Nina Pop

The National Center for Transgender Equality is calling on Missouri state lawmakers to pass legislation protecting transgender people from discrimination and to stop enacting legislation targeting transgender people for discrimination following the murder of a transgender woman in southern Missouri last weekend.

Nina Pop, 28, was found dead inside her apartment in Sikeston, about 145 miles south of St. Louis, on Sunday night, May 3, according to KCTV5 News and the Associated Press. She had been stabbed several times, reports said. NVTE Executive Director Mara Keisling said while no motive has been announced, Sikeston police are investigating the possibility that Pop’s murder was a hate crime.

“Transgender people – and particularly transgender women of color – are facing a wave of violence,” Keisling said. “Police and other government officials must do more to keep transgender people safe, to thoroughly investigate crimes against our community and to stop enacting laws that enable transgender people to be targeted.”

At least 26 transgender people — mostly trans women of color — were murdered in the U.S. in 2019. So far in 2020, at least 10 trans people, including Pop, have been murdered.

In an email on Wednesday, May 6, NCTE noted that more than one in four transgender people has faced a bias-driven assault, and rates are higher for transgender women and transgender people of color. And, the email pointed out, “Missouri is on a sad list of states that continue to continue to propose bills that target transgender people.”

Say Their Names

According to the Human Rights Campaign Fund, trans people murdered in the U.S. in 2020 include:

  • Dustin Parker, 25, a trans man who was shot to death in McAlester, Okla., early on New Year’s Day.
  • Neulisa Luciano “Alexa” Ruiz, a trans woman who was shot to death Feb. 25 in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico.
  • Yampi Mendez Arocho, 19, a trans man who was shot to death March 5 in Moca, Puerto Rica.
  • Monika Diamond, 34, a trans woman who was shot to death March 18 in Charlotte, N.C.
  • Lexi, 33, a trans woman stabbed to death in Harlem, N.Y., on March 28.
  • Johanna Metzger, a trans woman who was killed April 11 in Baltimore.
  • Penelope Diaz Ramirez, 31, a trans woman who beaten and hanged to death April 13 at the Bayamon correctional complex, a men’s prison in Puerto Rico.
  • Serena Angelique Velazquez Ramos, 32, of Queens, N.Y., a trans woman who shot to death April 21 while visiting Puerto Rico. She was murdered alongside her friend, Layla Pelaez Sanchez.
  • Layla Pelaez Sanchez, 21, a trans woman who was shot to death April 21 in Puerto Rico. She was murdered alongside her friend, Serena Angelique Velazquez Ramos, who was visiting from New York.
  • Nina Pop, 28, who was shot to death May 3 in Sikestown, Missouri.

— Tammye Nash