BY BTL STAFF
GEORGIA – The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) stood in solidarity Dec. 17 with sex workers and their allies to commemorate the 11th Annual International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers.
Dec. 6 marked the 12th case of a transgender woman of color found murdered since the NCAVP started counting in June.
"At least twelve transgender women of color have been brutally killed in 2014, and these are only the twelve women that we at NCAVP know about definitively; there certainly may be more" said Osman Ahmed, NCAVP's research and education coordinator at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. "We need immediate action on a national level to address the alarming violence against transgender women, so that in 2015 these community members are no longer being killed."
Keymori Shatoya Johnson from Albany, Georgia was found on Dec. 1 and police have arrested Kuyaunnis James, 25, who has been charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and solicitation of prostitution.
Transgender women of color face alarming, pervasive and deadly violence in the United States. The NCAVP's most recent reports on hate violence and intimate partner violence within and against LGBT and HIV-affected communities documents the pervasive and disproportional violence faced by transgender women of color. Transgender women of color are disproportionately impacted by homicide, physical violence and police violence.
Sex work remains illegal in most states, which makes sex workers vulnerable to violence and less likely to report to the police or community organizations for fear of arrest, abuse or reprisal. According to a 2012 report by the Anti-Violence Project, 23 percent of LGBT murder victims were killed while engaging in sex work, every 6.3 minutes a woman is arrested for prostitution in the U.S. and between 2001 and 2011, 839,300 individuals were arrested for prostitution in the U.S.
The NCAVP honors those lives lost to violence against sex workers and recommits to building safety for all people, including LGBT and HIV-affected sex workers targeted by violence.
