Friends and family of a woman who has advocated for queer young people in Chicago for more than a decade spent her birthday Thursday gathered outside of City Hall in the rain to demand answers about her disappearance in the Bahamas three weeks ago.
Taylor Casey, who friends called a “pillar” and a “leader” of the Chicago LGBTQ+ community, turned 42 Thursday. She went missing on June 19 while attending the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas. The Royal Bahamas Police Force is investigating her disappearance.
“Taylor, today is your birthday,” said Casey’s mother Colette Seymore, reading a letter to her daughter. “I wonder where you are. Are you OK? Are you in danger? Are you sick? Are you hurt? My nights are sleepless with worry about you. I am lost without you. We all are.”
Casey had been practicing yoga for 15 years and went to the Sivananda Ashram to fulfill a long-term goal of deepening her practice, her family said. She also held leadership positions at Broadway Youth Center, a space for LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness, and Chicago House, a social services organization for people impacted by HIV/AIDS. She most recently worked with the Chicago Freedom School.
Members of Chicago’s queer community gathered with Casey’s family and city officials to share stories and call for U.S. government intervention to bring her home as they emphasized that Casey’s disappearance fits into a pattern of widespread violence against Black trans women, both internationally and in the United States.
“My child had two strikes against her, one being Black, the next being trans,” Seymore told the Tribune.
A 2023 study by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that in the U.S., almost two-thirds of all trans victims of fatal violence in the past decade have been Black trans women. According to a recent report by the Chicago Sun-Times, most slayings of transgender women in Chicago since 2016 remain unsolved.
“We have Black women who are constantly being deprioritized, particularly on the city’s South and West sides,” said Channyn Lynne Parker, CEO of the LGBTQ+ center Brave Space Alliance. “We have women globally across the world, more narrowly speaking trans women, whose lives are being discarded.”
Precious Brady-Davis, a longtime friend of Casey and the first openly trans Black woman to serve in public office in Cook County as commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, told the crowd that she was “sick and tired once again” to “urge for a member of our community to be found.”
In March 2022, Chicago LGBTQ+ activist and Black trans woman Elise Malary was found drowned in Lake Michigan after being reported missing. The manner of her death remains unknown. Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, 48th, linked Malary’s case to Casey’s Thursday, saying she is “still waiting” to know what happened to her friend Malary.
Amid recent violence against Black trans women in her home city, Casey’s disappearance abroad has felt all too familiar for members of her community who looked up to her, according to Lia Stokes, housing case manager at trans-led nonprofit Life Is Work.
“We have continued to have violence against Black trans women in the city of Chicago,” Stokes said. “Murders go unsolved, misgendering is constant, disrespect is blatant. So there is a very strong connection.”
Stokes said that there is rarely a “cry for help” when Black women go missing, whether in the Bahamas or the United States. “We’re always an afterthought,” she said.
A week after Casey disappeared, a group that included her mother and close friend Emily Williams visited the Bahamas to search for answers. They visited the yoga retreat, collecting the belongings from her room, and the headquarters of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Casey’s family and friends are urging Illinois’ two U.S. senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, to put pressure on the federal government and advocate for FBI involvement. The FBI can only take over an international police investigation such as Casey’s if the host country invites them to do so.
On July 2, the Royal Bahamas Police Force shared in a news release that it had recovered her cellphone from the waters near the yoga retreat. Williams said the Bahamas police told them they would receive an update on the case Friday.
At the news conference, many wore shirts printed with a photograph of Taylor and the hashtag “#FindTaylorCasey,” which has been used to raise awareness on social media. Her friends said they have gathered every morning since her disappearance to discuss how to mobilize existing activist networks to uplift Casey’s case.
Marcus Payne II, a pastor at the predominantly Black and LGBTQ+-inclusive Lighthouse Church of Chicago, has been holding prayer calls at his church in honor of Casey, who was an active member.
“This person is a Chicago leader, and we do not take our own going missing,” said Victor Motherwell, who worked with Casey at the Broadway Youth Center.
To celebrate her birthday Thursday, Casey’s friends and family released streams of rainbow-tinged bubbles into the air.
