Listen Live
PraiseIndy Featured Video
CLOSE

Five transgendered women of color have been murdered over the course of a five week period this year.

According to BlackLivesMatter.com, “the average life expectancy for a Black transgender woman is 35 years.”

Thursday, on “NewsOne Now,” Lourdes Hunter, Co-Founder/National Director of Trans Women of Color Collective, Cleo Manago, Behavioral Health Expert and America’s Pshycologiest, Dr. Jeff Gardere joined Roland Martin to discuss this disturbing trend that is claiming the lives of transgendered women of color.

SEE ALSO: Aniya Parker: Reward Offered In Fatal Shooting Of Transgender Woman

Police departments have recently come under fire for how they are reporting murders of and violent crimes against transgendered women. In many instances, law enforcement agencies report victims as men and use photos of them before they became women in their reports.

When talking about the reaction to violent crimes against the transgendered Manago said, “I think that there is a bias, I think there’s people that don’t understand …  why somebody would ‘make that choice’ and because it is seen a choice, as a conscious effort to be controversial, problematic and resistant to the norm, that you should get whatever you get. That whatever happens to you is what you deserve.”

Dr. Gardere said for transgendered individuals to be murdered, “is all about the hate that there is out there, the miseducation that is our there, the ignorance that is out there …”   

SEE ALSO: He Put A Ring On It: Transgender Rights Activist Janet Mock Gets Engaged!

Listen to Martin, Lourdes Hunter, Cleo Manago and Dr. Jeff Gardere the stigmas associated with transgender relationships, and the increase in violent crime against transgendered women of color in the audio clip below.

Be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 9 a.m. EST on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.

Violent Crimes Against Transgender Women Of Color On The Rise  was originally published on newsone.com