(Credit: Brayla Stone)

The body of a 17-year-old Black trans teen has been found in Arkansas in what local police are treating as a homicide.

(Credit: Brayla Stone)

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“Brayla Stone was seventeen years young when someone murdered her because we live in a society where it is not yet explicit that when we say BlackLivesMatter we mean all Black lives, which includes Black trans women and girls,” David Johns, Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said in a statement to theGrio.

“The average life expectancy for a Black trans woman in the United States is around 35 years of age and in 42 states and the District of Columbia it is still legal to murder a trans person under the ‘gay panic defense.’

When we said protect Black trans women—we meant our youth as well,” wrote trans activist and journalist Ashlee Marie Preston.

There have been four trans women murdered this month, three of which were Black trans women.