![]() (Biloxi Sun Herald/TNS via Getty Images)Ī federal court in Mississippi handed down a 49-year prison sentence on Monday to Joshua Brandon Vallum, the first person prosecuted under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act for targeting a victim because of gender identity. On Monday, he was sentenced to 49 years in prison for a federal hate crime - the first such case brought for a crime specifically targeting a victim because of their gender identity. If your state is telling you it’s okay to discriminate, then it’s okay for me to discriminate - and to harass people or attack someone.Joshua Vallum is sworn in before pleading guilty to state murder charges at George County Circuit Court in Lucedale, Miss., last July. In a state like Alabama, where politicians are trying to pass legislation to institute discrimination, that gives some of the population the feeling they have permission to be violent. Alabama passed a religious freedom law in 1998 that critics say allows people to discriminate against LGBT people by contrast, in May, state lawmakers nixed a bill that would have banned discrimination against LGBT people. James Robinson, executive director of the Free2Be Anti-Violence Project, which provides services to LGBT people who are the victims of attacks and harassment As Robinson sees it, lawmakers validate hostility toward transgender people when they take up legislation aimed at diminishing LGBT rights. from June 8 Living as transgender in the South is very difficult, There is a lot of ignorance about what it means to be transgender. George County Justice Court Judge Cedric Howell set bond Monday at $1 million for Josh Brandon Vallum, the 28-year-old man charged in the murder of an as-yet unidentified victim during the weekend of May 30-31. Let’s stand collectively and say that this must stop.Īfter a manhunt was begun for Josh Vallum, the suspect turned himself in to the George County sheriff's office. Let’s remember that the gay pride movement was built on the backs and literal bodies of trans women of color. The delay in reporting is due to the misgendering of the victim by police and media.Īs we celebrate Pride across the U.S., let us honor the names of those who have been murdered. The 17-year-old Mercedes is the ninth or tenth reportedly murdered transgender woman so far this year. Angela Scott, a friend who lived near Mercedes in Theodore, said she will always remember Mercedes as a "wonderful person," who was always "happy and encouraging everybody to get along." No matter what she was going through, she always had a smile on her face. She said she knew Vallum to stay around the Theodore area, though authorities listed his home address at his father's home in George County.Īccording to law enforcement reports obtained by the Sun Herald, Vallum was a self-professed member of the Latin King street gang, which originated in Chicago and has since had members in states around the country, including in Mississippi. Vallum, she said, knew Mercedes as transgender long before her death. Miller Shortly after the remains were found, Miller learned Vallum had been charged in her killing. That is barely something that crosses people's lives anyway. I just keep wanting her to walk through the door. I miss the crooked teeth with that beautiful smile. That's when, she said, the friend told her Mercedes was dead. Miller When Mercedes didn't return home for several days, Miller said she got worried and called a girl she thought had picked up Mercedes the day she left. The last thing she said to me was 'Love ya later,' something Mercedes always said when she left to head out somewhere. Mercedes had said she planned to go "over the Bay" to Gulf Shores. Williamson was last seen by Miller around 2pm on May 30. Mercedes' birth mother, Jeannie Garner, from whom she was estranged, has yet to comment on the murder. She liked to play with dolls, not trucks. Mercedes, Miller said, told her she realized she was different by the second grade. ![]() ![]() She always said 'I have two moms, two Momma Jeanie's.' She wanted to be cosmetologist one day. I was overprotective because she was closer to me than my own daughter. Miller had become Mercedes' surrogate mother. Since this past September, Williamson had been living with Jeanie Miller in a one-bedroom camper they rented to $50 a week in Theodore. The body was indeed that of missing transgender teen Mercedes Williamson.
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