A crowd marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday night to bring attention to the violence and discrimination that transgender New Yorkers face.
Members of the LGBT community walked from City Hall to Brooklyn’s Borough Hall in honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance.
They lit candles and read the names of some 200 transgender people they say were victims of violence.
Just a few months ago, Islan Nettles was beaten to death in Harlem after her attackers found out she was transgender.
“From the numbers that we have, the transgender community is significantly more likely to be the victims of violence and murders, not only the transgender community, but then those numbers go up even higher for transgender women, but also transgender people of color,” said Erin Drinkwater of the Brooklyn Community Pride Center.
“Absolutely, there’s a lot more work to be done on the city level, but also on the state level,” said Councilman-elect Carlos Menchaca of Brooklyn.
There is state bill that would make it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity, however the Gender Equality Non-Discrimination Act has yet to come up for a vote in the State Senate.
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via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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