by Jose Soto •
Ra’Lasia Wright, a 25-year-old Black Latina transgender woman of Puerto Rican descent, loved her friends and family. Camilla Lieng, a friend of Ra’Lasia, described her as being “outgoing and protective.” Lieng, who is also transgender, said Ra’Lasia took her “under her wing and brought me around her people and they showed me love and loved me and now I don't have anyone else to go anywhere with.” Ra’Lasia was born in Gary, Indiana. Her family later relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota around when she was 10-years-old.
Late at night on November 30, 2024, Lieng and other friends of Ra’Lasia received an iPhone SOS emergency text from Ra’Lasia’s phone which indicated that her phone had detected a crash. On December 1, 2024, at around 12:30 p.m., Ra’Lasia’s friends located her across the street from Minneapolis’ Powderhorn Park by tracking her cell phone location She was found shot in the chest. Ra’Lasia’s death is at least the 31st transgender or gender-expansive person killed in the United States in 2024, and the third killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota; all three victims were transgender women who were killed by a gun.
Ra’Lasia was outspoken about her transgender identity and transitioning journey. In interviews published on YouTube, Ra’Lasia discussed her experiences about socially adjusting as a transgender woman, hormone therapy and medication and her journey with gender identity.
Voices like Ra’Lasia’s are so instrumental to the visibility and empowerment of our transgender community, and losing these voices is incredibly tragic. Ra’Lasia’s life was one of transparency and honesty, and the more people we lose to fatal violence, the more we have to condemn it and continue to push for legal protections and for the safety of our communities. Ending 2024 with such news is tragic, but it is also a reminder of the work that lies ahead of us in the incoming year.”
On December 22, 2024, community members and loved ones, including Lieng, gathered for a vigil to honor and remember Ra’Lasia. At the vigil, Lieng said she is “going to keep pushing until justice is served.”
No arrests have been made, and anyone with information about Wright’s death is urged to email policetips@minneapolismn.gov or leave a message at 612-673-5845. Tips can also be left anonymously with CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or at CrimeStoppersMN.org.
More than 25,000 hate crimes in the U.S. involve a firearm each year, which equates to almost 70 cases a day, according to a 2023 report from Everytown for Gun Safety in partnership with HRC and The Equality Federation Support Fund, “Remembering and Honoring Pulse: Anti-LGBTQ Bias and Guns Are Taking Lives of Countless LGBTQ People.” The report also notes a marked increase in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes, especially against transgender people. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, the FBI found that more than 1 in 5 hate crimes were motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and saw a 16% jump in attacks based on gender identity from the year before.
At the state level, transgender and gender non-conforming people in Minnesota are protected from discrimination in employment, housing, education and public spaces. Though we have recently seen some political gains that support and affirm transgender people, we have also faced unprecedented anti-LGBTQ+ attacks in the states.
We must demand better from our elected officials and reject harmful anti-transgender legislation at the local, state and federal levels, while also considering every possible way to make ending this violence a reality. It is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, especially Black transgender women. The intersections of racism, transphobia, sexism, biphobia and homophobia conspire to deprive them of necessities to live and thrive, so we must all work together to cultivate acceptance, reject hate and end stigma for everyone in the trans and gender non-conforming community.
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