Hollywood Trans Community On Alert After Murder

After a transgender woman was murdered in Hollywood Thursday night, and another one shot at in a West Hollywood park, the community is mobilizing.

A Guatemalan-born transgender woman named Valerie told the Los Angeles Times that phone traffic among the Hollywood trans community "just exploded" after news broke that the body of 32-year-old Cassidy Vickers was found in a Hollywood street, dead from a shotgun wound to the chest. An hour later in West Hollywood's Plummer Park, a man attempted to rob a transgender woman. He shot at her, but missed.

Lexington Avenue and Gower Street in Hollywood is home to many transgender women; some work as prostitutes. While some community members laid a small memorial for Vickers on Friday, other residents complained of the brazen sex work conducted in the neighborhood.

"They are parading notoriously, outrageously, and the cops don't do nothing about it," an anonymous resident told the Times. "There is a good doughnut shop nearby but I am dissuaded from going over there because who wants to be around that." A transgender woman told the newspaper she has tried to get legitimate work but potential employers never call her back. Read the full story here.

A march in honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance was planned for Sunday afternoon at Plummer Park.