MEXICO CITY — Authorities in Mexico said at least three transgender people were killed in the first two weeks of 2024, and rights groups were investigating two additional such cases. The slayings marked a violent start to the year in a country where the LGBTQ+ community is often targeted.
The latest death came on Sunday, when transgender activist and politician Samantha Gómez Fonseca was shot multiple times and slain inside a car in the south of Mexico City, according to local prosecutors.
The killings spurred outrage among members of the LGBTQ+ community who protested in Mexico City’s main throughway on Monday.
Around 100 people marched chanting: “Samantha listen, we’re fighting for you” and carrying signs reading “your hate speech kills.” Another group of protesters earlier in the day spray painted the words “trans lives matter” on the walls of Mexico’s National Palace.
Fonseca, the activist and politician slain on Sunday, originally intended to march alongside other activists to call for greater acceptance of transgender people in society. After her death, the march quickly turned into a call for justice and for more comprehensive laws around hate crimes.
Paulina Carrazco, a 41-year-old trans woman among the marchers, said it felt like “the violence was knocking on our front door.”
“We are scared, but with that fear we’re going to keep fighting,” Carrazco said. “We’re going to do everything in our power so the next generations won’t have to live in fear.”
A member of the LGBTQ+ community holds a portrait of transgender activist Samantha Gomes Fonseca during a rally to protest her murder in Mexico City, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. Gomes was shot in Mexico City Sunday. Credit: AP/Marco Ugarte
Gay and transgender populations are regularly attacked and killed in Mexico, a nation marked by its “macho” and highly religious population. The brutality of some of the attacks is meant to send a message to Queer people that they are not welcome in…
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