CeCe McDonald, on the other hand, did not die for living openly as a trans woman, but, <\/em>it seems, will be punished for surviving a near hate crime. On June 5, 2011, McDonald was verbally and physically attacked by group of racist and transphobic people, including Dean Schmitz. While defending herself, she stabbed and killed Schmitz, which authorities unjustly pursued as a murder trial rather than self-defense<\/a>.<\/p>\n McDonald recently pled guilty to the charge of second degree manslaughter, which some transgender advocates suggest may have been the better decision for her given the racial bias black transgender people face within the legal system.<\/span>\u00a0She\u00a0<\/span>will face 41 months in prison. However,\u00a0McDonald continues to receive support from her community<\/a>\u00a0in part due to social media campaigns like\u00a0#FreeCeCe and Janet Mock’s #GirlsLikeUs on Twitter,<\/p>\n At her blog, Mock condemns the lack of media coverage of McDonald\u2019s and Clay\u2019s stories, citing race and trans bias as reasons for not covering these stories. Mock writes that \u201csadly, the reality is that a black trans woman is not society\u2019s ideal subject.\u201d The motivation for her Twitter campaign, #GirlsLikeUs, is clear. Girls like McDonald and Clay, girls like Mock, are simply not valued in the prejudiced eye of the media and society.<\/p>\n But Mock does not accept society\u2019s rejection of trans women, emphatically stating in the same post that \u201cI will never depart from my core belief that CeCe and Paige and thousands of other girls like us matter.\u201d Her message, in her blog post and in her speech, is that the lives of girls like herself have inherent value that cannot be taken away, whether girls like her are harassed, imprisoned, or killed.<\/p>\n In her speech, Mock says that she would never have expected, one year ago, that she\u2019d be speaking in front of a crowd about her life as a trans woman. But by speaking her experience and living visibly as a trans woman, Mock challenges concepts of womanhood and makes a space in society for herself and girls like her.<\/p>\n Watch Janet Mock deliver her powerful speech to the students at USC:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Paige.jpg\" "\\"Paige\\"")
<\/a>Paige Clay\u2019s story is one that has been told all too many times; the 23-year-old was found murdered in a Chicago alley<\/a> on April 16th of this year. Though the details behind Clay\u2019s murder remain unclear, many have reason to believe that Clay’s was murdered because she was trans. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 44% of reported hate murders in 2010 were committed against trans women<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/CeCe-224x300.jpg\" "\\"CeCe\\"")
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