An 18-Year-Old Trans Man Was Killed in South Carolina
Note: This article contains descriptions of murder and intimate partner violence.
An 18-year-old transgender man, Jacob Williamson, was found dead on a South Carolina roadside at the end of June, leading police to charge an online contact of the teenager with first-degree murder.
Williamson had only recently moved out of his parents' house after coming out as trans and not being accepted by his family, according to a report by local CBS affiliate WBTV . A family friend, Promise Edwards, took Williamson in a month and a half ago. Williamson reportedly told Edwards that he had been talking to a man named Joshua Newton online since he had moved in with her, and that he wanted to meet up with him. Williamson even offered to download a location tracking app so that Edwards could keep tabs on his location.
Union County sheriff's deputies told WBTV that Newton picked up Williamson from Edwards' home in Laurens County on June 30 and brought him to his trailer home outside of Monroe, North Carolina. Authorities have alleged that Newton killed Williamson there. The teen's body was found on a rural road a few miles away from Newton's home on July 4. Newton has been charged with first-degree murder and obstruction of justice, and Newton's girlfriend, Victoria Smith, was charged with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact.
Although authorities told WBTV that there wasn't enough evidence yet to confirm whether or not Williamson's murder was a hate crime, it's worth noting that trans people are disproportionately likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV). A 2022 study by the Human Rights Campaign found that one third (29%) of trans people killed between 2013 and 2022 were killed by an acquaintance, friend, family member, or intimate partner. One 2020 study found that trans people are 1.7 times more likely to experience any IPV compared to cis people, and 2.2 times more likely to experience physical IPV.
The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey , which remains the largest-scale study of the U.S. trans population to this date, also found that 54% of respondents had experienced intimate partner violence, with 24% reporting experiencing severe physical violence by an intimate partner.
In a Facebook post, Edwards shared, "Supposed to be celebrating my birthday today but instead I'm laying here numb staring at the ceiling wondering why… I'm still just waiting for that weird lofi music to start or waiting to hear monsters by shine down being played countless times blasting."
"I'd give anything to walk in and see you sitting in your chair in the corner playing on your phone," she wrote. "You deserved more than what this cruel world gave you… I am so proud of you for accomplishing so much in the last weeks of your life. My heart will never be the same…"
Williamson is at least the 14th trans person in the U.S. whose death has been reported this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign .
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