Trans Lives Matter

31-year-old Dana Martin becomes the US’ first trans murder victim of 2019

Dana Martin. Courtesy Facebook.

Infuriating news from Alabama: the state’s first homicide victim of 2019 also happens to be a transgender woman. The murder also marks the first killing of a transgender person in the US this year.

Police discovered the body of 31-year-old Dana Martin in an abandoned vehicle near Montgomery on January 6. She died of a fatal gunshot wound.

Related: Two women arrested for attacking a transgender woman in a bathroom

Preliminary information is sketchy at best, and the case remains under investigation. Early information suggests Martin died near the site where police found her body. Law enforcement also misgendered her as male in their first reports.

Statistically speaking, transgender women face a far-higher likelihood of becoming victims of violence and murder. According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 26 transgender people were murdered in 2018.

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