Published May 15, 2026
Last year I had to stop posting devastating news about trans people. It was too much. It’s still too much, but this one hit me hard.
New Mexico, Seattle, the Trans Collective at the University of Washington, and transgender people everywhere are grieving the death of Juniper Blessing. Seattle police said Blessing, 19, was stabbed more than 40 times Sunday.
Blessing was born in Princeton, N.J., and moved to Santa Fe in 2018, according to a family statement.
Trans people I know and follow are heartbroken.
What’s gutting about this is that Juniper seems to have had a family who supported and loved her, she was in a community that has been explicitly welcoming to trans people, and a man still murdered her. She was living the life so many trans people can only dream of, and it simply didn’t matter.
— Emily St. James (@emilystjams.bsky.social) May 14, 2026 at 7:44 PM
This is being widely shared on social media:
“there is something you can do. she loved Pokémon. she named herself after a character. i’m going to be leaving a Pokémon stuffed animal at her memorial. if you could just encourage others to do the same. or to donate Pokémon stuffed animals to shelters and such”
It’s hard to not feel helpless, so there’s something anyone can do.
I don’t know what to say anymore. People continue to call us a political liability, urging Democrats to forget about “identity politics” for any serious hope of winning back power. Of course, it’s always white men — the original and all-time world champion beneficiaries of identity politics — who say such things.
I’ll stop here. My heart can’t take much more of this. My trans sisters, brothers and nonbinary gentlethems need your support and for you to fight for us. Our government wants us gone.
Sending love. Protect your peace.
Photo by nito via Shutterstock.
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