Teenage trans girl found dead and ditched in undergrowth
Trans teen Luiz Diogo de Jesus Barbosa (Social media)
A trans teen, just 15, was found dead and her body ditched in undergrowth in Brazil last month (21 August).
Luiz Diogo de Jesus Barbosa was found by locals in a vacant lot in Teixeira de Freitas, a city in the extreme south of the Bahia state.
Barbosa lived in Eunápolis with her family, and local media reported that her family said she would have walked over to the neighboring city.
They could not confirm who she was with, if anyone, at the time of her death.
However, one local informed police he saw Barbosa with a group of people the night before, according to Baha Extremosul.
She was found amid the undergrowth of a wasteland on Rua Governador José Marcelino de Souza. Neabry the Centro Social Urbano (a community center) in the Monte Castelo neighborhood.
This was after a local passing through the area tipped the police via the Centro Integrado de Comunicações, which answers emergency calls, at around 1:30pm.
Furthermore, the Department of Technical Police (DPT) recorded no fatal injuries.
Although, she was found with a slight injury on her right arms, both wrists and nose.
She was also found wearing a striped blouse, yellow shorts, and with a black bag only containing condoms.
An inquiry has been made into her cause of death by the Teixeira de Freitas police force.
LGBT+ rights in Brazil
Brazil is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be trans in.
The country consistently leads a global ranking of trans murders published annually by Transgender Europe, a trans advocacy group.
Around 900 trans folk were murdered between 2008 and 2016, according to the group’s tally.
For decades, Brazil’s criminal code made no mention of transphobia. As a result, Brazilian courts treated anti-trans hate crimes as ordinary murders.
However, earlier this year, the county’s Supreme Court criminalised transphobia as well as homophobia under Brazil’s racism law, or Lei do Crime Racial.
