[Trigger Warning: Murder of Black Trans Woman] UPDATE: Trans woman stabbed in D.C. dies. She was 22.
The transgender woman who was stabbed at a Washington, D.C., bus stop Thursday night has died, and activists have identified her as Deoni Jones, 22.
She was stabbed in the head about 8:15 p.m. at a bus stop at East Capitol Street N.E. and Sycamore Road and taken to a hospital in grave condition. She died early Friday morning, Metro Weekly reports.
The paper reports that Mara Keisling, executive director of the D.C.-based National Center for Transgender Equality, and Jason Terry of the D.C. Transgender Coalition both identified the victim as Jones.
Terry also denounced media coverage of the attack, as some outlets referred to the victim as a “man living as a woman.”
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the transphobic language deployed by several media outlets last night and this morning,” Terry said. “While we certainly agree that the general public needs to be aware of trans communities’ losses and successes, it is imperative that members of the press refer to trans people in a way that respects each person’s gender identity or expression.”
Jones’s attacker fled the scene and has not yet been apprehended. The Metropolitan Police Department asks that people with information that may lead to an arrest call (202) 727-9099 or send it in anonymously by texting 50411. The department offers a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to arrest and conviction in homicide cases.Please signal boost. This needs to stop.
We’re not doing so well when we’re left begging cis people to respect us after murdering us. Begging cis people to please put the right names on our tombstones (if we get any at all). I’m so angry I don’t even… I feel like we need to take this up a notch, but I don’t know how. The murders continue, the cis media spitting on our graves continues. Something bigger needs to happen to make the point, but I don’t know what.
This. “it is imperative that members of the press refer to trans people in a way that respects each person’s gender identity or expression”
(Source: transradical, via agradschoolbreakup)
