** Trigger warning: This statement contains language about the murders and violence facing transgender people**
Six transgender people have been murdered in Puerto Rico since the beginning of this year. This year is proving to be one of the most deadly and violent toward the transgender community as seen by the 31 documented murders that have taken place in the US. From the 31 murdered this year, it’s important to uplift that the majority of those that have passed identified as Black or Latinx trans women. The lack of respect for the lives of trans women of color is disheartening and continues to fuel a culture of discrimination and stigma that creates a cycle of violence.
While the number of violent murders of our trans siblings increase across the United States, Puerto Rico is facing a violent spike in which 1 to 2 documented cases weekly where trans people are aggravated and assaulted. Earlier this month, Nicole Pastrana was assaulted on October 8th in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. Among this violence, a significant number have taken place in Puerto Rico. Today- we uplift the names of the transgender people in which their lives have been taken. Please join us in honoring their lives and legacies:
Michelle “Michellyn” Ramos Vargas, 33, was found along a highway in San Germán, a municipality in southwest Puerto Rico.
Alexa Negrón Luciano, a homeless trans woman, was killed in Toa Baja on Feb. 24.
Penélope Díaz Ramírez, a trans woman, was killed in a jail in the San Juan suburb of Bayamón on April 13.
Authorities in Humacao on April 22 found the bodies of two trans women, Serena Angelique Velázquez and Layla Pelaez, in Pelaez’s car that had been set on fire.
Yampi Méndez Arocho, a trans man, was killed in Moca on March 5.
This violence is not an isolated incident, the violence against LGBTQ+ community members, especially those in which identify as transgender, is significant in Puerto Rico. These stories deserve to be uplifted and we must counter and work to change the culture of transphobia across the US, in Puerto Rico, and beyond.
Maria Roman-Taylorson, Vice President of The TransLatin@ Coalition says: “As a Transgender Woman raised in Puerto Rico my heart breaks from the increased onslaught, vicious murders fueled by hate the Transgender community has faced in 2020. What breaks my heart even more is the ambivalence of the LGBT community in the United States towards this violence. What's it gonna take to stop the violence against our sisters in Puerto Rico and for you to pay attention? We have seen members of the LGBT community shared all over social media about coming out day. However, crickets about the atrocities Trans People are facing. Coming out to the Trans community in Puerto Rico can equal death. We need to do more to highlight these atrocities and begin demanding justice in the systems that keep oppressing Trans People in Puerto Rico.”