D.C. Council staffers invited to briefing on anti-trans violence

Earline Budd, community outreach representative for Transgender Health Empowerment, will also participate in the training. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Council member Michael Brown (I-At-Large) is asking a staff representative from each of the 13 Council members’ offices to attend a Feb. 29 briefing on the increase in crimes, including murders, against members of the city’s transgender community, according to Brown spokesperson David Meadows.

Meadows said the briefing will be led by Riki Wilchins, executive director of TrueChild, an organization that provides training and assistance to public and private groups and companies about how rigid gender role norms often are the root cause of anti-gay and anti-trans bias and violence as well as bias against women.

“I have strong concerns over the rash of crimes against our transgendered community and…will work to collectively to utilize all government resources to reduce these alarming trends,” Brown said in a statement.

The briefing is expected to take place at the John A. Wilson Building, where Council members and the mayor’s offices are located. Meadows said Jeffrey Richardson, director of the mayor’s office of GLBT Affairs, and Earline Budd, community outreach representative for the local advocacy and services group Transgender Health Empowerment, were invited to attend the briefing.