Hundreds turn out for Philly Trans March

Hundreds in Philadelphia's transgender community and their supporters rallied and marched in Center City on Saturday in an annual event made solemn this year by last week's killing of a member of their community.

Philly Trans March participants gathered at Thomas Paine Plaza before beginning a procession that wrapped at least halfway around City Hall, with chants of "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Transphobia's got to go" and "Clap your hands and raise your voice, no one's gender is a choice."

Speakers tried to balance the immediacy of 22-year-old Kiesha Jenkins' killing early Tuesday morning in Hunting Park with a desire to discuss other pervasive issues in their community, such as social recognition, self-acceptance, and equal legal treatment.

"Although Kiesha is not the sole reason we're here, what happened to Kiesha is part of the reason why we're here," Deja Alvarez, one of the event's organizers, told the crowd. "People don't understand us. Not understanding us creates fear. Fear creates violence. Violence creates murder."

Jenkins, a graduate of Benjamin Franklin High School who enjoyed drawing and designing tattoos for friends, was attacked by five or six men after she got out of a car about 2:30 a.m. at 13th and Wingohocking Streets, according to police.

She then was shot twice in the back as she lay on the ground.

Investigators have said the motive may have been robbery, but some believe the killing was a hate crime.

"It was a robbery and it's made worse by the fact of who that person was," said Jim Kenney, the Democratic nominee for mayor, who attended the event. "When people have the potential of being murdered for who they are, we're not in a fully free America."

The Human Rights Campaign, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization, said on its website that Jenkins was at least the 20th transgender person killed this year and the 18th transgender person of color.

The names of those victims were written in chalk on the ground of Thomas Paine Plaza, at the foot of the Municipal Services Building, at Saturday's rally. Dozens held signs with "Justice for Kiesha Jenkins" printed over a photo of Jenkins.

The event "should bring out more people to let them know it's not getting out of hand. It is out of hand," Tanya Macey, 37, of South Philadelphia, said before the rally. "They need to know that trans lives matter."

Others said they did not want to see the event - in its fifth year - become a mere commemoration of Jenkins' death at the expense of a broader recognition of the hazards faced by the community.

"This community does not only face disproportionate poverty, violence, death by suicide and murder when one of us makes the news," Alvarez said. "We face these threats 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year."

jadelman@phillynews.com

215-854-2615@jacobadelman