Leslie Mora had started her walk home from a nightclub on Roosevelt Avenue when two men began to accost her. They then proceeded to beat her with belt buckles that left gashes on her scalp and legs. Throughout, Mora’s assailants called her a “faggot” in Spanish. The police called to the scene found Mora nearly naked and bleeding on the sidewalk.
The attack on Mora, a transgender woman, took place on June 19. On July 8, Carmella Etienne felt the hail of rocks and bottles. Her assailants threatened to slash her throat.
Diversity in the borough of Queens comes in many colors, some represented by the flags of the nations but also by the rainbow flag of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.
But recent attacks against transgender women in Jackson Heights and St. Albans rallied a diverse group of community residents and leaders to denounce these acts of violence and hate.
“People travelled from as far as Westchester County to Jackson Heights,” said Brendan Fay, in reference to Joann Princivalli, a transgender district leader from Westchester, who joined over 200 people on Sunday, July 26. “The community really responded.”
A moment of silence was held in memory of transgender people who have died from violence as the result of anti-transgender bias. Journals were passed among the crowd for people to write messages of support and encouragement for Mora and Etienne as they recover.
In the nomenclature of the LGBT community, transgender people define their gender differently than the sex assigned to them at birth. The result of this nuanced definition is that attacks against transgender people are not included under federal or New York State discrimination or hate crime laws, which do protect based on sexual orientation. Transgender people have been protected under the New York City Charter since May 2001.
“If you cross the border from the Bronx to Westchester, you are screwed,” said Melissa Sklarz, a transgender resident of Woodside, who, along with Fay, organized the rally.
According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, in 2008 nearly 300 transgender people filed reports of violence against them motivated by anti-transgender bias. On average, a transgender person is murdered every month in the U.S.
“We want people in Queens to be aware that transgender people are all over the county and the borough. We are your neighbors, your hairdressers,” she said. “Random violence against certain residents in Queens is not okay.”
