Washington, D.C

Transgender woman killed in D.C. ‘just wanted a chance at life’

Published

2 years ago

January 15, 2023

Transgender woman killed in D.C. ‘just wanted a chance at life’

Remark

When Jasmine Mack launched herself, she informed individuals to name her “Star.” She was boisterous and a little bit wild, a gifted singer who knew how one can tailor outdated garments into outfits that suited her statuesque body. She was 6-foot-5, and he or she wished to be identified.

“However not like this,” mentioned Pamela Witherspoon, her sister.

On Saturday, Mack, 36, died of an obvious stab wound to the leg within the 2000 block of Gallaudet Avenue NE. Activists say they imagine she was the primary transgender individual within the nation to be violently killed this 12 months.

A whole bunch of trans individuals have died violent deaths over the previous decade, in line with the Human Rights Marketing campaign, which tracks the fatalities, and Black trans girls like Mack are particularly in danger. A minimum of 35 trans and gender-nonconforming individuals have been killed by violent means final 12 months, and in 2021, the deadliest 12 months on report, at the very least 50 died by gunshot or stab wounds. A Washington Submit evaluation of deadly violence in opposition to trans individuals discovered that greater than 75 % of the victims nationwide from 2015 to 2020 have been Black transgender girls.

Charmaine Eccles, a trans girl who served as a mentor to Mack, mentioned violence is an ever-present risk for trans individuals in D.C.

“Daily after I go away my home and stroll round, my actuality is that I don’t know if I’ll make it dwelling as a result of I’m trans,” Eccles mentioned. “Due to somebody’s ignorance, they may simply go off on me and determine to drag a set off or stab me up simply due to who I’m. That could be a actuality that we’ve to suck up and stroll round with daily of our lives.”

Mack endured a relentless quantity of abuse and bullying, Witherspoon mentioned.

“Folks handled her so unhealthy due to who she was,” Witherspoon mentioned. “She’d been stabbed earlier than. She’d been shot due to her sexuality. She was abused. Folks rejected her. She simply wished to be herself. She was a candy individual. She was not imply. She simply wished an opportunity at life.”

Witherspoon mentioned Mack had identified since childhood that she recognized as a girl. Witherspoon is almost 20 years older, and he or she took care of her youthful sibling when Mack was younger. Some members of the family remained in denial when Mack first got here out as trans, Witherspoon mentioned, however they accepted her.

Nonetheless, Mack struggled in maturity. She wrestled with dependancy to crack cocaine and different medicine, Witherspoon mentioned, and he or she couldn’t preserve secure housing. The discrimination she confronted as a trans girl most likely contributed to that, each Witherspoon and Eccles mentioned. Landlords declined to lease to her once they found she was trans, and strangers made frequent feedback about her look.

“We’re all the time getting harassed,” Eccles mentioned. “And he or she was all the time able to struggle. She was loud and extraordinary in her personal manner, however I’d inform her, ‘Typically you don’t have to reply to each adverse remark. Carry your self like somebody with characters and values and requirements.’ And he or she labored on that. She did need higher for herself, however there are such a lot of challenges we face.”

Anti-trans legal guidelines are on the rise. Right here’s a have a look at the place — and what variety.

Mack cherished to sing gospel songs, Witherspoon mentioned, and he or she excelled at appearing. Although her household was not close-knit, she typically pushed them to come back collectively.

“When she got here round, all the pieces simply acquired stay,” Witherspoon mentioned. “The vitality, she had a lot vitality. She was so jolly.”

Witherspoon mentioned native nonprofits helped Mack discover intermittent housing, however the flats tended to be in tough neighborhoods the place medicine have been prevalent, and Mack couldn’t resist the temptation for lengthy.

“I used to see her within the streets,” Witherspoon mentioned. “I’d really feel so unhealthy. I’d say, ‘Go dwelling.’ I’d say, ‘Why you out right here?’ I begged them to get her assist. I simply wished her to be comfortable. I wished her to be protected. What they need to have accomplished is put her in a drug-treatment program, then get her the house.”

Longtime D.C. transgender activist Earline Budd mentioned she met Mack when she was a teen on the nonprofit Transgender Well being Empowerment middle.

“Star was a joyful, energetic particular person, all the time prepared to hear,” Budd mentioned. “She laughed and made you snort.”

