title
PROPOSED RESOLUTION
RAISING AWARENESS OF THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TRANS WOMEN
WHEREAS, Taylor Casey, 42, a transwoman from Chicago, was last seen on June 19, 2024 on Paradise Island, which is adjacent to Nassau, the Bahamas' capital; and
WHEREAS, The Windy City Times described Casey as "a fixture of Chicago's transgender community and a beloved youth advocate." And
WHEREAS, since the day of her disappearance, local authorities have made little to no progress towards finding Taylor Casey or solving her case in order to explain her disappearance; and
WHEREAS, Casey's case is only one of countless of disappearances in the country that go unsolved, overlooked or simply ignored, exemplifying the disparity in attention towards transgender people's victimization. According to a study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law published in 2021, transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault; and
WHEREAS, according to a 2023 Human Rights Campaign Foundation report, Black transgender women, who face multiple layers of violence due to their gender identity, gender, and race, comprise 62% of all victims of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people; and
WHEREAS, families, friends and loved ones of the missing trans women, hoping to find their loved one alive and well, suffer the despair of thinking the worst while the cases remain unsolved, or not investigated; and
WHEREAS, trans and gender non-conforming people face many forms of stigma, including lack of acceptance by friends and family, a hostile political climate and negative stereotypes or lack of representation in pop culture and the media. These factors lead to their dehumanization and increase their risk of becoming victims of violence; and
WHEREAS, in 2023 and 2024 the Cook County Board of Commissioners held hearings to understand the cases of missing...
Click here for full text