Counting for Ruby illuminates the excessive amounts of discrimination and violence that transgender people are subjected to in our culture. It also functions as a running memorial for Ruby Rodriguez, a murdered transgender sex worker. By keeping her memory alive, the project seeks to bring awareness to the issue of hate crimes against trasngender people and to serve as a reminder that her murder is still unsolved. This project continued for 3 months, but it was eventually removed by the city. To this day Ruby's murder remains unsolved.

Project Location
The Islais Creek Channel at the end of Indiana Street south of Cesar Chavez in the Dogpatch. This is where Ruby Rodriguez, a transgender sex worker, was strangled to death and left naked on the sidewalk.

About the Project
On March 19, 2007, Ruby Rodriguez, also known as Ruby Ordenana, was found strangled to death and naked on the sidewalk near Indiana Street and Cesar Chavez in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. The local news coverage of this event was slow to materialize probably in a large part due to the fact that Ruby was a transgender sex worker who had immigrated from Nicaragua. After the initial reports, coverage has died down and there are is no word about possible leads in the murder investigation.

Statistics regarding the number of transgender individuals killed every year are nearly impossible to compile because they are based only on what has been reported. Obviously, it is impossible to know how many more murders go unreported. Cases of transgender hate crime rarely receive attention from the mainstream media and when they do, reporters almost never acknowledge the pervasiveness of these hate crimes. What’s more is that the victims of transgender hate crimes often are subjected to what pathologists call Overkill Syndrome, where a victim is brutalized much worse than is necessary to kill them. If you look a sampling how many transgender hate crime victims are killed, you will see things such as being "stabbed multiple times", "stoned to death", and "genitals and throat cut".

Sociologist and author Michael Kimmel, notes that the overkilling aspect of transgender murders often arise because "it’s about a kind of rejection of that sexuality. It’s kind of like purging – not just by murdering something – but by annihilating it; by making it as if it never existed."

Everyday, as part of the Counting for Ruby project, I visit the site where her body was found and place a yellow Post-it note with the number of the days since her murder happened on it. This artifact is left as a reminder to myself and to the community that Ruby's murder is still unsolved. By doing this, I hope to keep her memory alive and her existence felt by posting a new note each day until the murder is solved. As is the case with many transgender murder cases, there is a good chance that the murderer(s) may never get caught. But that is the point.

It is only because we, as individuals, allow violence against transgender people to go largely unnoticed, that it can continue to happen with such frequency and with little repercussions for the perpetrators or these crimes. By doing nothing and putting this issue in the back of our collective consciousness, we are, in many ways, saying that it is OK. 

Note: Some text was quoted from Transgender People Face Violence, Obstacles (from the New Standard) and NOW Commemorates Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20

Press Coverage of the Murder Investigation
Hundreds gather for slain transgendered woman - March 24, 2007
Slain Sex Worker Identified as Transgender Immigrant - March 23, 2007
Friends Identify Transgender Woman Found Dead - March 22, 2007
SF Police Investigate Apparent Transgender Murder - March 19, 2007

Learn More About Transgender Hate Crime
Transgender Definition on Wikipedia
Transgender Day of Rememberance Website
Transgender People Face Violence, Obstacles (from the New Standard)
The Private Face of the Day of Remembrance (from Gender Talk)
Stabbing, Bludgeoning Greets Transgenders (from Gender Talk)