Buffalo’s LGBTQ community is banding together this weekend for a vigil in memory of Sam Nordquist, a transgender man who was recently tortured and killed in the Rochester area.
Vigils around Western New York and throughout the country are being organized this week for Nordquist, a Minnesota resident who reportedly came to Canandaigua to live with a girlfriend he met online. Five people are now charged with his murder.
OUTspoken for Equality President Ellen Leader is helping organize Saturday’s vigil in Buffalo. Sam’s death highlights concern that Leader has heard from many people in the transgender community about their own safety.
“Sam should never have been tortured. It should never have happened. He came for love," she said. "You know, everybody does everything for love, and this happens. So, it's a way for us to stand in solidarity with the LGBT community.”
Issues facing the transgender community aren’t limited to physical violence, Leader said.
“We know transgender people who can't get a passport and either gender right now, so they can't even go on vacation because they're being denied a gender, a gender passport in their current sex or their birth sex," she said. "Some are being forced to get a passport in their birth sex. Well, they look like completely the opposite sex, right? I mean, what does that say? Accustoms when you walk in and you try to have your interview.”
The vigil will be at 3 p.m. Saturday in Niagara Square.
