They Refuse to call it a Hate Crime

by Kristianna Jo Tho’Masleah

On Sunday, July 23, at 3:30 p.m., memorial service will be held in the memory of Amanda Milan, a 25 year-old African American Transsexual female who had died on 43 and Eighth Avenue in the heart of the Times Square area. Memorial service will be held at the Metropolitan Community Church located at 446 West 36 Street, Manhattan, with a march to the site of her execution. It will be at the site that a shrine will be erected in her memory and in the memory of all those who had died before her.

Although, the Police and the District Attorney Robert Morganthau has refused from the start to classify the murder as a hate crime, the prevailing circumstance screams otherwise. In the morning hours, Amanda, had gotten in to an altercation with a man who verbally assailing her with anti-trans slurs, by accusing her of not being a real female and being just a guy in woman’s clothes. He stated that he in fact knew what was between "his" legs. Amanda, a person who was known by her friends to be a person who always stands up for her rights, defended her human right as a person to exist.

The verbal onslaught lasted for only for a brief period, in which Amanda, then proceeded on her way. Amanda, hailed a taxi cab at the corner of 42 and Eighth Avenue, but she was totally unaware of the fact that her verbal assailant who she thought was left behind was coaxed by his friend to get even. With knife in hand, the verbal skirmish had turned into a physical assault. As she entered into the cab he quickly ran up to her stabbing her in the throat, and it was there that Amanda died from asphyxiate. As Amanda lay in the street bleeding, cab drivers who were parked along the street began to cheer an applaud at the sight of her passing.

The murder of Amanda Milan, is just one of to many Transsexual/Transgender Women and Men who have lost their lives in this country. The Trans community is the most invisible portion of the Lesbian and Gay community. Amanda, at the time of her death was an oppressed woman of color who worked as a prostitute on the very same streets her life was taken on. Like many Transgender youth who come to the city, she was disowned by her parents because of her Transsexuality, and it was her poverty that drove her into the trade. It was the bigots who ended her life.

The TS/TG community is asking for your help. There is a need to bring the voices and spirit of all communities together to stop the violence of hate against the Gender community. A coalition of organizations have banded together to spotlight the climate of hate that prevails against the Trans community in the city of New York. This coalition is represented by The New York Anti-Violence Project, the Audre Lord Project, Metropolitan Community Church, Metropolitan Gender Network, Stonewall Veterans, City Council Member Christine Quinn, Tom Duane, Kate Bornstein, Housing Works, Positive Health Project , and many more. For more information contact the June 20^th Coalition @ (212) 629-7440

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