Amber Monroe was 20 years old. News of her killing, which took place the morning of Aug. 8, was broken by Cherno Biko, a self-described actor/public speaker, human rights advocate and trans woman of color in Columbus, Ohio. Biko is connected to some of Amber’s friends and others on the ground in Detroit.

From Biko’s Instagram:

autostraddle interviewed Biko and reports:

Biko told me that Amber “was 20 years old and full of life and such a fighter. This was actually her third time being shot, but she wasn’t comfortable going to the police the first two times because of the relationship Black trans women in Detriot [sic] have with the police.”

Fusion reports:

“[Amber] loved to dance,” Bre Campbell told Fusion. Campbell is a trans activist from Detroit living in Washington, D.C., where she’s a fellow at the National LGBTQ Taskforce. She knew Monroe from the Horizons Project, which specializes in HIV/AIDS prevention and care for adolescents at Wayne State University.

“She would always come to my groups,” Campbell said of Monroe, who was 20 at the time she was killed. “She kind of looked up to me a little. She told me a lot about her life. She was just funny, really funny.”

Lakyra Dawson describes herself as Amber’s “gay aunt” in the vogue scene, which Amber had recently gotten into.

“Amber was a firework,” Dawson said. “She was young, full of life, like all the young girls are. Fearless. She was a cool person. She cared for everybody.”

Dawson sometimes slipped into the present tense when talking about Monroe. It had not yet been two days since her death. “She likes to vogue. She just started learning. She walked a couple of balls.”

Fusion reports:

Accounts of Monroe’s death differed, though everyone agrees on the time and place: early Saturday morning at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and 6 Mile Road, halfway between Palmer Park and the Ruth Ellis Center.

“From what I’m hearing, she was standing on the street with some friends,” Campbell said. “Someone drove by and was shooting. I’m not sure if they were shooting specifically at her or at the group.”

Dawson said that, to her knowledge, Monroe was alone. “She got into a little altercation with a client,” Dawson explained. “She was trying to jump out of the car and she was shot in the back.”

Dawson told Fusion that she “and a different girlfriend were on John R [a nearby street]” at the time Monroe was killed. Still, she said that she didn’t get the news until 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.

“This was actually [Monroe’s] third time being shot, but she wasn’t comfortable going to the police the first two times,” trans rights activist Cherno Biko told Autostraddle yesterday.

Dawson confirmed this: “She had two other incidents before. The police here…they’re assholes.” Dawson said that trans women of color in her community can’t predict how they’ll be treated by law enforcement should they seek help, especially if they’re involved in sex work. “You better be lucky they ain’t trying to run your name and take you to jail.”

Rest In Power, Amber.

Shelley “Treasure” Hilliard. Say her name.

Today is a National Day of Action for Black Women and Girls. We wanted to use this opportunity to say that we haven’t forgotten Shelley.

Shelley was 19 years old when her brutal murder in 2011 made national news after it was revealed that she had been forced to work as an informant for the Madison Height’s police in suburban Detroit. Her mother later sued the department, claiming that police revealed her identity to drug dealers who later killed her.

When police found a burnt torso on Detroit’s east side, the medical examiner was able to identify her — several weeks later — only by a cherry tattoo on her arm.

And she died just because the police found her with some weed and wanted to use her to catch her dealer, according to the lawsuit filed by her mother, Lyniece Nelson:

In October 2011, officers smelled marijuana at a Motel 6 in Madison Heights and found Hilliard, a male companion, Michael Slaughter, and a bag of marijuana in Room 236, Nelson says.

“Defendants Wolowiec and Koehler threatened to arrest Shelly Hilliard and subject her to jail and/or prison - a notoriously dangerous place for any transgendered individual - unless she assisted defendants by identifying the person who sold her and/or Slaughter the marijuana,” the complaint states.

“Defendants then demanded that Ms. Hilliard call the marijuana dealer and order a delivery of marijuana to the motel room. To avoid arrest, Ms. Hilliard agreed to do this.

But the police did not keep her identity confidential. 

More can be read on AlterNet. [Trigger Warning: Graphic description of abduction, violence and murder.]

Today, remember Shelley Hilliard and the countless black trans women who have been murdered or otherwise treated as disposable by the police. Rest in power, Shelley.

Nov. 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance, where we remember and honor the victims of transphobic violence. Four Michiganders have been murdered in the past year: Ashton O’Hara, Amber Monroe, Melvin Daniels and Fern Gonzales.

Today, we would like to honor their memory and re-commit to working toward more inclusive communities for people of all gender identities and expressions. 2015 has been a year of increased visibility for the transgender community — and, correspondingly, a year of increased discrimination, harassment and violence for the trans community, particularly those who are most marginalized — trans women of color.

We want to be clear: None of them were at fault for or deserved their on deaths, regardless of their means of income/survival or other circumstances of their deaths.

Few people in this world are ever perfect victims, and all too many people will use their perceived imperfections to victim-blame, as a way of freeing their own consciences from the burden of caring or taking action. The LGBTQ community is just as guilty of such behavior. Such behavior contributes to the notion that “black trans lives don’t matter” — and that attitude must end. Your silence is complicity; your silence is violence. The louder we say their names, the more we affirm their value and affirm our commitment to trans and queer liberation. Stand up and speak out for those who no longer can.

To Ashton O’Hara, Amber Monroe, Fern Gonzales, Melvin Daniels and the countless other transgender people whose lives ended far too soon: Rest in Power.

[TRIGGER WARNING: Transphobia, transmisogyny, graphic descriptions of violence. The news articles include victim-blaming and misgendering.]

Below are details about the identities, ages, situations of death, arrests made (if any) and words from family and friends for each of the four Michiganders who have been killed.

Keep reading

Now THIS is worth driving to East Lansing for!

CeCe McDonald — a black trans woman who was jailed for fatally injuring a man who attacked her outside a bar — will be speaking at MSU on Monday, April 6 at 6 p.m.!

The event will place in the RCAH Auditorium, which is located in the basement of Snyder-Phillips Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

CeCe will be sharing her story and participating in a discussion with local activists about building intersectional movements.

Check out the Facebook event.

People around the world have rallied around CeCe to call out her conviction and 19-month imprisonment (in men’s prisons!) as transphobic and racist reactions to a woman who was simply defending herself. Laverne Cox (of Orange Is the New Black) has been an outspoken supporter of CeCe and is working on a documentary about her called “FREE CeCe.”

Fair Michigan, an initiative to get LGBTQ non-discrimination protections on the 2016 ballot in Michigan, will put the transgender community at increased risk of violence. 

“We’re already subject to just astronomical rates of violence and discrimination and murder,” says Amy Hunter, a trans woman who is the Transgender Advocacy Project Coordinator at the ACLU of Michigan and was recently interviewed by Michigan Radio.

Additionally, in-depth voter models conducted in Michigan indicate that the initiative will fail miserably, particularly if conservatives target the trans community as possible “bathroom predators,” the scare tactic that caused the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance to fail and resulted in increased violence against trans women in the city.

Keep reading