Last month, in South Carolina, Sasha Wall became the eighth transgender woman murdered. She was discovered slumped over the wheel of her car, and police said that the car was parked on the road and left running for nearly two hours, as unknowing motorist drove past. Though those motorists were unaware of the tragedy that had taken place, it may be a forewarning of the lack of seriousness taken in this case. What could be the cause? Blatant transphobia?

According to a November report by the Human Rights Campaign,¹ 2017 was the “deadliest on record” for our community, with 28 known cases of fatal violence against trans men and women. Trans women constituted an overwhelming majority of the first 25 trans murders of 2017.

Sasha Wall’s murder² is the first known killing of a trans person in South Carolina since the HRC began keeping track in 2013. Palmetto State politics are known for being occasionally hostile to LGBT community and create an easy atmosphere of discrimination in employment, housing and the lack of compassion in dealing with LGBT lives.

After previous attempts at legislation against trans people failed, a few state Representatives in the western, and most conservative region of the state introduced a bill to invalidate gay marriages by calling them “parody marriages,” earlier this year. At a political gathering on April 30th, 2018, a Republican running for Rep. Trey Gowdy’s seat in Congress questioned the validity of being transgender.

“You’re either a man or a woman — and if you’re confused, you’ve got an issue with mental illness,” said former state Sen. Lee Bright, according to the Greenville News.
In most parts of the state of South Carolina, finding a job and housing is nearly impossible, that becomes twice as hard for transgender people of color. This is the atmosphere South Carolina transgender people live under, trans people like Sasha Wall who was found to have been shot multiple times at close range in her neck and shoulder. It’s the kind of atmosphere and indifference by those paid to protect all citizens that is slow to find a suspect, or worst to even call this a hate crime.

Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks has confirmed that the FBI is assisting local law enforcement in analyzing cell tower data and phone records near the crime scene. He’s added that Wall’s family has provided a list of possible suspects, but that the case is not being investigated as a hate crime.

“Everything’s pointing to (the indication) it was a breakup-like argument,” Brooks told The State. He also continues to misgender her in the media in one of the most blatant and unchallenged ways I’ve witnessed in years of transgender people when he referred to the victim as a “crossdresser”, to Charlotte-based NBC affiliate. “He is a crossdresser, and he was dressed and had makeup on and that kind of stuff, but whether that has anything to do with this case or not, we have no idea.”

Statements like “that kind of stuff”, and more don’t give many trans people hope that Sherrif Brooks even cares if it was or not a hate crime.

Sadly also, state LGBT agencies, even ones with a transgender director has done little than release a statement to a Charleston SC paper. “Such intolerance is common in reports about violence against trans folk,” said an Executive Director of Alliance for Full Acceptance to Charleston City Paper. Along with stating the obvious problem with media misgendering trans people. Trans people of color in South Carolina continue to receive the message that their lives matter less, and often even by state LGBT organizations that often forget the T exist unless there’s grant money to be acquired or so it doesn’t endanger any cis-normative ideals of just being LGB.

The south remains one of the most discriminating areas of the US. There are few states with Hate Crime laws and those that do cover only sexual orientation, not gender. Racial tensions affect even in the LGBT community, with little if zero outreach or inclusion of trans people of color in LGBT organizations. Local police departments go unchallenged in their daily stops and harassment of those caught “walking while trans”, according to North Charleston’s Katrina Washington, who told TMP about several reported moments of police harassment while walking to work. She has no car.

These lead to an atmosphere of media misgendering trans people and investigators not only misgendering and making un-educated remarks about a trans person’s transition but a lack of respect and justice for the life of a trans woman of color in South Carolina.

Let’s hope this begins to change Carolina.

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1. HRC November 2017 report on Transgender homicides

2. South Carolina Trans-Woman Eighth Murdered in 2018