By Rian Brown and Angela Peoples in Get Equal - Last week, we disrupted Hillary Clinton’s campaign event in Cleveland, OH, asking her to “divest from private prisons, invest in black trans women.” As representatives of Black Lives Matter and GetEQUAL our ask was strategic and intentional. Since Hillary Clinton makes equality for women a critical tenet of her campaign platform, we demand that Clinton -- and our own movement for black lives -- center the black transgender women so often left out of conversations about gender and racial equity. As cisgender Black women, we are fighting for our trans family: we understand that Black liberation means all Black people, and we resist the idea that anyone is disposable in our work.
We are in a state of emergency -- the murder rate of trans women of color, particularly Black trans women, is higher than ever, with at least 20 women murdered since the beginning of 2015. Black trans women make up at least 13 of those killed -- in the state of Ohio alone, 6 trans women have been murdered since 2011.