As the Transgender Day of Remembrance approaches on Nov. 20, black transgender women in Jacksonville aren’t just mourning. They are also afraid.
Out of the 22 reported killings of transgender people in the United States in 2018 so far, three took place in Jacksonville, more than in any other city.
All three of those homicide victims were black transgender women: Celine Walker was shot in a motel on Feb. 4, Antash'a English was gunned down in a June 1 drive-by shooting, and Cathalina Christina James was killed in a motel on June 24. Another transgender woman was shot repeatedly in June, but survived—and police charged her alleged attacker in July.
After LGBT advocates criticized the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for misgendering these victims—rather than using the names and genders by which they were known in the community—the JSO created a nine-officer LGBT Liaison Team in August, as WJCT reported, in order to forge better ties with the community.
But now, months later, some black LGBT advocates say that relationships with the police remain strained.
“Everything is pretty much the same here in Jacksonville,” Paige Mahogany Parks, a local black transgender advocate and founder of the Transgender Awareness Project, told The Daily Beast. “Transgender women are still walking around here like we have targets on our backs.” Read more via Daily Beast