**Trigger warning: this story describes violence against a Black trans woman and her murder.**

Trans women continue to be targeted for violence, hatred, and harm in the United States. Sadly, these issues and altercations all too often end in homicide. The fourteenth known trans person was killed in New Orleans on June 9th. Her name was Goddess Diamond even though the New Orleans Advocate has reported her death while misgendering her and using her previous name.

Diamond’s cause of death was blunt force trauma and her body was found in a burning car. The crime has been ruled a homicide.

Diamond had recently moved back to the area and was working at a Wal-Mart in the French Quarter. She was loved by her friends and family.

“When I asked her if she identified as a man or a woman, she told me that she would answer to both. But being that she was transitioning, I felt that it was the best to refer to her as a woman, and she agreed,” her co-worker, George Melichar, told The New Orleans Advocate. She “was very loved, and was very kind,” Melichar said. “And that’s what makes this more difficult. In addition to losing a friend, we lost an LGBT leader.”

This is another tragic loss and evidence that the United States still has quite a long way to go to end violence against all women, especially those of trans experience.

 

Photo: Goddess Diamond Facebook

Author

  • Jenn M. Jackson was born and raised in East Oakland, California, a fact which motivates her writing and academic ambitions. She is a scholar, educator, and writer whose writing addresses Black Politics and civil and public life for young Black people with a focus on policing and surveillance. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Water Cooler Convos, a culture platform for Black millennials. Her writing has been featured in Washington Post, BITCH Magazine, Marie Claire, EBONY, The Root, Daily Dot, The Independent, and many others. Jackson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago studying American Politics with a focus on political participation and engagement, public opinion and social movements. For more about her, tweet her at @JennMJack or visit her website at jennmjackson.com.