Trans Nursing Student Michelle Ramos Vargas Shot To Death, The Sixth Known Homicide Of A Trans Person In Puerto Rico This Year
Michelle “Michellyn” Ramos Vargas, a 33-year-old trans woman, has been shot to death in Puerto Rico, making her the sixth trans person to die by violence in the U.S. territory this year and the 30th nationwide.
Ramos Vargas’s body was found on the side of the road in the town of San Germán, having been shot several times in the head.
Trans Puerto Ricans are being hunted, LGBT+ activist Pedro Julio Serrano said. “Enough of so much hate,” said a statement issued by Serrano. “Trans people are as human as everyone else and deserve to live in peace, equality, and freedom.”
Trans rights activist Joanna Cifredo de Fellman also spoke out. “Her name is Michelle Ramos Vargas and she was my age,” she said. “Her passion, like mine, was helping other people; that’s why she decided to study nursing. Here is another sad example that gender perspective is urgently needed to educate our youth to recognize, respect, and celebrate the differences between us. … I wonder how long we will continue to ignore sexist violence because, although we do not know the murderer’s identity, we already know that it was a man. Now they will come with their transphobia to make excuses and justify her death. Who has the right to take someone’s life? Tell me!”
As the ‘Advocate’ reports, other known trans homicide victims in Puerto Rico this year are Alexa Negrón Luciano, a homeless trans woman, shot to death in Toa Baja, hours after being reported to police for using a women’s restroom at a McDonald’s; trans man Yampi Méndez Arocho, fatally shot in Moca; Serena Angelique Velázquez and Layla Pelaez, visitors from New York City, shot to death in Humacao; and Penélope Díaz Ramírez, killed at the Bayamon correctional complex. Sean Díaz De León and Juan Carlos Pagán Bonilla have been charged with murdering Velázquez and Pelaez, but the other cases remain open.
Read related myGwork articles here:
14 Countries Ban Being Trans, New International Reports Reveals
US Marine Who Killed Trans Woman Gets Presidential Pardon
El Salvador Police Officers Sentenced To 20 Years For Killing Trans Woman
Black Trans Woman Stabbed To Death At A Vigil For Another Murder Victim
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