executive order achieving similar goals (see related story on page 24). Meanwhile, President Obama has issued several executive orders aimed at protecting the whole country from gender identity discrimination when North Carolina passed its anti-LGBT bill, aimed primarily at the trans community, stirring national debate and enflaming emotions. Consequently, it would seem, the national report shows a serious increase on attacks against transgender people— specifically transgender women of color—and local numbers reflect the same situation here in New England. Locally, violent incidents against people of color make up 64 percent of hate crimes and incidents against transgender people have risen from 15 to 39 percent in the last year alone.
Changing Times, Changing Crimes Back in the 1980s, the VRP (then called the Victim Recovery Program), opened its doors “in response to so many ‘gay bashing’ incidents where mostly gay
white men were being targeted for being gay and assaulted,” says Presley. “When they tried to reach out to law enforcement they found they were getting harassed or ignored. They found a lot of bias against them through the criminal justice system as well. So that’s why VRP began. That kind of anti-gay bias continued into the nineties. Thankfully, we have less of a focus on police misconduct although it still exists. Over time, [incidents of hate crimes] shifted to all kinds of LGBT discrimination.” “Today, trans women of color are beyond a doubt much more targeted and at risk for hate-based violence than any other group,” Presley says, stressing that prevention and treatment for this group of survivors has become a priority at VRP. That said, hate violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities is complex and continues to take on many different forms. The report’s findings show continued attacks on LGBTQ youth, HIVaffected communities, undocumented LGBTQ people (many refugees from war-torn regions or countries where being gay is considered a crime, in some cases
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punishable by death), gay men, lesbians, and the bisexual, questioning, and otherwise gender nonconforming of all ages and ethnic groups—in short, against all LGBTQ people. One of the first incidents in 2015 was the murder of Coast Guardsman Lisa Trubnikova, 31, a white cisgender woman, in Bourne, Massachusetts. According to the NCAVP report, she and her wife Anna Trubnikova, “along with a responding male police officer, were shot by Adrian Loya, a Coast Guard member with whom Lisa had previously been stationed in Kodiak, Alaska. Lisa died at the scene, while Anna and the officer survived. It was reported that Loya had romantic feelings for Lisa which were not reciprocated, and that he stalked her and carefully planned her murder.” Loya is currently in prison awaiting an appeal. The remains of Elisha Walker, 20, a black transgender woman, were found in Smithfield, North Carolina, on August 14, 2015. Her mother reported her missing in November 2013. Angel Arias, 23, was arrested and charged with murder and motor vehicle theft. “Elisha’s mother,”
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