Baltimore police have released a sketch of a person wanted in connection with the killing of Sophie Lee, a transgender woman shot on North Calvert Street on 11 September. An $8,000 reward is being offered for information. Baltimore Safe Haven, a Black- and trans-led nonprofit, has set up a GoFundMe to support her family.

Sophie Lee was shot and killed in the 2400 block of North Calvert Street. She deserves to be named, and she deserves justice. If you recognise the person in the sketch, or if you know anything at all about what happened, please call Baltimore detectives at 410-396-2100, or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP. The reward for information leading to an arrest is $8,000.

I want to say something about Baltimore Safe Haven, because they matter here. They are a Black- and trans-led nonprofit. They stepped in immediately after Sophie's death to support her family, and they do this kind of work every day: housing, health, community, care. When public systems fail trans people, organisations like Baltimore Safe Haven fill the gap. They should not have to. And yet there they are, doing it anyway, with extraordinary dedication. If you want to support the GoFundMe they started for Sophie's family, I hope you will.

Sophie's death is not an isolated incident. Trans women, and in particular Black trans women, face a level of violence that the rest of us rarely reckon with honestly. This is not a fringe concern or a statistical footnote. It is a pattern, and it has been a pattern for years. The names accumulate. The investigations are too often slow or incomplete. The coverage, when it comes, too often misnames or misgenders the person at its centre. I am glad that WMAR named Sophie correctly and used the right language. That should be the floor, not an achievement.

What makes this especially hard is the political moment we are in. While Sophie was alive, politicians across the United States were debating whether trans people should be permitted to exist in public spaces, use public facilities, or access healthcare. Those debates are not abstract. They create a climate. They tell some people that trans lives matter less, that trans people are a problem to be managed rather than human beings to be protected. I am not saying that climate pulled a trigger. I am saying that when a society treats a group of people as less than fully human, violence against that group becomes easier to commit and easier to ignore.

Sophie Lee was not a debate. She was a person. She had a family, and that family is grieving. She lived in a city, and that city now has a sketch and an $8,000 reward and, I hope, enough people who care to come forward with what they know.

Please share the sketch. Please call if you know anything. And please keep Sophie's name with the dignity it deserves.

If there is a news story you would like me to cover then just let Sammy know.

Dr Helen Webberley is a Gender Specialist and advocate, and the founder of GenderGP. She writes about gender diversity, trans healthcare, and the lives of trans people and their families.