Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien was a transgender woman from North Adams, Massachusetts and the founder of the Miss Trans America and Miss Trans New England beauty pageants. She helped organized pride parades and was a familiar face in her community.
On Friday, January 5, she was murdered in her home. That same night, Steele-Knudslien’s husband walked into the Adams Police Department and confessed to the crime. He told them that the two had been fighting and that she was “always belittling” him — so he killed her.
Steele-Knudslien had discussed problems with her marriage on social media last year, and the Adams Police Department had previously responded to calls at the couple’s home.
Steele-Knudslien was the first transgender murder victim of 2018, but she won’t be the last (in fact, there has already been another; her name was Viccky Gutierrez). Violence against trans individuals in America is on the rise: 2017 was the deadliest year on record for trans people with 28 murders, an increase of one from 2016. Trans women, especially black trans women, are twice as likely to be murdered as the average American.
What’s more, these numbers are almost certainly low — there is no collective database for state murders, and the social stigma of being trans, as well as the difficulty of locating real names and other up-to-date identifying information, can make precise tracking difficult. Christa’s death is the first reported murder of a trans woman in Massachusetts since 1998, but there may well have been others that weren’t properly tracked, or were never reported at all.
The fact that Steele-Knudslien was murdered by her husband brings up another important point. Trans people don’t just face an increased risk of violence from strangers, but from family, as well. They’re 20 percent more likely to be the victims of domestic violence than the average person. This includes spousal and partner abuse, as well as violence from parents and other family members.
Domestic violence law reform has been a major issue in Massachusetts, with new laws and police practices recently established. But domestic violence, like transgender equality, can’t just be addressed through law enforcement — community and social service involvement should play a big role as well.
In Massachusetts, transgender men and women are more likely to experience violence, domestic or otherwise, than any other group. Trans people are one of the most at-risk populations here and across the U.S. But their stories, good or bad, are seldom reported in the news media. The lack of substantive coverage is so dire that GLAAD and other trans rights advocacy groups have resorted to calling out the media for not spending enough time on the persistent and worsening struggles of the trans community.
Like all marginalized groups, the trans community deserves public acknowledgment of its unfair and unjust treatment. Trans people deserve to be able to walk down the street and sleep in their bedrooms without fear of violence. They deserve the same legal protections government can provide to all of its citizens. They deserve a voice in mainstream press coverage. They deserve not just tolerance, but respect.
Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien’s used her life to advance a worthy cause, but her death was senseless and tragic. When trans individuals face violence, it’s the media’s job to call it out and society’s job to stop it. Time for both to do their jobs.
PSC 121 