Budd mentioned she worries town will proceed what she calls a sample of giving transgender killings quick shrift.

“It has put us in panic mode often because one of many points we’ve had is, town has not accomplished nicely when it comes to fixing trans murders,” Budd mentioned. “The town appears to choose and select who they wish to spotlight and which murders they actually wish to consider fixing. That shall be one of many issues I shall be difficult town on.”

Budd mentioned she doesn’t have sufficient info to say whether or not a hate crime was dedicated, however she would really like Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and Police Chief Robert J. Contee III to “say they’re going to place all efforts, as a lot as they will, into making certain they are going to do a radical follow-up” to make sure Mack’s killer is dropped at justice.

In an interview, Contee mentioned the division would do “all the pieces that we will” to be taught the circumstances of Mack’s dying and requested anybody with info to come back ahead.

“We’re going to work very onerous on that case to be sure that we deliver the perpetrator to justice,” he mentioned.

Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Workplace of Lesbian, Homosexual, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Affairs known as Mack “a beloved group member.” He mentioned his workplace has convened an emergency Violence Prevention and Response Crew that “consists of presidency representatives and group companions to debate the identified particulars of the case.”

Witherspoon mentioned she hopes her sister’s dying reminds others to deal with trans individuals with care.

“Give them an opportunity,” Witherspoon mentioned. “They’re human, too. The one factor they wish to be is accepted, that’s all.”

Budd, Witherspoon and others will maintain a candlelight vigil on the crime scene Monday at 3:30 p.m.

Clarence Williams contributed to this report.

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Washington, D.C

Welcome to Washington: On the Eve of the Inauguration, Monumental Advice

Published

7 hours ago

January 16, 2025

Press Room

Welcome to Washington: On the Eve of the Inauguration, Monumental Advice

Image by William Rudolph.

I love watching the brides pose for photos by the Lincoln Memorial and the teenagers wriggle through TikTok choreography near the Washington Monument. Their modern hopes breathe life into the centuries-old wisdom of our capital city.

I have lived in Washington DC for years and still can’t get enough of it. On sunny Saturday morning walks, my pace is casual, but the insights are profound. DC is a living lesson about what George Washington described as “the last great experiment for promoting human happiness.” The Inauguration brings new people to Washington DC and I hope they will love and learn from the city as much as I do.

One of my favorite monuments is near the Capitol. Two iron cranes stand together. Their wings thrust upward, and barbed wire falls from their beaks. Around them is a complicated mix of names: Japanese Americans who died fighting for us in World War II, and the internment camps to which their families and friends had been forced. Yet I am fiercely proud to be an American when, amidst these names, I read President Reagan’s words: “Here we admit a wrong. Here we affirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law.” Few countries I’ve lived in have the strength to admit such a grave national error.

That urge for improvement is in our national genes. As the Constitution states, we’re constantly trying to “form a more perfect union.”

Sure enough, a few miles away under a white marble dome stands a statue of Thomas Jefferson. He, too, speaks to us of striving for perfection: “…Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened … institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.”

While I respect the somber challenge of those words, I love his next, more whimsical, sentence: “We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

From a breezy hill in northeast Washington DC, President Lincoln also challenges us. It’s the cottage where he and his family escaped the city’s summer heat, though Lincoln daily commuted to the White House. His dusty horseback ride revealed the stakes of the Civil War: wounded soldiers bumping along in ambulances and former slaves surviving in hastily built camps after escaping behind Union lines.

Lincoln welcomed allies and adversaries alike to the cottage for advice, sometimes looking out from the veranda over the not-yet-completed Capitol and Washington Monument. As a modern visitor 150 years later, I can stand in the same place. The buildings are completed. But which of Lincoln’s hopes and fears are still in progress?

At a newer memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr offers optimism about the timescale of our national effort: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

At an even newer memorial closer to the Capitol, President Eisenhower puts a worldwide spin on our work of becoming a more perfect union: “We look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm and fixed purpose – the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law prevails.”

Strolling through the city, I love listening to leaders from different periods of our great experiment. I hope our elected representatives will as well.

