Protect Black Women? Or Only Some of Them?

On this week's Trax and Conversation, the Lioness and I took on two stories that, put side by side, ask the same uncomfortable question: when we say "protect Black women," who are we actually willing to protect?

A Walk in the Park

On Wednesday, October 7, Marrón Bridges, a Sandy Springs resident and realtor, went for a walk at Morgan Falls Overlook Park. In videos she posted to Instagram, an officer trails her slowly in a patrol car. By the time she reaches her own vehicle, multiple police cars are in the area. Officers ask who she's talking to on her phone, where she's going, whether she's alone, and for her ID. She stays calm and asks the one question nobody answers: why her?

Watch Marrón Bridges' video on Instagram @marronjadore

Bridges says she was the only person in the park who was stopped, and she has filed a formal complaint. Sandy Springs Police say she walked into an active criminal investigation and the park was being closed. They haven't said more because that investigation is still open.

At first, the internet was with her. People called the department. One commenter wrote that, as a white woman in Georgia, she was confident this would never have happened to her. Another put it plainly: "You Black in Sandy Springs. That's what's going on."

Then the Rumor Hit

A day later, a well-known Atlanta street reporter posted a video claiming the woman in the park was "not a lady." Nothing has confirmed that. But the rumor alone flipped the conversation. The same people who were outraged that a Black woman was followed and questioned for walking in a park started acting like her existence in that park was the real crime.

That's what stopped me cold. If she's demonstrably living as a woman, then she is a woman walking alone in a park, and she deserves the same protection as any other woman. You don't know anyone's history or anatomy by looking at them, and you were never entitled to. When we let "she might be trans" cancel out our concern, we aren't protecting Black women. We're protecting some Black women, and only the ones who fit somebody's idea of what a woman should look like.

And that should worry every woman. The moment protection depends on passing an inspection, any woman who is too tall, too dark, too muscular or too anything can be pushed outside the circle.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee

The Lioness brought the second story, and it shows exactly where that thinking leads.

In June 2022, Paris Lee, a Black trans woman, was killed in Memphis. A jury rejected Samuel Ward Jr.'s self-defense claim and convicted him of voluntary manslaughter in May 2025. This month, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals vacated that conviction and ordered a new trial. The court ruled the trial judge was wrong to keep the jury from hearing about Lee's sex assigned at birth, saying it was relevant to how much fear Ward experienced.

That reasoning is the "trans panic" defense in everything but name: the idea that finding out someone is trans is frightening enough to explain killing them. The American Bar Association has condemned panic defenses for years. It's the same argument used in the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard. Twenty-one states have banned it. Tennessee isn't one of them.

And this wasn't a stranger in a dark bar. The court record laid out that Ward and Lee knew each other and had a relationship. A jury heard the facts and reached a verdict. Now the retrial can recast her as someone he had reason to fear simply because of who she was.

Why We Put These Stories Together

In Sandy Springs, a rumor was enough to take away public sympathy. In Tennessee, a woman's identity may now be used to explain away her death. It's the same pattern at two different levels: decide a woman doesn't count, and suddenly what happens to her doesn't count either.

As the Lioness said on air, speaking as a trans woman: hearing this makes her feel unsafe. Just being who you are can become the defense for whoever hurts you. Every trans person listening knows that fear. Everyone who says they stand for Black women should feel it too.

If You Need Support

Shout out to Kayla Gore, executive director of My Sistah's House in Memphis, who has been fighting for Paris Lee and for trans women across Tennessee. If you're a trans woman in Tennessee and you need support, find My Sistah's House and Kayla Gore on Facebook.

Hear the full conversation on Trax and Conversation on AmpliPhy Radio. Then tell us what you think on social media. Did the rumor change how you saw the story?

Sources: Rough Draft Atlanta (Oct. 9, 2026); PinkNews (Oct. 9, 2026); National LGBTQ+ Bar Association.