Five weeks after her death, friends and family, community members, and LGBTQ+ community members and allies gathered in the Charles Village neighborhood to honor and remember 27-year-old transgender woman Sophie Lee.
“Sophie was so precious, she was beautiful, she loved everybody. She was a caregiver, and she loved to take care of others,” said Margaret Little, Lee’s mother.
Out of a gathering of at least 50 people Friday night, one thing was for sure: Lee was loved.
“She would give you anything. She would open her house to whoever needed a place to stay; she would feed them,” Denise Jackson, Lee’s mother, said.
Perhaps the only emotion felt quite as strongly as the love for Lee is the anger at the person who took her life.
“He’s a monster. The worst thing about it is he’s still around, and we don’t know who he is. We have a picture of him, but as God is my witness, he’s going to be caught,” Little said.
Baltimore City Police are looking for the man wanted in connection with Lee’s killing.
She was found shot on Sept. 11 in the 2400 block of North Calvert Street in the Charles Village neighborhood.
That is where Friday’s march began to advocate for justice for Lee and other trans people who have been senselessly killed.
“We want to live our lives like everyone else. Just because we’ve been labeled as transgender does not make us different than anybody else in the community. We’re your neighbors, we’re your coworkers, we’re the people you’re going grocery shopping with, and you don’t even realize it sometimes,” Renee Lau with Maryland Safe Haven said.
Police have not said whether Lee’s death was a hate crime, but according to Maryland Safe Haven, where Lee was a client, more than 50 trans people have been killed in the state since 2018.
These marchers say enough is enough, advocating for change, while remembering Lee for the amazing person she was. Lee was known in the ballroom scene in Baltimore, a space for community building and artistic expression.
“That’s the most beautiful thing in the world. It just shows you what kind of person she was. When people just love and care about you, it’s unspoken words sometimes. You just look around and see how many people come out because she was loved,” Little said.
The family is asking anyone who recognizes the man in that sketch to contact Baltimore City Police immediately.
An $8,000 reward is being offered to anyone who provides authorities with information that leads to his arrest.
WJZ is a media partner with The Banner.
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