ZORA
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ZORA

Underreported Trans Women Deaths Are the Secret No One’s Talking About

Experts say it’s an epidemic. And yet violence against Black Trans women still goes unreported or underinvestigated.

In the NCTE’s U.S. Transgender Survey, 67% percent of Black respondents said they would feel uncomfortable asking police for help. When Black Trans women are killed, media and police often misidentify and misgender them, which means their deaths are often not recorded as anti-Trans violence.

“She was from a generation when being Trans was a lot more hard and a lot more scary. She was just so knowledgeable about things, and she was just a teacher to the community.”

“There’s no urgency in figuring out what happened in her case. I knew I couldn’t get my hopes up, because with most of these Trans women of color, cases go unsolved or are forgotten about.”

“She wanted me to embrace my scars and embrace my beauty.”

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