by Rafael Dedios // Staff Writer
Day by day, trans citizens in America are getting raped, murdered, and assaulted continuously without recognition from the mainstream media. America must acknowledge that trans men and women are being treated as second class citizens and also, having their rights taken away by the government. In the social climate we are in during 2018, we must stop bigotry and ignorance taking over the U.S.
According to The New Orleans Advocate (an LGBT news site), 27 trans people have been murdered in 2016, and 7 murders were reported in 2017.
Recent studies have shown that there has been a pattern in transgender women of color falling as a victim of hate crimes in New Orleans. Last year, a young trans woman named Ciara McElveen was shot and stabbed. After her death, she was misidentified by the police of her original name. There was also another incident in February 2017 where a drag performer named Chyna Doll Dupree was shot and killed outside a shopping center. These were both women of color from New Orleans, and they are only a few of the vast majority of trans people who are getting murdered in the U.S.
After Trump became president, America’s social climate has shifted into fear and hate with his laws passed against immigrants. We have not been working together, but instead fighting against each other. The Trans Military Ban has been passed which removed all benefits from the Trans citizens fighting for our country. Trump has proven to be a deceptive president due to the fact he said he said he would protect the LGBT community during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
In order to stop ignorance of the various deaths occurring in the trans community, the mainstream media must continue featuring these events in order to show that transphobia is a real issue occuring today. Their stories must be told in order to shed light to people who have little knowledge of the hardships and difficulties that trans people go through in life.