On February 11, Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender girl, was found on a path in Culcheth Linear Park in Cheshire, England with multiple stab wounds. First responders showed up minutes later and pronounced her dead at 3:13 pm. Four days later, two 15-year-old children were charged with killing her.
Although Brianna Ghey’s father had brought up his concerns about bullying caused by her gender identity it was ignored by school authorities multiple times. The school has not commented on Ghey’s death. Originally, the police had ruled out that her death was a hate crime, later the Cheshire police announced that they would investigate it further.
Sadly, it was no surprise to friends or family that this could have been a hate crime. In a TikTok Brianna had posted 5 days before her death she had stated that she was “excluded at school again.” Friends had told The Sun that people who did know about the bullying “refused to intervene.”
Her Campus spoke with Juno Lee, a junior studying political science, who identifies as a transgender woman.
“I just couldn’t get out of my head that she was a child… [It] boggles [my] mind how anyone could feel anything other than pure disgust at this tragedy,” said Lee.
Regarding the two 15-year-olds who were charged with the murder, Lee says “[it] made me really think how anyone – let alone another child – be so hateful. I guess since I first heard about it, I’ve sort of accepted that deeply rooted beliefs, misinformation, and dogma can be extremely powerful and harmful even in children.”
As of 2013 the Human Rights Campaign has tracked violent hate crimes relating to non-binary and transgender deaths. They found that Black transgender women are killed at a more disproportionate rate than any other. In 2022 the HRC reported of all non-binary and transgender deaths. In their report, 81 percent of all deaths were trans women and 59 percent of those deaths were Black people.
In the United States, there have been at least four deaths within the first two months of 2023. Zachee Imanitwitaho, a Black trans woman who had immigrated from Rwanda. According to her GoFundMe, she was killed at her place of employment on February 3rd. Unique Banks, a Latina trans woman who was killed in a mass shooting in Chicago, Illinois. The targeted attack also took the life of her mother and injured her friends. KC Johnson, a white trans woman who was confirmed dead after going missing a day earlier. The police believe they have found her remains in Georgia but are still waiting for confirmation. Jasmine “Star” Mack, a Black trans woman who was killed in D.C. on January 27. Sadly, this was not the first time Mack had experienced violence based off of her character. Pamela Witherspoon, Mack’s sister, told the Washington Post “She’d been stabbed before. She’d been shot because of her sexuality. She was abused. People rejected her. She just wanted to be herself. She was a sweet person. She was not mean. She just wanted a chance at life.”
When asked what we can do to prevent trans hate crimes, Lee says “trans people including non-binary people need to be collectively organizing and educating their communities.”
I will leave you with the same quote Lee left me with, “oppression doesn’t stop by itself, you have to stop it yourself.”