On June 16th 2024, last Father’s Day, Denver Police were called to the intersection of Broadway and Lawrence St. about a person in the middle of the road yelling at passing cars “Hit me, Kill me!” Upon arriving they found a Houseless BIPOC Trans person in the middle of the intersection having a severe mental health crisis. The police encircled them, tased them 3 times, and then shot them 12 times. The police executed them within mere minutes of arriving. After executing this person, they left their body on the blazing hot asphalt for 4 hours! Horrifically the officers involved were never held accountable.
1 year later and things for queer people have drastically worsened, with The Trump administration and various states passing various anti-queer laws targeting the gender expansive community. Over the last decade, attacks on the community have risen at an exponential rate. Colorado, and Denver especially, are known as safe sanctuaries for gender expansive people, meaning that they’re coming here in droves. Many come here with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
To be houseless in Denver is rough, and being queer and houseless here is a nightmare. Not only does our queer houseless community have to go through the daily nightmare of being houseless, but they have added stress of fear of violence, discrimination by service providers and other houseless people, constant sexual harassment, and death. All of Denver’s overnight emergency shelters are gender segregated, and run by religious organizations like The Salvation Army who have known track records of anti-LGBTQIA discrimination. Denver needs to look at this glaring issue within our houseless community, and act now to do better.
We are holding a vigil to remember those in the queer community who passed on our streets, and those we lost to hate. We will be gathering on Wednesday June 18th starting at 5pm at the intersection of Broadway and Lawrence Street in front of the dog park – where police murdered our trans community member one year ago. Bring signs, decorations for a memorial, and most importantly YOUR VOICES! Let’s keep the memories of those who we have lost alive, and create the change necessary to keep our queer community, especially our queer houseless community, safe!!
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