One more transgender woman has been murdered. It happened in Cleveland, OH. They caught the murderer. That is good. I do pray that a day will come when all people can walk and be and live in their authenticity without being hated, harmed or for that matter murdered. This transgender woman was in her early twenties, living her life. Of course there will be some who say she shouldn't have been out in that situation, that if she was going to be and live as a women she should have adopted the fears of bio-women. Frankly this misses the point. No one, man or woman, however they identify should live in fear. Each of us as children of God must live free. I think, as a transgender woman myself, freedom to live, move and breath as God has made me requires a lot of faith, this faith producing the courage to be, no matter the risk and a strong dose of reality. In some respects this transgender woman's death is a present day Civil Rights issue. Now I know that Civil Rights is the sacred purview of some in the African American community, especially, since some in the African American community consider a transgender woman to be unrighteous, men in women's attire, yet the reality of ignorance should not detract from the very real cause of Civil Rights. Just as African American's were lynched and butchered out of hatred and ignorance, does not mean that they are or were any less of a human being. So I guess I am arguing here for the same respect that all people deserve. That said, her life was God's life, her challenge, her troubles and her gifts were God's. A little bit of God's joy and love left the earth that day and we are less for it. Her tragic death must not be in vain as we pray and push forward hate crimes legislation. So my beloved, as a comprehensive hate crimes bill goes forward I pray that this hate filled crime becomes the fuel towards the passage of hate crimes legislation into law.
Rev. Monica Joy Cross
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