On August 12, 2002 on the same 50th and C Street corner in SE
Washington, DC in which the car accident occurred that eventually took
transwoman Tyra Hunter's life due to medical transphobia, transteens
Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis died in a hail of automatic gunfire.
Ten years later, this double murder still hasn't been solved. It
saddens me and other DC-area transpeople who remember that horrific
crime that it hasn't.
As I said in the 2011 post I wrote at my home blog on the ninth
anniversary of this despicable murder:
These young sisters died because somebody hated them so much for
transitioning that they felt they had the right to violently terminate
their lives. I don't want people or the trans community to forget
what happened to these young African descended transwomen or why they
are no longer here on planet Earth with us.I also want the wastes of DNA who committed this heinous crime to
be brought to justice not just for me, the trans community of DC and
around the world, but Stephanie's mother as well.
Someone in that neighborhood knows or heard something that will
facilitate the arrest and conviction of the people who did this.
They belong in jail, not walking around in society.
Nineteen-year-old Stephanie and 18-year-old Ukea's lives were extinguished
before they even had a chance to live them. Both of them would be
approaching their thirties right now. I wonder what dreams and
aspirations they had for themselves they never got to fulfill? What
kind of contributions to our society did we lose because somebody
hated Stephanie and Ukea enough to kill them for openly living their
trans lives?
That's what angers me every time I contemplate their loss and the loss
of every transperson to anti-trans violence. It's also what drives me
to ensure that no more mothers like Queen Washington have to witness
their trans child being buried or mothers who have trans children
fearing the same thing will happen to their kids.
Stephanie and Ukea, know that you ladies are not only not forgotten by
the trans community and all who loved you. The trans community in
Washington, DC and around the country won't rest until the people who
killed you are brought to justice.
We also won't rest until we create a world in which trans youth can
come out, dream big dreams and simply live their lives just like any
other cisgender kid does.