This column marks the one-year anniversary of "Images of the Transgender Community." I hope that over the past year I have been able to portray a fair image of who we are. It is also one year since the death of Matthew Shepard. So, let me show you an image that I have not written about, but one that is etched so deeply on my brain that I sometimes find myself shaking from its intensity.

It is the image of a beautiful transgender woman, finally pulling her life together, getting ready to enter a pageant, hoping to change her life for the better. It is the image of hope and vitality, rising above poverty and degradation. It is the image of love and laughter, of friendship and warmth. And finally, it is the image of that young woman, lying in a pool of blood, her life obliterated by the hatred of a killer who wanted nothing more than to eradicate her from the face of the earth.

Sixteen bullets were fired into the body of Barretta Williams. Sixteen! She was killed sixteen times. Her roommate was shot three times in the face and neck, and left for dead. What, you say? You haven't heard about this incident? It must have happened in some remote corner of the universe? You didn't see this on the front page of the Chicago Tribune or Sun Times? Well, surprise, this happened right here in Chicago, just two months ago.

And a few years ago, the same thing happened to Christian Paige, right here in Chicago. How many times was Christian Paige killed? Too many to count! She had been stabbed about twenty times, after being beaten and strangled. The coroner said that any one of those wounds would have killed her. Her body had been so savagely assaulted that some friends believed she had been deliberately mutilated.

These are images that one cannot shake off very easily. There is a war going on against the transgender community. The killings that happened here in Chicago are not isolated incidents. In the year or so between the murders of Matthew Shepard, Billy Jack Gaither, and PFC Barry Winchell, there were at least a dozen equally gruesome murders of transgendered people. One murder per month.

Most of the victims were of lower socioeconomic class. Many were ethnic minorities. Somehow the combination of these factors diminished the humanity of these people in the eyes of the media. With few exceptions, these murders were not considered newsworthy. When the stories were covered, the transgender people were ridiculed with cartoons and dismissed with demeaning stereotypes. We are the new disposable people.

Tasha Dunn, Vianna Faye Williams, Fitzroy Green, Chanel Chandler, Rita Hester, Steve Dwayne Garcia, Lauryn Paige, Tracey Thompson, Kareem Washington, Emmon Bodfish, and the ubiquitous "unknown man wearing women's clothing." And now Barretta Williams. All real people with loves and lives, hopes and dreams. All within a year. In fact, all within the year after Matthew Shepard was lynched.

A year ago I asked the question, "What is it about us that conjures up such vivid images?" Now I ask, "What is it about us that conjures up such hatred?" And, you know what? If you can figure out the answer to that one, maybe you can solve the mystery of monsters like Benjamin Smith and all the other hateful creatures who prey on those who are different than themselves. Gay, Black, Jewish, Asian… their hatred doesn't discriminate.

Miranda Stevens-Miller, Chair of It's Time Illinois welcomes your comments at MirandaSt1@aol.com