Mayor Brandon Johnson declares a ‘transfemicide’ crisis, ignores hundreds of black deaths

Chicago, Chicago, that toddling town: Or it was some time ago when Frank Sinatra sang about it.

Now it’s in the throes of something called a “Transfemicide State of Emergency,” according to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, with no time for a little toddling around the dance floor.

Posting to his X account, Johnson announced in all apparent seriousness: “Since declaring a Transfemicide State of Emergency, our administration has strengthened the City’s capacity to support LGBTQ+ Chicagoans.”

The city, he continued, is “centering the voices and lived experiences of trans Chicagoans to chart a path toward a safer, more connected city.”

“Transfemicide” is the “targeted killing of a transgender woman motivated by transphobic and misogynistic hatred.”

Chicago implemented its state of emergency in 2024.

You may think such a thing is necessary because of the many, many murders of trans Chicagoans happening daily.

In fact, only one trans person was killed in Chicago in all of last year — and the incident appears to have been a matter of domestic violence unrelated to their trans status.

That’s sad, but it’s not “Transfemicide State of Emergency” sad.

Smokescreen issue

American cities are sinking, and few embody this decline more than Chicago.

Last week, over the Juneteenth three-day weekend, 39 people were shot in Chi-town and six killed.

None of them were trans.

That is not considered a state of emergency — it’s just an average weekend in Chicago, a city that saw 416 murders last year, many of them young black men.

And those 416 killings were seen as a win for the city, representing the lowest homicide rate in 60 years.

But when you’re still tallying more than a murder a day, perhaps the celebrations should be somewhat muted lest an SUV pulls up and starts spraying the party with bullets, as occurred at a Juneteenth celebration a few days ago.

Meanwhile, Chicagoans’ quality of life continues to deteriorate, and people and businesses are leaving in droves.

When Ken Griffin took his company Citadel and its talents to Miami, Chicago lost billions of dollars in tax revenue and spending.

Right now its NFL team, the Chicago Bears, has one foot out the door on the way to Indiana.

Yet its mayor is wasting his time on all-but-nonexistent “transfemicide.”

Chicago has the same population, around 2.7 million, as it did 100 years ago — a lack of growth that tells the story of a city in deep trouble.

So its leaders are making up nonsense crises as a smokescreen for the troubles that actually exist.

It’s obviously so much easier to blather about “centering voices and lived experiences” than it is to solve their city’s dire problems.

Party problem

After all, Chicago is a one-political-party town — so part of the quiet on its ongoing mess is that there’s no Republican to blame.

The last Republican to hold any significant government job in Chicago was John J. Hoellen Jr., a City Council alderman in the 1970s.

Chicago hasn’t had a Republican mayor since the 1930s.

And solving actual problems would mean taking on entrenched leftist interests that grow by the year.

Nobody wants to do that.

It’s why, for example, Chicago public schools still had COVID closure days in the 2022 school year, long after pandemic closures were lifted elsewhere.

Teachers’ unions could easily flex their muscles, and did.

What are politicians going to do, oppose them? Not likely.

It’s far easier to issue proclamations larded with words no one understands, so politicians do just that.

They signal to the right people that everyone’s on the same team, and not to worry about any uncomfortable changes that could actually improve anything for the people.

Who knows? Johnson could even declare victory.

Maybe it’s his “Transfemicide State of Emergency” that’s keeping trans people from being murdered in his city — the “lived experience” of non-trans Chicagoans who get murdered every weekend notwithstanding.

Karol Markowicz is the host of the “Karol Markowicz Show” and “Normally” podcasts.