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2015 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals

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In an age where Black transgender women are being murdered for having the audacity to exist, comedian Lil Duval recently went on the popular New York radio show “The Breakfast Club” joking about killing them.

After calling trans women “boys” to much laughter from Charlamagne Tha God and his co-hosts Angela Yee and DJ Envy, Lil’ Duval was asked what would he would do after four months of dating a woman, he learned she was trans.

His response?

“I don’t care. She dying. You manipulated me…In my mind I’m gay now.” (Which isn’t true)

Sigh. Even if you were “manipulated,” is your masculinity so fragile that you have to kill her over it?

Early Sunday morning, folks on Twitter created the hashtag #BoycottBreakfastClub to express their disgust not just with Lil’ Duval, but the show’s hosts who they believe were complicit and could have done more to address this type violence:

Emmy-nominated actress Laverne Cox reminded folks that yes Lil’ Duval may be a comedian, but joking about murdering trans folks isn’t funny:

And while there seems to this ongoing tired narrative that trans women don’t disclose their gender identity and are out there “tricking” men, Claws actress and trans advocate Angelica Ross stressed that even though she is out, she still fears for her life when she is in public:

She also explains why cisgender straight men continue to buy into this dangerous mentality and how they are not tricked as often as they claim they are:

Duval’s heinous comments came on the same week that Dwanya Hickerson plead guilty to stabbing and killing Dee Whigham last summer. Whigham, a 25-year-old trans woman, was found in a Biloxi hotel with 115 stab wounds, the majority of which covered her face. According to the autopsy report, Whigham’s throat was also slashed three times.

This year alone, it’s been reported that 14 Black transgender have been murdered—the youngest was 17-year-old Ava Le’Ray Barrin.

Clearly the folks at “The Breakfast Club” and the rest of us need to do a lot better when it comes to unlearning our transphobia. The lives of our Black trans brother and sisters are depending on it.

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#BoycottBreakfastClub Trends After Lil Duval Jokes About Murdering Trans Women  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com