There was much pain and heartbreak throughout the transgender community and their allies during a vigil on Friday evening in Greenwich Village after a horrific murder.
Saturday, February 22, 2025 2:27PM
Anthony Carlo has more.
GREENWICH VILLAGE (WABC) — There was much pain and heartbreak throughout the transgender community and their allies during a vigil on Friday evening in Greenwich Village after a horrific murder.
They lifted their voices, even though their hearts were heavy.
“There is grief and sadness, there is also a deep concern and deep heartbreak and deep rage,” said Kei Williams of NEW Pride Agenda.
The life of Sam Nordquist was brutally taken.
Authorities say the 24-year-old transgender man was tortured for over a month by 5 people before his body was dumped in a field upstate.
Police called the case ‘beyond depraved.’
Two more people were charged with murder on Thursday.
“It’s just unfathomable to me like I am just not going to let it go down and not show up in these spaces to be supportive,” Williams said.
Hand over heart, the abhorrence was palpable among vigil attendees.
Nordquist traveled from Minnesota to be with a woman he had met online.
As brutal as it was, authorities say there is no evidence this was a hate crime.
The suspected killers were also identified as LGBTQ.
Williams helped organize the vigil.
“Just because someone identifies as LGBTQ or somebody is in a relationship with someone does not exclude them from the possibility of committing such acts. We deeply, deeply are concerned about the notion of it not being a hate crime,” Williams said.
Among the hundreds who packed the church on Friday, those who call themselves allies but have not experienced the same hate and vitriol but see it growing.
Marika Bernstein-Condos is a therapist.
“We have these preconceived notions, all of us, about one another. If we’re exposed, we really learn firsthand that we may look different on the outside but on the inside, we’re all the same,” Bernstein-Condos said.
The last couple of weeks have been difficult for the transgender community.
“They were able to take the “T” off of Stonewall. That’s not okay,” a vigil attendee said.
They are not okay but are willing to keep up the fight.
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There was much pain and heartbreak throughout the transgender community and their allies during a vigil on Friday evening in Greenwich Village after a horrific murder.
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