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Washington, D.C

DC gets ready to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary – WTOP News

Published

15 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

DC gets ready to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary – WTOP News

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and America250 Chair Rosie Rios joined students at a bilingual elementary school to kickoff D.C.’s chapter of the commission preparing to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Students at Powell Bilingual Elementary School in Petworth greeted Bowser with a rousing introduction, as she introduced them to a new vocabulary word: “Semiquincentennial.” The word describes the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Bowser told the students D.C.’s 250th celebration should be the biggest and the best, and said, “Throwing a big party for thousands of people is a big task. But in Washington, D.C., we welcome visitors for big events all the time.”

D.C.’s festivities, though, will be part of a nationwide effort to throw a celebration of America like none other.

America250 is a nonpartisan initiative working to involve Americans from every state and U.S. territory in the Semiquincentennial, which will be in 2026.

Rios told the students about “America’s Field Trip,” explaining it’s a contest for those in “grades 3-12 who get to answer the question, ‘What does America mean to me?’ The beauty of this program is that the award recipients get to choose from a series of backstage experiences with our federal agencies, most of which have never been offered to the public before.”

Those field trip sites include a variety of historic and cultural landmarks across the country.

Rios recalled the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, when she was just 10 years old. Her parents had come to the U.S. from Mexico in 1958, and she said the evening of July 4, 1976, “was a cloudy night in Heyward, California, but those fireworks were never brighter.”

“On that night, I felt I had the whole world in front of me. I did feel that anything was possible,” Rios said.

She said she’s eager to hear from others about their family histories and their hopes and dreams for the future.

Another feature of the America250 celebration is “Our American Story,” which includes a chance for residents to nominate someone they know to share their histories, which, if selected, will be preserved at the Library of Congress.

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Washington, D.C

Inauguration Day: Timeline of key inaugural events

Published

23 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Inauguration Day: Timeline of key inaugural events

WASHINGTON – Nearly a quarter million ticketed guests are expected to attend Donald Trump’s second inauguration on Monday, January 20, 2025, in the nation’s capital. The festivities begin over the weekend and continue until the Tuesday following Inauguration Day.

On Monday, the ceremony will take place on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. Security screening gates are expected to open at 5 a.m. Ticketed guests should arrive by 11:30 a.m.

Here are some key events on the schedule if you are planning to attend:

Timeline:

Saturday, January 18

Trump will attend a reception and fireworks display at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

Vice President-elect JD Vance will participate in a reception for incoming Cabinet members and host a dinner.

READ MORE: Inauguration Day: Security tightens in DC one week before Trump takes office

Sunday, January 19

Trump will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump will hold a MAGA Victory rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., at 3 p.m., with a performance by the Village People.

Trump will host a candlelight dinner with campaign donors.

Monday, January 20 (Inauguration Day)

Trump will attend a worship service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown D.C.

Trump and incoming first lady Melania Trump will join the Bidens for tea at the White House.

Inauguration Day Forecast: Slight chance for snow showers early Monday

What we know:

Inaugural Ceremonies at the U.S. Capitol

The ceremonies will take place on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.

Security screening gates open at 5 a.m., music begins at 9:30 a.m. Ticketed guests should arrive by 11:30 a.m.

The theme, “Our Enduring Democracy: A Constitutional Promise,” recognizes the Founders’ commitment to preserving democracy.

Carrie Underwood will perform “America the Beautiful” before Trump takes the oath of office at 12 p.m. Former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton are expected to attend.

A farewell to former President Biden and Vice President Harris will occur around noon.

Trump will gather with aides and lawmakers for the President’s Signing Room Ceremony at the U.S. Capitol to sign executive orders or memorandums.

The JCCIC Congressional Luncheon will follow, attended by the new president, vice president, Senate leaders, and JCCIC members.

Trump will review military troops at the East Front steps of the U.S. Capitol, followed by a presidential parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

READ MORE: Inauguration Day 2025: Road closures, routes and timing

At the White House, Trump will participate in the traditional Oval Office signing ceremony for executive orders or nominations.

Trump will attend three Inaugural balls: Commander in Chief Ball, Liberty Inaugural Ball, and the Starlight Ball. He is scheduled to speak at all three balls.

Commander in Chief Ball focused on military service members
Liberty Inaugural Ball geared toward Trump supporters
Starlight Ball will focus on high-dollar donors

What’s next:

Tuesday, January 21

Trump will attend the National Prayer Service, an interfaith event at the Washington National Cathedral.

The Source: Information in this article comes from The Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, and the Associated Press.

NewsInauguration DayDonald J. TrumpMelania TrumpWashington, D.C.

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