The two trans girls who were murdered weren't in the system. Meaning that people who offer resources to trans women or just trans people in general had never herd of Keke or Cece. They never came in for service or were reached by organization that offer services. Part of the problem is because of the lifestyle that trans women have to live. They are often in sex work or work at night. Most programs are 9-5 and these women are sleeping during that time because they have to work at night. We need more programs that can meet them where they are. If we had night programs we could reach them. If we met them where they are it works. If we went out gave them a card that gave them the info they needed then offered the services at night that would go along way. We need to offer jobs that are trans friendly, inclusive, and supportive. Instead of having a prison pipeline we need to create a job pipe line. In order to do that we need job training programs that cater to companies that we know will hire them. We need to create relationship with these companies to be able to privided them with a steady source of employees. One of the problems with these women finding jobs is that they need to change their name that way they will face less discrimination when applying for any job. However, if you have a felony you can not change your name for 10 years in the state of Illinois. That's a problem. Sex work is still illegal and some other things that lead it self to sex work leads to felonies. If we changed some laws it would help a lot of these women so that it would make changing their names a lot easier.
Trans spefic funding doesn't exist Illinois. The only money that trans community gets is spefic for HIV. The money is disappearing under the current administration and under our current government. Often trans women have to go outside the Queer community for services. So if they are victims of domestic abuse they have to go to a women's domestic abuse center. We have to make services more trans friendly. We need to do teach ins and push these organizations to change.
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