Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Matthew Angelo Spampinato was a 21-year-old white man living in New Castle, Delaware walking home from work when he was run down by a hit-and-run driver on February 9, 2022. The accident took place along State Route 237 near the intersection with Quigley Avenue.

Matthew was born and raised about an hour outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He wanted to move out of Southern states and after a recent trip to Delaware, decided to stay. He experienced his first autumn and winter in a northern home. After a four year wait, he was finally able to begin testosterone in January 2021. Matthew found work at a local Starbucks toward the end of 2021.

He was building the life he wanted, step by step. And those steps put him in a place where his presence as a pedestrian was not respected or valued. Obviously, we don’t know if the driver intentionally hit Matthew, was driving under the influence, or what. But we do know that they didn’t stop. They killed someone and drove away, a callous vicious outcome for someone who was simply walking home from work.

According to local media two weeks after Spampinato’s death, investigators do not have any new leads on the driver that killed him, state police spokesman Sr. Cpl. Jason Hatchell said. Over half of the fatal hit-and-run cases investigated by Delaware State Police in the last two years remain unsolved, according to Hatchell.

Friends and family have set up a GoFundMe to help with final expenses. Note that the fund deadnames and misgenders Matthew. Celebration of Life will be Thursday, March 17th at the Oakwood Park and Recreation 4101 Railroad Street Oakwood, Ga 30566 from 5:30pm – 9:00pm.

Matthew is the seventh transgender person reported as a victim of fatal violence in 2022. He is the first trans man. The first six victims were 25 and under with one person’s age unknown.  Their deaths come on the heels of the most violent year in recorded history with the deaths of 57 trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people in the United States alone. Note that the tabulation includes a significant number of reports of folx murdered in 2021. This might be confusing. Of course it is confusing. I tried to sort it out below.

Rest in power, Matthew. You did everything right, dear one. You deserved more thanone year to enjoy your life on testosterone, a treatment you waited four long years to start. We let you down by not creating safety for you, safety to just walk home from work in a community where you sought refuge and acceptance. And were entitled to it.

May your memory by a revolution.

This is our list of transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming neighbors who have been victims of the campaign of terror in 2022. Please do not copy or share this list without attribution.  As of today, we have documented a total of 57 deaths in 2021. And we have listed at least six victims of the terror campaign in 2022 as well.

As six additions to our 2021 list have been revealed in 2022, I am adding them in a separate list below to try and make any sense of this increasing horror. These folks deserve their lives and deaths to be honored and remembered.

1. Amäriey Lèį (Myara) – Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. January 1, 2022. Age 20. 
2. Duval Princess – Jacksonville, Florida. January 2, 2022. Age 24.
3. Naomie Skinner – Detroit, Michigan, February 12, 2022. Age 258.
4. Cypress Ramos – Lubbock, Texas, February 13, 2022. Age 21.
5. Paloma Velasquez – Houston, Texas, February 26, 2022. Age 29.
6. Matthew Spampinato – New Castle, Delaware, February 9, 2022. Age 21.

Deaths in 2021 (see this link for deaths reported during the 2021 calendar year) These are deaths reported in 2022 and beyond.

• 52 Za’Niyah Williams – Houston, Texas. December 20, 2021, reported on Jan 5, 2022. Age 21.
• 53 Nikki Turrietta – Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 31, 2021, reported on January 27, 2022. Age 31.
• 54 Keeva Scatter – Baton Rouge, Louisiana, October 15, 2021, confirmed on February 13, 2022. Age 34.
• 55 Rubi Dominguez – Brownsville, Texas, July 15, 2021, confirmed on February 13, 2022. Age 29.
• 56 Martina Caldera – Houston, Texas, December 6, 2021. Age 38.
• 57 Geri Judd – Bossier, Louisiana, September 28, 2021, confirmed March 1, 2022. Age 60.