“Stay sparkly!” was Meghan Riley Lewis’s go-to signoff for messages, texts, and other communications with associates. It reflected her own perspective on life.
Even when the outside world didn’t see their own sparkle, the Bel Air, Maryland, woman made it her mission to do so. Lewis, a trans woman, gave to Baltimore Safe Haven, the state’s only full-service housing and healthcare facility for LGBTQ+ people, with time, money, food, and love.
Iya Dammons, the executive director and founder of Baltimore Safe Haven and a friend of Lewis, remarked that Meghan was “sparkly.” She made sure that our children could enjoy a Christmas breakfast, Thanksgiving meal, or whatever else they desired in order to laugh. She was constantly sending over glitzy items.
In an effort to lessen the suffering of grief and loss experienced during the holidays, including trans people who frequently feel cut off from friends, family, and society, Lewis actually extended an invitation to strangers to visit her house on Christmas Day.
But before the vacations were over, she lost her brightness. Lewis was fatally shot on December 27th, reportedly by a man who was delivering food in her town. 47-year-old Brian Michael Delen is accused of murder, rape, and using arms. According to court records and nearby news reports, on December 29, he was freed from home detention for GPS tracking.
“She extended her hand to the far-off”
According to Dammons, Lewis wasn’t just a happy face to those who all too frequently experience loneliness. Since Dammons founded Baltimore Safe Haven in 2018, the two had been friends, and Lewis got in touch with her right away to see how she could assist. Lewis was present when Dammons underwent gender reassignment surgery, not only providing guidance and disclosing intimate details about the process and treatment, but also bringing over groceries and making sure Dammons had everything they required.
Beyond the LGBTQ society, she was generous. Lewis’s Facebook post offering a meal and fellowship to “some of my fellow queers who need to be fed and loved” caught Clara Longo de Freitas’s attention as she was looking for an article for the Baltimore Banner on Christmas Day. The post featured turkey, roast beef, casseroles, and desserts.
Lewis invited the writer as well after learning that Longo, a Portuguese local, would be spending her first Christmas by herself. She greeted her in Portuguese and offered to prepare traditional Brazilian dishes.
Longo didn’t go, but she was moved by the gesture, and after she passed away, she wrote about Lewis.
She remarked, “This is true society love and kindness toward strangers.” “I believe many gay and transgender people also find it difficult to spend Christmas exclusively. That and her offer to prepare Argentine food deeply moved me. It gave me the fortitude I needed to be by myself on Christmas Day.
It was “very jarring” to learn of Lewis’s passing, the young writer said. Additionally startling, especially for Lewis’s companions and transgender society: Preliminary reports from the Bel Air Police Department misidentified Lewis and used her given name at conception. (The department later published a revised release and expressed regret for the error.)
“A collector of the people who fall through the cracks”
Lewis was described as “an excellent collector of the folks who fall through the cracks in the system, who don’t have anyone else” by Lee Blinder of Trans Maryland. Lewis, who had her own two young children and had worked in technology, “really took seriously the proposal to reach out to and give attention to our society.”
In response to USA TODAY’s investigation, Bel Air Police stated in an email that “nothing in our exploration thus far has indicated any cause related to anti-transgender or bigoted attitude.”
However, Upper Chesapeake Bay Pride’s Blinder, Dammons, and Kurt Doan all hold different opinions. In response to a wave of anti-EQL+ legislation, the marginalization of trans people, and rising crime against them as well as gender nonconforming individuals and other members of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, The Human Rights Campaign in early 2023 declared the United States to be in an emergency.
Lewis’s passing is “deeply unsettling,” according to Blinder. “This has a ripple effect that is already adding to anti-transgender attitude in many states, including Maryland and the states that are close by, mostly to our south.”
Doan claimed that Lewis’s passing has inspired more members of Maryland’s LGBTQ+ society to take action and advocate. More than 100 people attended a party of her life on January 2nd, he claimed, which made people in the rural location feel less alone. On Monday night, Meghan Lewis will attend a Justice Rally at the Bel Air court.
He said, “This will change the topic of our conversation to what we’re going to do to promote more for the LGBTQ+ community.” “We used to be all about staging (a Pride) parade, but now we have to speak with local police forces and students in schools.”
Dammons is upset that the belief in the case is not incarcerated, just like Blinder and Doan. From Harford County, where Lewis was shot, to the Statehouse, the three vowed to alert Maryland government.
Dammons stated, “I’ve buried, I believe, 13 trans relatives in the last five years.” “We have served as the pillars of our neighborhood. We support one another. We want to be audible. Our blood flows through the roads as a result of this unfairness. Meghan wasn’t just a piece of data.
Lewis, according to Blinder, wouldn’t have wanted people to mourn her, and those who planned the Jan. 2 memorial purposefully chose to refer to it as a celebration of her life rather than an act of mourning.
According to Blinder, “Her viewpoint was about discovering that joy and making spaces for others to get their joy.” “Nobody wants to be a statistic in the transgender society, especially when it comes to crime or fatalities. Meghan, in my opinion, would encourage people to take the action and bring about long-lasting shift for others.
Phaedra Trethan can be reached by email at [email protected], on X (previously Twitter) @wordsbyphaethera, or on Threads @by_phaera.
