Black Trans and Queer Lives on Friday.

Protests have spread to nearly every corner of the country in the weeks since George Floyd’s death on Memorial Day. The focus on police brutality and systemic racism have united many different demographics of Americans in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, including Black drag queens who have shown up in glittered dresses and heels. 

But Sunday’s demonstrations spotlighted a community that activists and family and friends of those who have died say is particularly vulnerable: transgender individuals, particularly women of color.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, 2020 has already seen 14 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other types of violence. In 2019, the number was 26, the majority of whom were Black trans women.

Milton and Fells are not the only ones who have been killed recently.

Tony McDade, a Black trans man was shot and killed by police in Tallahassee, Florida, last month, two days after Floyd’s death.

Tallahassee Police Department Chief Lawrence Revell said McDade was armed with a gun and pointed it at the officer, prompting him to use deadly force.

But neighbors and others have offered different accounts, alleging it’s another instance of police brutality. The case, which will be reviewed by a grand jury, has sparked national outrage.

Also Sunday, the Black LGBTQIA Advisory Board Council organized a march through Los Angeles ending on Hollywood Boulevard in McDade’s memory.

More:Tallahassee police release name of person shot and killed by an officer after stabbing

The Brooklyn protest, organized by the Okra Project and Marsha P Johnson Institute, among others, also honored the life of Layleen Polanco, 27, who died last year after experiencing an epileptic seizure in solitary confinement at Rikers Island. Her family says new surveillance footage released last week shows that guards failed to provide her with potentially lifesaving medical care, according to NBC News. Earlier this month, the New York City Department of Investigation and the Bronx District Attorney released findings saying they found no evidence to support criminal charges in her death.

Investigations into Milton and Fells’ deaths, as well as McDade’s, are ongoing.

Last week, the Butler County Sheriff's Office said they responded to a dead body found in Liberty Township, Ohio. Investigators later discovered that Milton had been shot and killed during a robbery, after a 14-year-old girl and two men "lured" Milton to the Liberty Township area in an attempt to steal her car.

Riah Milton

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones held a press conference on Thursday to provide more information on the investigation, where he was asked if Milton was targeted because of her identity as a transgender woman.

"No," Jones replied. "No. Absolutely not. This person was lured there to be robbed."

But friend Eden Estes says her death should be considered a hate crime.

According to FBI data, there were four incidents of gender identity hate crimes in Ohio in 2018. While the federal government collects data on hate crimes against transgender people, bias against gender identity is not covered by Ohio law. Hate crimes in Ohio are limited to “ethnic intimidation,” when a violent crime is committed “by reason of the race, color, religion, or national origin of another person or groups of persons.”

Police in Fells’ case have not stated a motive.

Philadelphia Police say they responded to the Schuykill River for a body seen floating last Monday. Fells was pronounced dead at the scene by a medic unit.

Philadelphia Police are investigating the homicide of Dominique "Rem'mie" Fells, originally from York, found dismembered and discarded in the Schuylkill River on Monday, June 8, 2020.

"The investigation is active and ongoing with Homicide Detectives Division," police said. "No arrest and no further information at this time."

More:Riah Milton, Black transgender woman killed in Ohio, 'just wanted to be accepted'

More:Transgender woman brutally killed in Philadelphia, police say

In a statement, the City of Philadelphia’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs said Fells’ death is a reminder that “there is much left to do until we achieve full equality, respect, and support for us all.”

“The murder of transgender people – especially those of color – is truly an epidemic, and a crisis that we cannot afford to allow to persist any further,” the statement continued.

Sunday’s protests also come on the heels of an announcement made by the Trump administration Friday, considered a setback to the rights of LGBTQ people.

The Department of Health and Human Services said it will enforce sex discrimination protections “according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex' as male or female and as determined by biology.”

The rule rewrites an Obama-era regulation that included a person’s own sense of being male, female, neither or a combination.

More:Trump administration revokes transgender health protection

On Monday, the Supreme Court gave LGBTQ workers a win with a 6-3 ruling that a landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in the workplace applies to gay, lesbian and transgender workers.

"An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex," Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote.

"Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee’s sex when deciding to fire that employee. We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law."

Contributing: Madeline Mitchell, the Cincinnati Enquirer; Ted Czech, the York Daily Record; Jeff Burlew, the Tallahassee Democrat; Richard Wolf; the Associated Press

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