It seems that every few months, we have the grave task of reporting that another transgender woman of color has been slain on Philly’s streets. The details are different, but far too many times, the facts remain the same: A young trans woman is violently cut down and often the person who brutalized her walks away.
In the last few years, Maya Young, Kiesha Jenkins, Londyn Chanel, Diamond Williams, Stacey Blahnik, Kyra Cordova, Nizah Morris and countless other women across the city and country have met the same violent fate. However, in the last few years, locally we have begun to see a shift in public discourse on the context of these crimes.
This week, when word about Young’s murder began spreading, only one news outlet that we noticed misgendered the victim. Law enforcement’s reports properly noted the victim’s gender and chosen name. Several news outlets took note of the ongoing epidemic of anti-trans violence, locally and nationally, with reporters interviewing local trans advocates and allies about the disproportionate levels of violence the community faces.
A few years ago, it was common, and almost expected, to see misgendering, the use of legal names and other offensive descriptors when a transgender person was in the news. That media and law enforcement have seemingly seen the error in those practices is a testament to the collaborative work among city officials and community leaders. And that mainstream audiences are becoming increasingly attuned to the plague of anti-trans violence speaks volumes to just how serious of an epidemic this is.
It’s effective to evaluate the city and community response after a member of our community is lost. But that that response level is tested so frequently speaks to the amount of work that remains.