As reported by the Huffington Post Queer Voices, Ms. TeeTee Dangerfield, a 32-year-old transgender woman, was murdered in College Park, GA this past Sunday. Ms. Dangerfield is the 16th known transgender person to be killed in the United States, and the 14th Africa American transgender woman killed in the first seven months of 2017 and the second killed in metro Atlanta in the past 6 weeks. Ms. Ava Le’Ray Barrin, 17, was shot and killed at an Athen, GA apartment complex on June 25. The number of slain trans individuals may actually be higher according to GLAAD as violence experienced by trans people is regularly and grossly under- and misreported.
Transgender individuals face disproportionately high rates of violence and discrimination. According to The National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2015 Transgender Survey Report, “46 percent of respondents were verbally harassed and 9 percent were physically attacked because of being transgender.” The survey also found that 10 percent of respondents reported being sexually assaulted during the prior year, and 47 percent said they were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime.
As GLAAD notes, 2016 was the deadliest year on record for transgender people in the United States with 27 killings, almost all of them trans women of color.
Dangerfield’s death comes just days after comedian Lil Duval told the hosts of “The Breakfast Club” morning show that he would “kill” a woman if he found out she was transgender after having sex with her. Despite outcries from the LGBTQ community and its allies, Duval has refused to apologize for his comments.
Dangerfield becomes the sixteenth transgender person murdered in the United States in 2017 and the second killed in metro Atlanta in the past 6 weeks. Ava Le’Ray Barrin, 17, was shot and killed at an Athens apartment on June 25.
