Why Sophie’s Death Feels Different

Sophie, a Scottish transfemme musician, died on the 30th of January in a freak accident that sent shock waves through the trans community.

I was familiar enough with Sophie’s music through the Los Angeles trans drag community, and something about Sophie’s death has struck a different chord than other high profile trans deaths. When other girls in our community die, it’s rarely because of an accident. We’ve grown numb to seeing trans women die from suicide, overdose, and murder.

But a trans death from a tragic accident? That’s rarer.

Sophie died when she climbed to the top of a balcony in Athens, Greece (though in some reports, others said she climbed a tree) and fell in an accident while trying to get a better look at the full moon. In the early hours after news of her demise hit the community, many trans girls and women waited to hear what the official cause of death was, and there was a palpable sigh of relief when we learned that her death was an accident and not a suicide.

It’s strange to feel relief over a death of one of our own being an unfortunate accident rather than a suicide, overdose, or violent crime, but we live in a world where young trans women don’t often seem to die from natural causes. Had Sophie died from one of those aforementioned causes, I think we’d be mourning in a very different way.