By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Police in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Feb. 25 that they still have few solid leads in their investigation of the slaying of a 17-year-old transgender youth.

Simmie Williams Jr. was shot by two men, witnesses said, around 12:45 a.m. Feb. 22 near the corner of Sistrunk and 10th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. Police said the area is well known as a cruising spot for men seeking transgender prostitutes. Williams was dressed in women’s clothes.

Witnesses said Williams, who went by the names Chris and Beyonce, was arguing with two men dressed in black just before they heard gunshots and turned to see the two men running away. Williams died a short time later at Broward Medical Center.

Despite the presence of others in the area at the time, a Fort Lauderdale detective working the case said police still didn’t have any firm suspects three days after the shooting.

“We do not have anyone in custody,” Det. Katherine Collins said Feb. 25. “We’re reaching out and we’re hoping to get some help from the community.”

Collins said Williams’ slaying is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Williams’ mother told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that she knew the youth was gay, but didn’t know Williams wore women’s clothes or frequented an area known for prostitution.

“I gave him $2 for the bus and he never came back,” Denise King told the Sun-Sentinel. “He wasn’t a troubled child. He was a happy person.”

King said Williams had just signed up for the federally funded Job Corps program and dreamed of going to culinary school.

“That’s what he really wanted to do. That’s all he talked about,” King told the Sun-Sentinel Feb. 22. “He spent the whole day with me yesterday, played with his nephew and cooked dinner.”

The founder of a Fort Lauderdale group that’s raising money to build a 75-foot-long traveling memorial to GLBTs killed because of hate said Feb. 25 that Williams’ slaying, coming just 10 days after Lawrence King, a 15-year-old gay teen, was killed in California, should have people up in arms. Scott Hall, founder of the Gay American Heroes Foundation, said the slayings of Williams, King and others mean that, on average, a gay, lesbian or transgendered person has been killed about once every eight days in the United States this year.

“That’s crazy,” Hall said. “If they were doing this to any other group in this country…there would be an outcry.”

Hall added Williams’ and King’s stories to the scale model of the memorial he hopes to build and take to every state in the country. He said the memorial project has attracted a great deal of interest from colleges, GLBT groups and individuals with ties to the GLBT community, including Barney Frank, Matt Foreman, Cyndi Lauper and Daniela Sea. So far, Hall has compiled the names and stories of more than 600 victims of GLBT-related hate crimes.

The memorial, Hall said, aims to educate the public about hate crimes against GLBTs and spur action to lessen those crimes. King, he noted, was shot by a 14-year-old classmate, a fact that speaks volumes about the need for education about homophobia in public schools.

“We have to, because if a 14-year-old had so much hate in his body for someone because they were gay…it’s just crazy,” Hall said.

For more information on the Gay American Heroes Foundation and memorial go to gayamericanheroes.net.