The past year has shown us how the anti-immigrant rhetoric read as anti-Latino translates into very real acts of violence against humans like Marcelo Lucero and José Sucuzhañay. Combine the racism with homophobia and transphobia, bolstered by the hateful Proposition 8 measure, and we have cases like Angie Zapata.

Memphis, Tennessee seems to be a center of hate against trans women of color, as according to Pam’s House Blend, in the last six months, at least three trans women have been targeted with Leeneshia Edwards as the latest.

Police say the shooting happened sometime around 5:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 23, 2008 in the 3100 block of Boxtown Road in south Memphis near T.O. Fuller State Park. Leeneshia Edwards was last seen about an hour earlier at the “C.K.’s Coffee Shop” on Union Avenue in midtown Memphis.

Edwards, is now in critical condition at “The Med”. Her cousin tells us Edwards was shot in the jaw, side and back and is undergoing multiple surgeries.

“The detective said it looked like she was turning to get out of the car and the dude shot her at close range. I just hope when she wakes up she can remember who it was,” says Nicole Holliwell.

I don’t know if Federal Hate Crime legislation will do anything to stop the attacks, especially with the media painting the victims of hate crimes as somehow “asking for it”, because they were undocumented, because they were sex workers, because they weren’t white, because they didn’t conform to “norms” of gender. It goes deeper than a law or lack thereof and until the idea who who deserves to live and who deserves to die, what lives are more valued than other, are dealt with there will be more Marcelos, Joses, Angies and Leeneshias

Via / Womanist Musings, My Eyewitness News