The recent murders of
Kandy Hall and now Mia Henderson point out alarming homicide rates in
Baltimore’s transgender community of color, and specifically those of trans
women. This represents the
intersectionality of race, gender and economic opportunity. It highlights the
single greatest need we as a gender non-conforming community have, our own
personal safety. It represents the absolute need for transgender community of
color to be empowered to own their own voices.
The city of Baltimore is
known for its high homicide rates. The popular television
show “Homicide: Life in the Streets” was set and filmed in Baltimore during this particularly difficult period in our history.
However current rates are getting special attention. Mayor Stephanie
Rawlings-Blake ran on a campaign slogan of “Better
Schools - Safer Streets - Stronger Neighborhoods”.
While the homicide rate was at a 20 year low during her first year as mayor, it
has increased again above the 200 per year mark.
The
Baltimore City Police Department reports that 80-85% of these homicides are
“drug related”. If we break these numbers down and
identify specific communities, we will be astonished.
The number of homicides in
Baltimore
City for 2013 was 235. The BPD claims that only 15-20% of those
are “non drug-related” and if true, means the number of homicides not involving
the drug trade was between 35 and 47. Using 47 for 2013, we come up with a
homicide rate of 8 per 100K. When we look at the number of transgender women of
color who have been murdered since February of 2011, and look at the
population totals, we will find an alarming rate. Using UCLA’s Williams Institute numbers, which identify transgender people number at 3 ½ tenths of one percent of the population, or in the city of
Baltimore, that total is 2177. According
to the United States Census Bureau, the city’s population of
color is at 68% and Baltimore’s relationship
between male and female is 53-47. A strong estimate of transgender women of
color is 785.
There have been 5 murders
in the last 41 months, a rate of 1.46 per year. This may not seem like a high
number, yet remember, it is per 785, not 100,000. To extrapolate those totals
out to the same index, one gets 186 per 100K. This rate is 23 TIMES that of the
rest of Baltimore’s non-drug-related homicides. 23 times.
While the State of Maryland just passed the Fairness
for All Marylanders Act this spring, the city of Baltimore
has had similar protections since 2002. Yet the marginalization and homicides
in transgender communities of colors and specifically, transgender women of
color continues. At a June 6, 2014 community meeting with the Baltimore Police
Department, Acting Captain Eric Kowalczyk stressed that these
crimes will not be solved without help from the community.
However community members strongly expressed their distrust for the police, as
they have been victimized for “walking
while trans” and other indignities. To resolve this
the city’s force created an “LGBT Advisory Council” which includes many city
agencies, but not trans organizations, and most importantly, no trans community
of color organizations. The LGBT Advisory Council is largely invisible to the
community and thus the BPD still suffers from an extreme disconnect with those
marginalized and no mechanism to repair that, save building relationships, one
community member at a time. This faulty loop was brought to the attention of
those in the meeting that June afternoon, only to get pushback from the acting
LGBT liaison, Sgt. Avery, suggesting “You people do not know, it’s work, we
ACTUALLY do work”. Sgt. Avery is no longer serving as LGBT liaison.
In light of the dire
situation transgender women of color find themselves living with, with stigmatizations
of being a criminal, a deceiver, a prostitute, a drug addict and worse, many
find it difficult to gain meaningful employment or receive adequate health
care. Most are disenfranchised and
little is offered in the way of empowerment programing at the city or state
level. This is changing, albeit not fast enough.
The LGBT Advisory Council,
which is not “individually” seated, yet filled with member organizations, has
NO public interface. It has no means of connecting to the community, short of
one or two of its member organizations posting a Facebook state update. The most recent meeting with Police Commissioner Batts, supposedly to get input from the trans community went UNANNOUNCED, but spread only by "word of mouth".
At the
bare minimum, transgender women of color MUST be part of that process. It is
time for white cisgender organizations to step back and amplify trans people of
color concerns, not speak for them. Acting Captain Kowalczyk,
I know you are sensitive to the concerns of the community, now show us you can
take swift action to rectify this situation.
