Eating cake on your birthday is hardly an act of resistance. That is, unless that birthday cake online shows the faces of 77 black transgender women who were murdered before they turned 35 years old.
Transgender advocate and television personality Ashlee Marie Preston had a lot to celebrate when she turned 34 on June 7. In the past year, she had made history as the first transgender woman to be named editor-in-chief at feminist magazine Wear Your Voice, and she became the first transgender person in California to run for the state Assembly.
But there was another reason to mark the occasion. One international human rights group claims the life expectancy for a trans woman in the Americas is just 35 years old ― just one year older than she is now. While the statistics around mortality rates for trans people require further study, other advocacy groups have found that trans women of color in the U.S. face a disproportionate risk of assault and even murder.
Preston launched the #ThriveOver35 hashtag to raise awareness of this ― and commissioned a cake in honor of the 77 women whose lives were cut short.
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