SC woman’s death marks 2021 as deadliest year for the transgender community

A Greenville transgender woman who was shot to death earlier this month was the 45th violent death of a transgender, nonbinary or gender-nonconforming person in the United States, breaking last year’s record.

Marquiisha Lawrence, who local authorities are identifying as Demarcus Martin, died in her Loop Street home, apparently after an altercation with one or two people, the Greenville County Coroner’s Office reported.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office and the coroner’s office reported the death as Martin. The coroner’s office said they are aware the victim was transgender.

On social media, family members referred to her by both names. They could not be reached for comment.

Mislabeling transgender people is commonplace, said Jackie Shelley, a volunteer leader with the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action, which fights for LGBTQ rights and against gun violence.

“It’s an issue we are seeing all across the country,” she said.

She also said the numbers of transgender people who are victims of gun violence are woefully under reported.

Shelley said such violence is overwhelmingly against Black women.

“Marquiisha ‘Quii’ Lawrence, like so many who have gone before her, fell victim to a senseless murder. Quii was a young trans woman, at the beginning of this game called life, as we know it in the trans community,” Eboni Sinclaire, who the Human Rights Campaign identified in an article as Lawrence’s mother in the transgender community.

The organization quoted Sinclaire as saying Lawrence had an “infectious smile and a heart of gold” and may have been killed for being “who she was and living her truth.”

Tori Cooper, the Human Rights Campaign’s director of community engagement for the transgender justice initiative, said, “We must commit to honoring trans lives and ending the horrific epidemic of violence that plagues our community. Marquiisha deserved nothing less than our full commitment to building a better future for trans people.”

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office investigation is continuing.

This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 11:37 AM.