Trans-rights activist killed in Argentina
In Argentina, a trans-rights campaigner was stabbed to death after two people allegedly attacked her, according to Gay Star News.
The body of Diana Sacayan, 40, was found in her apartment in Buenos Aires, stabbed numerous times in the chest and back. She was a high-ranking member in the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex group and leader of the Anti-Discrimination Liberation Movement.
LGBT-rights advocates in the South American country and around the world mourned Sacayan's death, The Washington Blade noted. Reuters reported that dozens of people gathered outside the Argentine Supreme Court in Buenos Aires to pay tribute to Sacayan.
Trans woman killed in Maryland
In Maryland on Oct. 15, transgender woman Zella Ziona, 21, was shot to death in an alley behind a shopping center just outside Gaithersburg, The Washington Blade reported.
On Oct. 17, Montgomery County police announced the arrest of Rico Leblond of Germantown in connection with Ziona's death. He has been charged with first-degree murder and was slated to appear in a Rockville court Oct. 19.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs ( NCAVP ), which monitors anti-LGBT violence, said Ziona's murder was the 22nd reported homicide of a transgender or gender non-conforming person in the country in 2015. Nineteen of the 22 cases, including that of Ziona, involve victims who were trans women of color, NCAVP said.
