Content warning: anti-transgender violence and police violence. Read the full story online at thegavoice.com.
Amid one of the worst years for LGBTQ people to date, Atlanta’s LGBTQ community saw several losses — many of which were unjust and could have been avoided. As we remember the queer Atlantans we lost this year, we recognize both their humanity and the legacies they leave behind — as well as the realities of anti-transgender violence, gun violence, police violence, and all the work that remains to be done to protect our most vulnerable community members.
Tortuguita, 26, named by family as Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, was murdered on January 18 by Georgia State Patrol troopers.
Tortuguita was in Weelaunee Forest as part of an environmental protest against Cop City, Atlanta’s multimillion-dollar project to create a police militarization center. They were in the forest providing medical care to other protesters and was shot at least 57 times, according to an autopsy report, during a surprise police raid on the forest. Despite claims from police officials that Tortuguita shot at the state trooper first, body camera footage revealed an officer saying he had been shot by fellow police. Tortuguita’s autopsy revealed no trace of gunpowder residue on their hands. Their murder marked the first police killing of an environmental protester in U.S. history.
“I knew Tort — just barely, not nearly well enough — and my heart breaks that I will never know them any better,” Rose Pelham wrote for Georgia Voice following their death. “They meant the world to so many friends of mine all across the city. Though relatively new to Atlanta, they were someone who knew everyone — they were part of the living, beating heart of the community. Their slaying stole from our city a person of rare goodness who had dedicated their life to myriad ways of helping others instead of pursuing a career. It is not possible in a brief summary of their life to do justice to their existence.”
Tortuguita’s brother, Daniel Paez, remembered them as an “Indigenous Venezuelan of Timoto-Cuica descent, queer, nonbinary, and always the biggest light in any room they entered” on their family’s GoFundMe. “They were an eco-anarchist, Forest Defender, and community member.”
They were also a trained street medic, with expertise in a curriculum for community-based first aid. They were a medic at protests, provided free medical care at community clinics, and taught queer Atlanta bar staff how to save lives in the event of a shooting after the attack on Club Q in Colorado. They are also remembered for their pacifist ideals.
“I don’t crave conflict. I’m out here because I love the forest,” Tortuguita told journalist David Peisner for The Bitter Southerner. “I love living in the woods. Being a forest hobo is pretty chill. Some folks probably have flashpoint moments where it’s like, ‘Oh, yes, the truck is being lit on fire!’ But not me. I love it when everything is calm.”
Trans woman Ashley Burton, 37, was killed in a southwest Atlanta apartment on April 11. Police believe she was inside one of the apartments and went door to door for help before dying. Darius Mills, 31, was arrested in connection with the murder.
Burton was a hairstylist and makeup artist in Atlanta and is remembered by her family in South Carolina as someone comfortable in her own skin.
“The way my sibling moved through life, it was … take it or leave it,” Patrick, Burton’s brother, told Fox 5. “‘This is how I am.’ You can respect it or neglect it, but Ashley put it out there and let that person know [she was trans]. It’s not going to be a secret.”
According to Patrick, she was “very loved” by the people around her in both Atlanta and South Carolina.
Trans woman Koko Da Doll, 35, also known as Rasheeda Williams, was fatally shot in downtown Atlanta on April 18. She appeared to have been shot after leaving an apartment complex. Her body was found on a sidewalk adjoining a strip mall.
Koko gained notice earlier in the year for being featured in the documentary, “Kokomo City,” which followed four Black transgender sex workers and explored their gender identities, interactions with clients, and the dichotomies between them and the larger Black community. She was murdered only two months after the film premiered at Sundance. According to Koko’s sister, Kilya Williams, the documentary was “all she would talk about.”
“I created ‘Kokomo City’ because I wanted to show the fun, humanized, natural side of Black trans women,” the film’s director, D. Smith, wrote in an Instagram post commemorating Koko’s death. “I wanted to create images that didn’t show the trauma or the statistics of murder of transgender lives. I wanted to create something fresh and inspiring. I did that. We did that! But here we are again. It’s extremely difficult to process Koko’s passing, but as a team we are more encouraged now than ever to inspire the world with her story. To show how beautiful and full of life she was. She will inspire generations to come and will never be forgotten.”
After her death, “Kokomo City” was dedicated to Koko.
Sheila Merritt died on September 17 at the age of 58 after surgery for a sudden illness. Merritt was well known and loved in Atlanta for her work with the LGBTQ community. Along with her professional endeavors as marketing manager for various prominent institutions, like the Georgia International Convention Center and Gateway Center Arena, she worked for a decade as project manager for Q&A Events, which represented Atlanta Pride. Her advocacy earned her the title of Atlanta Pride Grand Marshal in 2014, and she often used her platforms to speak fiercely about and advocate for queer rights and racial justice. Merritt was an advocate not only for the LGBTQ community, but also “for any underserved community,” Suzanne Baugh, her friend and former business partner, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Anyone who needed help, just anyone, she was there.”
“For those of you who didn’t know, Sheila and [her wife] A.T. were one of my very first clients when I had my cleaning company during the early years of my transition,” Gabriella Claiborne, the co-founder of Transformation Journeys Worldwide, an inclusion training and consulting firm with a transgender focus, wrote on Facebook after learning of Sheila’s passing. “They were a big reason why I, a fragile and fledgling person at that time, was not only able to experience what it was like to be accepted as my authentic self, but to also be able to earn a living as the woman I was becoming. As a result of being in their home every month for the next four years, they became family to me. And when Sheila extended an invitation to join her and their family for Thanksgiving that year (because I was not welcome by my own), our relationship took on a new meaning … I can’t even begin to express the love and gratitude that I have for them. The beautiful thing is, I’m just one of many stories like mine.”
Merritt is survived by her wife, Andria “A.T.” Towne, their son Max Greene, grandson Rowan, and fur babies Cuervo and Sake, along with her sister Sue Sharp and her partner Ron Goshen; sister-in-law Cindy Towne; niece Katie Towne and her partner Chris Denham; and nephew and niece-in-law Steve and Rebecca Sharp, as well as their three children.