“In a year marked by social upheaval, growing white supremacist movements and a global pandemic, organizations led by and for people who are queer, transgender, Black, Indigenous, and people of color are creating transformational change in communities,” according to a press release announcing the series. “
What Makes Pride focuses the lens on their stories, their work and the QTBIPOC leaders who embody Pride in 2021.
PFLAG National Executive Director Brian K. Bond said, “As the nation’s largest organization for families and allies of LGBTQ+ people, it’s our role to signal boost.
What Makes Pride builds on this action, and elevates the ‘who’ behind transformational work.
Two trans women brutally killed as anti-trans hate surges in US
Sophie Vásquez, a 36-year-old Latina transgender woman, was fatally shot in her Brookhaven, Atlanta apartment last week.
Police found her body neglected in the doorway of an apartment in the 400 building at Atlantic Brookhaven. Vásquez was not a recorded resident, according to Project Q.
Brookhaven Police Department later confirmed Vásquez was murdered in Gwinnett County in the early morning.
The 36-year-old was misgendered and deadnamed in the police report for the case.
“Through communications with the Community Estrella and the Brookhaven Police Department, I confirmed reports that a Latina transgender woman, Sophie Vasquez, was murdered in Gwinnett County on the morning of May 4,” Darlene Darlington Wagner, the President at Transgender Day of Remembrance Atlanta shared on Facebook.
Black Trans Women Shot to Death in Georgia, Mississippi February 04 2021 3:52 PM EST
Black transgender women were shot to death in Georgia and Mississippi in January, meaning that at least four trans Americans have died by violence in the first month of the year.
Bianca “Muffin” Bankz, 30, was fatally shot in her apartment in Atlanta January 17, but media reports of her death have come out in just the past few days. Police believe her killer was a man named Moses Allen, who then took his own life,
Their bodies were discovered by Bankz’s roommate, with whom she had often lived on the streets. Bankz had moved into the apartment just a few weeks before she died.
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Friends and transgender advocates said Bonaire “Bonnie” Black was trying to find employment and housing. She was found dead on Dec. 31.
With fistfuls of pink and blue balloons – the colors of the transgender flag – friends gathered outside a drop-in center last week to memorialize Bonaire “Bonnie” Black, a transgender teen living on the streets who was found dead on New Year’s Eve.
The death of Black, 19, is under investigation by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office. There were no signs of foul play, according to an incident report from Atlanta police, but people who knew Black said she was killed during an argument.
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Raphael Warnock is assembling an advisory council of two-dozen LGBTQ elected officials, activists and grassroots organizers to help carry his U.S. Senate campaign “over the finish line” in the Jan. 5 runoff.
Warnock announced the Out for Warnock LGBTQ+ Advisory Council on Friday, the latest move from a campaign that is embracing LGBTQ equality issues as part of its effort to unseat U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
“The future of LGBTQ rights is on the ballot for this election. That is why bringing together so many hardworking LGBTQ+ Georgians to carry us over the finish line was a vital part of our campaign strategy,” Warnock said in a prepared statement.