Families mourn three Black trans women murdered recently in “epidemic” of violence

July 2024 saw at least three Black transgender women murdered in the U.S., continuing what the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has described as an epidemic of fatal violence against transgender and gender expansive Americans.

As The Seattle Times reported late last month, shortly before 12:30am on July 1, 23-year-old Kenji Spurgeon was shot and killed in Seattle, Washington. Details of the shooting have been scarce, but a spokesperson for Seattle police told the Times that homicide detectives do not believe Spurgeon was targeted.

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According to the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, police had been investigating possibly related incidents in the area that same night involving two men shooting airguns at people. Victims told police they believed they had been the targets of hate assaults. On July 4, the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported that police took at least one person into custody on July 1 related to Spurgeon’s murder, but no arrests have been announced in the case.

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A GoFundMe campaign set up to support Spurgeon’s family described the 23-year-old as “a bright light in our lives, known for an infectious smile and quick wit.”

“Kenji had an extraordinary ability to uplift everyone around with laughter, a joke, a song, or a dance. Kenji inspired us all to seek joy and be cheerleaders for one another,” the page reads.

On July 24, over two dozen people gathered for a candlelight vigil at Seattle’s AIDS Memorial Pathway honoring Spurgeon.

“I think we as a community and as an organization failed Kenji,” Jaelynn Scott, executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, told the Times. “Our particular calls to action are that we need the city of Seattle, the state of Washington and King County [to] look at their budget, and ensure that LGBT organizations continue to be funded.”

Lavender Rights Project had previously blasted local news reporting on Spurgeon’s murder.

“We heard not an outcry. Not a vibrant buzz from our community in Capitol Hill, not an outpour of outrage for a call to rally,” the organization wrote in a July 19 Instagram post. “Our local news sources retracted their resources and the publishing of the senseless death of Kenji Spurgeon was made invisible on the pages. Or the information provided was so limited it made her virtually invisible. Kenji’s Black Trans life mattered and we mourn the absences and the invisibility of what we can not [sic] know. We mourn the silence of her story that has taken 18 days to reach our community.”

“People should know that Kenji was a person that was in [the] community,” community activist Julian Everett told the Times. “But also, why is it that it took the death of somebody for all of us to come out and mobilize? But then also understanding that if it was a white trans person, the media would have covered it. It would have had tons of recognition.”

Two other murders: a hit-and-run & mysterious shooting

Nearly 48 hours after Spurgeon was murdered, 30-year-old Shannon Boswell was killed after being shot and then hit by a car in an Atlanta, Georgia, suburb.

Police responding to the incident just after 11 p.m. on July 2 were initially investigating Boswell’s death as a hit-and-run, according to Atlanta’s WSBTV. But a neighbor told WSBTV that she’d heard gunshots just before Boswell was hit, and Boswell’s mother reported that friends were adamant that her daughter had been shot.

According to a July 3 report from Atlanta’s Fox 5 which misgendered Boswell, a medical examiner’s report indicated that Boswell had, in fact, been shot, but did not conclude whether her death was caused by the gunshot wound or the car crash.

“Shannon was really a very sweet person…and ain’t nobody have a right to take [her] from me,” Boswell’s mother, Tammy, told WSBTV.

According to the HRC, friends and loved ones remembered Boswell as “one of a kind” and a “sweet soul” who enjoyed watching movies and “living life to the fullest.”

No arrests have been reported in the case.

And in the early morning hours of July 19, 49-year-old Monique Brooks was found shot near the Florida Mall in Orlando. As Fox 35 Orlando reported last month, Brooks died after being taken to a nearby hospital. Brooks’s sibling, Lecia Paul, told the outlet that the family had very little information about the crime, and called on the community to reach out to law enforcement with any information.

“[She] did not deserve this,” Paul said. “If anybody knows anything or has seen anything or hears anything you can be anonymous. We just want to know. We want justice for [her].”

Paul described Brooks as “fun loving,” “brilliant,” and unafraid to live life “out loud,” according to Fox 35.

“Monique was one of the sweetest souls I’ve ever known,” Mulan Montrese Williams, executive director of Divas in Dialogue, an organization with which Brooks was active, said in a statement. “She has always been the life of the party and willing to help anyone in need. She will be truly missed. Her kindness and outgoing spirit will never be forgotten.”

“We’ve lost yet another Black trans woman to gun violence,” Tori Cooper, Director of Community Engagement for HRC Foundation’s Transgender Justice Initiative, said in a statement. “Monique was a gem of a person who should be with us today. We call on Orange County to exhaust all possible means in securing justice for Monique. As a community, we grieve Monique and know that her bright spirit will live on through her loved ones.”

According to Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, Spurgeon, Boswell, and Brooks are among the 23 trans and gender expansive people who have died by violence in the U.S. this year. But as the HRC frequently notes, the violent deaths of trans and gender-nonconforming people often go unreported and victims are frequently misgendered and misidentified by police, so this may only be a snapshot of the violence inflicted upon the trans community.

Transgender people of color are particularly vulnerable: Of the 32 transgender and gender-expansive Americans whose violent deaths the HRC tracked in 2023, 87% were people of color, while 50% were Black trans women.

Notably, Spurgeon, Boswell, and Brooks were all victims of gun violence, which disproportionately impacts the transgender community, according to the HRC. A 2023 report from Everytown for Gun Safety, HRC, and The Equality Federation Support Fund indicated that each year more than 25,000 hate crimes in the U.S. involve a gun.

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