Transgender Woman Murdered in Oakland
CRIME
Trans Americans continue to face deadly violence amid record-breaking death toll
BY MATT TRACY
A Black transgender
woman who was fatally
shot in Oakland on December
3 became the
50th known transgender murder
victim in the US this year.
Nikai David, 33, was found dead
with gunshot wounds at the 1400
Block of Castro Street in Oakland
just after 4 a.m. on Friday morning,
an Oakland Police Department
spokesperson told Gay City
News on December 9.
Police in Oakland said the fatal
shooting marked the 129th homicide
of the year. The Bay Area Reporter,
an LGBTQ newspaper serving
the San Francisco Bay Area,
reported that the murder came
just days after a gay man, Marco
Chavez, survived a shooting at his
home in West Oakland. Chavez
was with his husband and children
Nikai David, 33, was fatally shot on December 4.
when the family’s home was
peppered with gunfi re.
Oakland LGBTQ Community
Center employee Ashlee Banks
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
knew David and told Fox 2 KTVU
that there may have been “some
type of physical altercation” that
led to the fatal shooting. Banks did
not immediately respond to Gay
City News’ request for comment.
In a written statement posted
on Facebook, the Oakland LGBTQ
Community Center wrote, “We
mourn the loss of Nikai David, a
beloved community member and
Black transgender woman… 2021
has been the deadliest year for
transgender individuals, particularly
Black transgender women
who make up the majority of transgender
homicides year after year.
Right now everyone at the Center
is pretty shaken up.”
At least three transgender or
non-binary individuals have suffered
violent deaths in California
this year, which has already surpassed
2020 as the most deadly
year for transgender or non-binary
individuals in the United States
since the Human Rights Campaign
fi rst started tallying the deaths in
2013.
Survey: Trans Americans Facing Food Insuffi ciency
At least a quarter of trans people in the US say they have not had enough to eat
BY MATT TRACY
As the pandemic raged on
into the summer and fall
of 2021, approximately
25 percent of transgender
individuals in the United States
said they did not have enough food
to eat, according to the Williams
Institute of UCLA’s evaluation of a
Census survey conducted between
June and October.
Numbers from the Census Bureau’s
Household Pulse Survey
show that the number of trans
adults experiencing food insuffi -
ciency — or have not had enough
food for the last week — far outweighed
the eight percent of cisgender
adults who said they weren’t
getting enough food to eat.
The differences were even more
stark when the numbers factored
in racial and gender disparities:
Trans folks are reporting elevated rates of food insuffi ciency as the pandemic continues.
Among trans people of color, 36
percent were likely to experience
food insuffi ciency compared to 13
percent of cisgender people of color
and 17 percent of transgender
white people, according to the report.
Six percent of cisgender white
people reported food insuffi ciency.
REUTERS/MICHELE TANTUSSI
“Transgender people face high
rates of poverty, and the COVID-19
pandemic has had a disproportionate
economic impact on LGBT
people,” the report’s lead author,
Kerith J. Conron, said in a written
statement. “The commonality
of food insuffi ciency among transgender
RESEARCH
people shows how critical
it is to ensure access to jobs that
pay livable wages and to improve
access to food resources for this
highly marginalized population.”
The numbers coincide with rising
infl ation and a 5.3 percent increase
in food prices from October
2020 to October 2021, according
to the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA).
The report also found that 29
percent of trans adults and 13 percent
of cisgender adults experiencing
food insuffi ciency reported incomes
that fell just outside of the
eligibility limit for the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP), meaning they were unable
to access food assistance that they
needed. At the same time, 30.7
percent of transgender individuals
who were eligible for SNAP were
enrolled in it.
GayCityNews.com | December 16 - December 29, 2021 17
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