Dee Whigham, a 25-year-old black trans woman, was stabbed to death in St. Martin, Mississippi this past weekend.
Whigham was a young nurse who had just started her medical career. “She will be remembered at Forrest Health as an excellent nurse who was well-loved by her patients. I know Dee will be missed by her co-workers, supervisors, and the Forrest Health family,” said Evan Dillard, president and CEO of Forrest General Health.
She was planning on attending the Gulf Coast Black Rodeo at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, according to the Sun Herald newspaper’s coverage of the crime. Her body was found in her hotel room, where she was rooming with several other people.
Dwanya Hickerson, who was seen leaving the hotel where Whigham was staying on a surveillance video, has since been arrested and charged with capital murder. He is also being charged with robbing the victim before her death. If Hickerson is convicted, he could be sentenced to death.
The murder of Dee Whigham isn’t the first fatal tragedy to strike America’s transgender community this year. According to The Advocate, this is the 16th reported killing of a trans person in 2016 so far. 21 were victims of fatal violence in 2015—the majority of them being trans women of color, according to The Human Rights Campaign. They also point out that “the lack of accurate and reliable data collection makes it impossible for advocates to know how widespread this violence really is.”
“If this turns out to be a hate crime, we will pursue this to the fullest in court,” Sheriff Mike Ezell said, but as the Sun Herald points out, Mississippi’s hate-crime law doesn’t consider gender identity.
In fact, Mississippi recently enacted one of the country’s most extreme anti-LGBT laws, which allows the denial of services to LGBT people on religious grounds. The law also prevents transgender people from being legally recognized as anything other than the sex they were assigned at birth.
Despite Mississippi’s legal crusade against the rights of trans individuals, Hickerson could be tried under the federally-passed 2009 Hate Prevention Act which is inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity in the prosecution of hate crimes.
There have been vigils hosted by The Spectrum Center, a Hattiesburg-based LGBTQ+ community center, as well as the Mississippi Gulf Coast Rainbow Center, another resource center. The victim’s family has also set up a Go Fund Me to help pay for funeral expenses.
