A Black transgender woman who was shot and killed late last month in Missouri has been identified as 40-year-old Amber Minor.
Minor’s body was discovered in a driveway in Raytown, Missouri, around 8:35 a.m. on December 24, The Kansas City Star reported. The Kansas City resident had reportedly suffered a shotgun wound and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Related:
6 Black trans and gender-nonconforming people killed in the U.S. last month
Between 25–35 trans and gender nonconforming people have been killed this year.
Police initially misgendered and deadnamed Minor. The Kansas City Star has since updated its reporting after local LGBTQ+ advocates made it known that Minor was a transgender woman.
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In a December 29 message on X, Kansas City’s LGBTQ Commission described Minor as “a resilient Black Trans woman who lived a life full of laughter.”
The commission’s chair, Justice Horn, wrote that she was “full of love and life.”
Raytown police have asked that anyone with information about the crime contact the TIPS hotline at 816-474-8477.
Minor is just one of more than 30 transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people who were killed in the U.S. last year, The Advocate noted. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has tracked at least 30 transgender and gender non-conforming individuals who died by violence in 2023, while Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents’ list includes the names of 42 victims.
The violent deaths of trans and gender-nonconforming people often go unreported and victims are frequently misgendered and misidentified by police, the HRC notes, so the numbers mentioned above are potentially just a snapshot of the violence inflicted upon the trans community. Transgender people of color are particularly vulnerable: 87% of the victims on he HRC’s list are people of color, while 50% are Black trans women.