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Massive Journalistic Investigation of Hundreds of Murders of Transgender People, Many Unsolved: “Deaths in the Family”
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Tune into Out-FM on Tues., August 29, 2023 from 8:00-9:00pm, on 99.5 FM WBAI/NY or listen live at https://www.wbai.org/listen-live/
Press Play button to stream, or green download buttons below - to download the sound file of the promo, or the program sound file.
Massive Journalistic Investigation of Hundreds of Murders of Transgender People, Many Unsolved:
“Deaths in the Family"
At least 175 transgender people were killed across the United States between 2017 and 2021. Only 28 cases resulted in murder convictions. Sixty-one cases remain unsolved. Last November, Insider -- an international, large-scale digital news platform -- published its comprehensive investigation into those homicides, the most in-depth examination of killings of transgender people in the U.S. to date, titled "Deaths in the Family." Based on a year of public records battles and countless conversations with grief-stricken communities and intransigent police and prosecutors, this huge underreported story was assembled by a dozen reporters. They spoke with friends, family, and communities across the country to uncover stories of people killed by partners, parents, dates, clients, and police officers.
Esther Kaplan, Investigative Editor at insider.com
The reporting team was led by longtime queer journalist and former host of WBAI's Beyond the Pale program, Esther Kaplan, who is now the Investigative Editor at insider.com. The series covered law-enforcement killings, hate crimes, intimate-partner violence, the vulnerabilities of sex workers, unsolved cases, the ways transphobia colors the criminal-justice system, the troubled history between the police and the transgender community, and the fatal attack on an LGBTQ nightclub, Club Q, last November. Esther noted, "Homicides spiked just as states accelerated their introduction of anti-trans legislation." This year, the Insider series has been named a finalist for honors by GLAAD, the largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, as well as the National Association of Black Journalists, the Association of LGBTQ Journalists, and the Online News Association.
Out-FM’s Naomi Brussel and Bob Lederer will spend the hour with Esther discussing this groundbreaking investigation.
Insider’s “Deaths in the Family” investigation:
https://www.insider.com/transgender-violence-deaths-database-murder-cases-2017-2021
About Out-FM
Out-FM is a weekly progressive, intersectional queer show on listener-sponsored, noncommercial WBAI/Pacifica Radio. It airs at 99.5 and wbai.org, generally on Tuesdays from 8-9 PM. Please support us by donating to WBAI. Become a member for $25 or a BAI Buddy (sustainer) for $10/month or more. Go to give2wbai.org or call 212-209-2950 and let the station know you listen to Out-FM by supporting the station with a donation. Be sure and mention our show when you donate. Sign up for Out-FM's Weekly Newsletter with show announcements.
Queer Muslim Network of NYC Prays at Site of O'Shae Sibley's Murder; and An Open Letter to My (Chelsea) Neighbors
- Details
Tune into Out-FM on Tues., August 22, 2023 from 8:00-9:00pm, on 99.5 FM WBAI/NY or listen live at https://www.wbai.org/listen-live/
Press Play button to stream, or green download buttons below - to download the sound file of the promo, or the program sound file.
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For Arthur Leonard's LGBT LAW NOTES go here: https://www.lgbtbarny.org/law-notes
Nathalie Amazan of Queer Muslim Network of New York City
Queer Muslim Network of New York City Prays at Site of Death of O'Shae Sibley
On August 6, 2023, the group Queer Muslim Network of New York City held a prayer activity at the Brooklyn gas station where queer dancer O'Shae Sibley was killed. The killing took place after several men from the neighborhood made racist and homophobic verbal assaults on Sibley, escalating to his murder. Media accounts reported that one of the attackers said Muslims in that neighborhood would be offended by the vogue dancing performed by Sibley's group. Nathalie Amazan, a cofounder of the Queer Muslim Network of NYC, discusses the group’s prayer action, the social issues of queer Muslims, and the possible reasons for the confrontation that ended in Sibley's death.
Peter Jonas
An Open Letter to My (Chelsea) Neighbors, by Peter Jonas
(Peter Jonas is a contributing producer to Out-FM)
As a Chelsea West Village resident of 26 years, I have concerns about how we, as a community, respond to diversity and to unpleasant and at times unsafe manifestations of poverty, systemic racism, and homo/transphobia. Post after post after post on the nextdoor platform fire off angry diatribes about packages being stolen from foyers, subway fare evasion, drug store shop lifting, drug dealing in Washington sq park, loitering and drug use in the streets… and an excessively long thread of alarm about neighbors feeling threatened by occasional caravans of Black youth on non-electric bicycles who you are criminalizing because, as you say “they’re not obeying traffic laws and who knows what they’re gonna do” and comment after comment after yet another angry comment of “call the police!” Of course, none of you are naming their blackness as what really scares you. It seems to be far more than you care to even acknowledge to yourselves, let alone admit openly, and your codes seem to do you just fine. You also seem to be just fine with calling the police on Black men, in turn putting their lives at risk… for running red lights on bicycles.
Whether it’s about young Black men on bicycles or people having mental health crises or so called thieves who are quite likely struggling to survive… common themes of these complaints and the comments that follow reek of right wing talking points as they call for more police and more arrests and less wokeness as they blame liberals and democrats for street crime and urban decay.
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