Black trans women live in fear after pattern of deaths in Chicago

Black trans women in Chicago live in fear following local attacks on the LGBTQ community.

The story of De'Janay Stanton's death is one that many transgender women in Chicago fear. The 24-year-old Black transgender woman was shot and killed by a romantic interest in 2018, and since then more and more stories like hers have come to light -- in her city and across the U.S.

"They want to date our girls in darkness -- they don't want to be in public," said her sister, Chimera Griffin. "She never expressed danger to me, but me, being a mom, I always knew something was gonna be bad because of society. In society, they're so cruel."

So far this year, the Human Rights Campaign has recorded four Black trans women being murdered in Chicago among at least 47 transgender or gender non-conforming people killed nationwide. But local activists say many more cases likely go unreported.

"We don't have good statistics on the violence that Black trans women experience," said Kim Fountain, chief administrative officer of the Center on Halsted, the Midwest's largest LGBTQ social services agency. "If you don't have those numbers, then it's really hard to get a system to move on anything."