Trial Date Set for Accused Killers of Trans Teen Brianna Ghey

A trial date of July 10 has been set for the two teens charged with the murder of transgender girl Brianna Ghey in England.

The two youths, a boy and a girl, both 15, will stand trial in Liverpool Crown Court, ABC News reports. The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Ghey, 16, was found stabbed to death February 11 in a park in Warrington, England. The two suspects were arrested the next day. While police have not characterized her death as a hate crime, they have not ruled that out.

Ghey had thousands of followers on TikTok and had often talked about being bullied in school for being trans. Her family remembered her as a “much-loved daughter, granddaughter, and baby sister.”

Vigils to honor Ghey have been held in several cities around the U.K., including London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Warrington. One held Friday night in Birmingham was interrupted by anti-LGBTQ+ protesters. The protesters, covering their faces, shouted obscenities at vigil attendees, Pink News reports.

“There’s hate out there,” trans activist Eva Echo told local news outlet I Am Birmingham. “People aren’t born with so much hate; that hate is learned and picked up. So the more that we can be visible, the more that we can educate, the more we can stamp out hate completely.”

Hannah Blythyn, deputy minister for social partnerships in Wales, said Ghey’s death is a “wake-up call” for politicians, according to Pink News.

“I think to me, for other people in public life, it’s a wake-up call,” said Blythyn, who is in charge of Wales's action plan for LGBTQ+ rights. “It’s a wake-up call to demonstrate that actually we need to do better in terms of how we talk and how we approach things, as our words have impact on young trans people. It’s a stark reminder that whilst we talk about how far we’ve come in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights, there is still an immense amount of work to do.”