Donald Trump’s government helps investigate murder of genderfluid teen
(Facebook/Kedarie Johnson)
Donald Trump’s government will help investigate the murder of a genderfluid teenager.
16-year-old Kedarie Johnson was shot to death last year in Iowa.
(Facebook/Kedarie Johnson)
His mother Katrina told the Des Moines Register that Kedarie did not identify as transgender, but did enjoy dressing in women’s clothes and sometimes went by the name Kandicee.
He had girlfriends, but “preferred boys,” his mother added.
(Facebook/Kedarie Johnson)
Now Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions has sent prominent civil rights attorney Christopher J. Perras to help with the case against Jorge “Lumni” Sanders-Galvez.
He is charged with first-degree murder, but the government is now investigating the case as a federal hate crime.
This means that if found guilty, Sanders-Galvez could face the death penalty.
(Facebook/Kedarie Johnson)
The move by Sessions seems on first glance to be a complete u-turn, considering that he has taken multiple steps to damage the LGBT community.
Last week, it was found that the Attorney General has been working with an anti-LGBT hate group.
(Getty)
Sessions, a hardline opponent of LGBT rights, has worked over the past few weeks to undermine protections for LGBT people across the federal government, in a series of decisions reversing Obama administration guidance.
He issued a directive last week protecting “the right to perform or abstain from performing certain physical acts in accordance with one’s beliefs”, granting an unlimited license to discriminate against LGBT people based on religion.
Under his leadership, the Justice Department has rolled back civil rights protections for transgender people, and has also made an uninvited intervention into a discrimination case this year to argue against discrimination protections for gay employees.
And it emerged that his actions were taken after extensive consultation with Alliance Defending Freedom.
(Getty)
This listed anti-LGBT hate group has repeatedly lobbied to undermine LGBT rights across the US.
But Sessions has consistently cracked down on hatred against the LGBT community – as long as it’s in the form of crime.
In a speech at June’s 2017 Hate Crime summit, Sessions said he would “continue to enforce hate crime laws aggressively and appropriately where (transgender) individuals are victims.”
He continued: “Joshua Brandon Vallum was sentenced to 49 years in prison for assaulting and murdering Mercedes Williamson.
(Getty)
“This is the first case prosecuted under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act involving the murder of a transgender person.
“I personally met with the Department’s senior leadership and the Civil Rights Division to discuss a spate of murders around the country of transgender individuals,” he added.
“I specifically directed that the files of these cases be reviewed to ensure that there is no single person or group behind these murders or to what extent hate crime motivation lies behind such murders,” he said.
“I receive regular updates on the status of that review.”
