Transgender Day of Remembrance critics say some deaths not hate-related

Kiwi Herring was fatally shot by police earlier this year after she stabbed her neighbor with a butcher knife and slashed the arm of an officer.

The 30-year-old transgender woman was honored by gay-rights organizations Monday, to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, as one of many victims “murdered because of hate.”

“While investigations continue in many of these cases, what is clear is that anti-trans discrimination, hate, and barriers to housing, employment and health care expose transgender people to circumstances that too-often lead to violence,” Sarah McBride, national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.

The Human Rights Campaign released a report to commemorate the 25 transgender people who have been killed in the U.S. so far in 2017.

Activists point to these deaths as evidence of widespread transphobia. But few of the victims, if any, appear to have been targeted because of their gender identity. In three of the deaths, the transgender person was killed by police after approaching officers with a deadly weapon and refusing to drop it.

Joseph Backholm, president of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, called the day of remembrance “misleading” and “politically motivated.”

“The motive here is not only mislead people into how many hate crimes are happening, but hopefully to inspire people to hate those who they think are being hateful,” Mr. Backholm said. “It’s not helpful.”

Police in Sharon, Pennsylvania, were called by the mother of Sean Marie Hake, 23, when she said the transgender man held a razor blade to her throat. Police say Hake had blood dripping from his wrists when they arrived, refused to drop a utility knife and continued to approach officers despite their warnings.

“Hake stated that, ’You are going to have to kill me, or I’m going to have to kill you,’” Mercer County District Attorney Mike Karson Jr. said, reported CBS Pittsburgh, upon the conclusion of an investigation that determined the shooting was justified.

Hake’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the Sharon Police Department in September claiming officers used excessive force.

Scout Schultz, 21, similarly was shot and killed by Georgia Tech police officers in September after approaching them with a knife and shouting, “Shoot me!”

Schultz, a non-binary student who was president of the Pride Alliance at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, had called the police moments before to report a “suspicious person” who was “holding a knife” and possibly “had a gun on his hip,” according to a 911 call obtained by Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta.

Authorities later found suicide notes in the student’s dorm room.

Another individual recognized on Transgender Day of Remembrance, Ava Le’Ray Barrin, 17, was shot and killed after getting into a dispute with a rival transgender gang in June. The alleged assailant, Jalen Breon Brown, 21, also identifies as a transgender woman. She claimed the attack was motivated by self-defense, she but was charged with murder.

In at least six of the 25 deaths, police said there was no evidence to suggest the killing was related to the individual’s gender identity. Prosecutors are not pursuing hate crime charges in any of the cases, although some states do not include gender identity as a basis for hate crimes.

Gay-rights activists have criticized officials for not pursuing hate crime charges in the slaying of Ally Steinfeld, 17, in Cabool, Missouri.

Steinfeld was killed in September by three people with whom she was sharing a mobile home, including 24-year-old Briana Calderas, whom she was dating.

The suspects allegedly tried to get Steinfeld to drink poison, but then stabbed her after that didn’t work. They gouged out her eyes, stabbed her in the genitals multiple times and eventually burned her body. The victim’s bones were found in a garbage bag. All three assailants have been charged with first-degree murder.

Authorities have not released the motive for the killing. Despite the way in which the attack was carried out, they insist Steinfeld’s gender identity was not a factor.

Mr. Backholm said the stories chronicled on Transgender Day of Remembrance are further evidence that transgender people are suffering. Data show as many as 40 percent of the cohort have attempted suicide.

“The reality is the transgender community is suffering in all sorts of ways,” Mr. Backholm said. “But the accusation that this is because there are people who believe genitalia and chromosomes have something to do with gender is badly misinformed.”