FL Trans Woman Found Murdered On 9-4

[Carolyn Marie]

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Bee Slater is No. 18, almost all of whom are trans women of color.  This is an epidemic, a national disgrace, and almost no one outside the trans community talks about it.  Maybe it needs to be talked about at the next debate, or the WH press corps could ask the President what he will do, or even if he gives a damn.   Whatever it takes.  26 last year, 18 already this year.  This.  Must.  Stop!

 

Carolyn Marie

[Josie Beth]

He’s probably just going to say “It’s a bad thing, a really bad thing, you know really sad, bad thing it is. Blah blah really bad bad thing” and that’s about all the dialogue we’ll get about it, because his vocabulary is limited to repeating a phrase 20 different ways. I guess it’s true that politicians are nothing without their speech writers. But to be fair, and I know this isn’t going to be popular, most people right now are more concerned with this looming recession threatening to make daily life even worse than it already is and the trade war with China which could have serious consequences, so they are not going to be as concerned in the least about transgender women being murdered. It’s important, yes, but not to anyone else but us. 

 

Today my thoughts returned to this problem, and even though it seems impossible to help anything change, I had a sudden vision of clarity on the bus ride home. I passed through the old business district on “C-street” and there’s a whole block of vacant buildings near some of the most trendy shops and clubs, within walking distance of the open air market and a lot of boutiques. It’s also right down the street from the Glo center.

 

One of them is called the Hotel Missouri, which was one of those hotels that have a lot of class in it’s heyday but eventually became a run down homeless shelter. Now it’s vacant again and has really helped clean up the neighborhood because retailers have moved in the district to bring it back to what the area used to be. It’s a renaissance of sorts.

 

The buildings remain empty though and developers are still kicking around ideas of what to do with the properties. I’m pretty sure that the hotel will be renovated to attract tourists and give access to the boutiques nearby, but the other buildings are just sitting there. The owner is open to renting them out.

 

Since the attitude is to preserve the vintage look of the buildings it won’t be easy to just move in and renovate, but every time I pass the block I see a different kind of boarding house. One that is transgender friendly, a safe space. One that I’m not even clear about how to make a reality because there’s so many things that could be obstacles. Including the fact that so many transgender women are sex workers. And that’s definitely not a part of the image that the district has for itself.

 

Everything, including this looming recession is putting restrictions on my dreams of doing something close to home to make a difference. I’m not sure what to do really.

 

Trying to start a dialogue about it nation wide is going to be an uphill battle. It’s not going to be well received at all. Just the reality of the current climate. Which is why we should have an internal dialogue about it and what we can do to combat the issues that contribute to this epidemic.

 

We have to create our own lifeboats. It’s not an easy pill to swallow and I admit it seems insurmountable, but it’s probably the only way to get results that we want and the respect we deserve. And even that is going to present new and dangerous challenges.