Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Rest in power, Deeniquia Dodds

22 year old Deeniquia was shot on the 4th of July, put on life support and died on July 14.

Police were called to the scene of an unconscious person around 3 a.m. in the 200 block of Division Avenue NE. They found 22-year-old Deeniquia Dodds suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck and rushed her to a local hospital, according to a police report. She was pronounced dead yesterday.

Police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Dodds’ murder.

“Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the police at 202-727-9099,” the police press release says. “Additionally, anonymous information may be submitted to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411,” it says.

A vigil honoring Dodds  will be held on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at the courtyard at 5355 Clay Terrace, N.E. The location is near the site where Dodds was shot.

Deeniquia was known as “Dee Dee” to her friends. She attended Woodson High School, graduating in 2012. According to her Facebook page, she liked Aretha Franklin.

From Autostraddle

While transgender rights and representation move slowly forward in this country, trans people continue to be targets of political scapegoating. This year’s Republican National Committee platform, which began publicly taking shape this week, has added amendments to deny trans people the right to use restrooms that match their gender identity and apparently uses regressive and combative language to describe both gay and trans people.

The longer this power-grabbing false propaganda continues against trans people on a national stage, and the longer pop culture portrayals of trans peoplecontinue to perpetuate harmful stereotypes, the harder it’s going to be to stop the dehumanization that fuels this pandemic of violence — particularly because the majority of trans people who are murdered are Black trans women who are forced to live at the terrifying intersection of racism and transmisogyny.

Here is a list of 24 actions you can take right now to help trans women of color survive.

So we don’t forget those whom we’ve lost to these epidemics in 2016

• Monica Loera – Austin, Texas (January 22)
• Jasmine Sierra – Bakersfield, California (January 22)
• Kayden Clarke –  Mesa, Arizona (February 4)
• Maya Young – Philadelphia (February 20)
• Suspicious death of Veronica Cano – San Antonio (February 20)
• Demarkis Stansberry – Baton Rouge (February 27)
• Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson – Burlington, Iowa (March 2)
• Quartney Davia Dawsonn-Yochum (Kourtney Yochum) – Los Angeles (March 22)
• Shante Thompson – Houston (April 9)
• Keyonna Monroe Blackeney – Rockville, MD (April 16)
• Reecey Walker – Wichita (May 1)
• Mercedes Successful – Haines City, FL (May 15)
• Amos Beede (Burrlington, VT), 38 years old
• Goddess Diamond (New Orleans, LA), 20 years old
• Dee Dee Dodds (Washington D.C.), 22 years old

When you Google, you find differing “tallies” of how many trans people have been murdered. Is it 14 or 15? How do we know? Who counts?

Can we count on you to care, to take action, to do something?

Rest in power, Deeniquia.