Nona Conner, a Black trans activist who fought for the rights of trans women and sex workers, died unexpectedly on May 13 in Washington, D.C. She was 37. While Conner’s cause of death remains unknown, no foul play is suspected, the Washington Post reported.
Conner worked as the program manager for Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), an organization working to build community safety for Black, trans, queer, and nonbinary people. She also organized for No Justice No Pride (NJNP), a trans justice collective fighting for systemic change. In a tribute to Conner posted to the CASS website, executive director Je'Kendria Trahan called her “a compelling and irreplaceable force that illuminated each space she entered.”
“Words cannot describe the magnitude of Nona’s significance in our lives,” Trahan added.
The tribute also discussed Conner’s challenging last days, which she spent fundraising for her own medical care and basic needs, as well as for safer housing to escape abusive living situations. “Make no mistake: Many systems failed Nona,” Trahan wrote, “and in some ways, our own community failed her. Nona deserved care and protection, and material support that was abundant and unconditional.”
Trahan also asked the community to honor Conner by continuing to fight for the communities she cared for so deeply.
“We all have a responsibility to go out of our way to make sure Black trans women and sex workers are abundantly cared for – that they have safe housing, the ability to have their material needs more than met, and the autonomy to thrive in all the ways they desire. We owe that to Nona, and to every Black trans woman in our lives.”
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Conner was vocal about the struggles she endured throughout her life, from housing insecurity and violence to survival sex work. In 2016, she told the Washington City Paper about being stabbed 48 times by a man angry at her for refusing to perform a sex act he requested. When the man fled, Connor was miraculously able to walk two full blocks to find help.
“I’m a survivor and not a victim,” Nona said while telling the story, then repeating it for emphasis. “I’m not a victim. I’m a survivor.”
A GoFundMe for her memorial service has far surpassed its initial $15,000 dollar goal and has raised over $25,000 as of Friday afternoon. The extra funding will likely benefit the communities Conner spent her life advocating for. “She was a bright star in so many people’s lives, a hopeless romantic, an enthusiastic cheerleader, a wise soul,” the fundraiser says, “and she was loved.”
Trahan told the Washington Post that she is grateful for the money raised, but she wishes Conner could have found that level of support in life, especially because she would have used so much of it to help others.
Over 100 people showed up to a May 21 vigil honoring both Conner and Gisselle Hartzog, another D.C. trans woman who recently died, according to the LGBTQ+ newspaper Washington Blade. (Hartzog’s cause of death is also unknown.) Among the speakers was Conner’s father, who reportedly recounted his journey to accepting his daughter as trans.
“I want to say it’s my prayer that fathers all over the world don’t travel the same road that I traveled,” he said, “that it took me a while for my heart to soften and for me to open up and really accept my child in this world.”
“I believe that had I done something and opened up sooner, life would have been so much better. But I thank God for it because she did come to my heart,” he said, adding: “I love her, and I hurt every day. And I pray that all of you find love and everything you deserve.”
While violence is not the suspected cause of death in Connor’s case, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reports that at least 27 trans or gender non-conforming people have been killed by violent means in 2021. The majority of the victims have been Black trans women, including Alexus Braxton, Serenity Hollis, Tiara Banks, and Bianca “Muffin” Bankz. After historic levels of violence against transgender people last year, 2021 is unfortunately on track to set a new record for anti-trans homicides.
This week, the LGBTQ+ community also lost gay rights activist Kay Tobin Lahusen, according to the New York Times. Lahusen was photographer who played a key role in increasing lesbian visibility in the early days of the LGBTQ+ rights movement. She was 91.
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.'s weekly newsletter here.
