A 31-year-old transgender woman was found dead in the West Garfield Park neighborhood in Chicago this week reports the Chicago Sun Times. Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier was found with multiple stab wounds and it is believed she was murdered by someone she had an altercation with.
Cook County medical pronounced Frazier dead at the scene.
To date there had been 21 trans women killed in the United States according to the Human Rights Campaign. Frazier is the second trans woman to be killed in the last month.
Executive director Chicago trans advocacy group Brave Space Alliance, LaSaia Wade, spoke with Sun Times:
It feels like we are being targeted. I’m frustrated and upset with the lack of cases turning around. There is a lack of needs for our safety from police.
Wade and Frazier knew each other from the Chicago ball scene.
Authorities are still investigating this murder and that of 24-year-old Dejanay Stanton who was shot on August 30th in Bronzeville.
According to the HRC:
In 2017, advocates tracked at least 29 deaths of transgender people in the United States due to fatal violence, the most ever recorded. These victims were killed by acquaintances, partners and strangers, some of whom have been arrested and charged, while others have yet to be identified. Some of these cases involve clear anti-transgender bias. In others, the victim’s transgender status may have put them at risk in other ways, such as forcing them into homelessness.
