Amid a national epidemic of anti-trans violence, a 23-year-old Virginian became the 5th Black, transgender man to lose his life to violence in 2021.
On Monday, E.J. Boykin was shot and killed outside a Family Dollar in Lynchburg, a city of 75,500 in the western part of the state. According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Boykin is the 29th trans homicide victim overall in a year that is on track to be the deadliest ever for anti-trans violence. This year’s toll has already surpassed the total number of murders for all of 2019, as them. previously reported.
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Boykin rapped under the name “Novaa” and was known by a variety of names to friends and family. He was a student at Morgan State University, according to the LGBTQ+ news blog Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents.
Details of the circumstances leading up to the incident are somewhat unclear. Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents reports that Boykin was likely the parent of a young child who “may have been present at the scene of the shooting but was uninjured.” He was transported to Lynchburg General Hospital after being shot, where he died from his injuries, according to the local outlet News and Advance.
The Lynchburg Police Department (LPD) claims there is no evidence to suggest his death was a hate crime and has deadnamed Boykin in its news releases. LPD spokesperson Carrie Dungan said the department has used he/him pronouns for the deceased at the family’s direction but isn’t aware that he went by a different name.
The practice of referring to a transgender person by a name or pronoun that doesn’t reflect their lived identity is sadly common following anti-trans homicides. When 7 trans women were killed in a span of 5 weeks in 2020, a report from Media Matters for America (MMFA) found that every single one of the victims was misgendered and deadnamed by media and police following their deaths.
Boykin’s loved ones described him as someone who could be counted on to show up when people needed him. Torri Chippe, a friend of Boykin’s since middle school, said he was universally “loved” by those who knew he’d pick up the phone when they called.
“He was one of those people that was just good vibes and energy,” Chippe told the newspaper.
In addition to being honored by his local community, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups also paid tribute to Boykin following news of his untimely death.
“During a year when countless transgender lives have already been lost, we are mourning the death of E.J. Boykin, who was also known as Novaa Ru Watson,” said Vee Lamneck, Equality Virginia’s executive director, in an emailed statement to them. “It is unacceptable that Black transgender people are hurt and killed at alarming rates across the country.”
At least 4 other transgender men have been killed so far this year in the United States: Samuel Edmund Damián Valentín, Jeffrey “JJ” Bright, Oliver “Ollie” Taylor, and Poe Black. This number is likely an undercount, as the deaths of trans victims are often not reported to police.
Tori Cooper, director of HRC’s transgender justice initiative, said in a statement to them. that “all of these individuals deserved to live.”
“The level of fatal violence we’ve recorded this year is higher than we’ve ever seen,” Cooper said in comments shared with them., adding: “We must strike at the roots of racism and transphobia, and continue to work toward justice and equality for trans and gender non-conforming people.”
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