Every third day, in our #EveryThreeDays campaign, I write about a woman killed by a man. Previously in this campaign, which started on May 2nd 2021, we have remembered 70 women, the last being Dzilva Butiene, 48, originally from Lithuania, murdered by her boyfriend, Kestutis Bauzys, in April 2017.
Today on Trans Day of Remembrance, I am going back to how it all started – with the murder of Rita Hester.
Unusually, I am writing about a woman (trans woman) who was killed outside the UK and true – her murderer has never come to justice. It is even possible (but highly improbable) that the murderer was not a man. True, too, is the fact that few trans women get murdered in the UK. But while writing this short remembrance, I am asking people to remember the thousands of trans folk who are not here to read this piece – because they took their own life over the last twenty years.
Can I ask you to pause for a few seconds? the thousands of trans folk who are not here to read this piece – because they took their own life over the last twenty years.
Rita Hester was found stabbed to death on the 28th of November 1998 in her apartment located in Boston, Massachusetts. Such was the feeling of shock and distress at the lack of media interest in her death, that the next year a vigil was held for her with some 250 people attending.
Open Democracy tells the rest of what happened far better than me.
Rita Hester 1963 – 1998
#EveryThreeDays
