Born: 30 October 1992, United States
Died: 5 January 2013
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Cemia Dove, Carl Acoff Jr. (Dead name)
The following is republished with permission from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History at Case Western Reserve University.
In many years, Transgender Day of Remembrance in Cleveland has focused on the lives of transgender people killed locally. In 2013, the city’s reading of names began with Ce Ce Acoff, a transgender woman who was killed when an intimate partner discovered that she was transgender and stabbed her before disposing of her body in a pond in Olmsted Township. In the days following the commemoration on November 22, 2013, two more transgender women–Brittany Stergis and Betty Skinner–were murdered in Cleveland. As a small but major city, Cleveland is home to a significant percentage of reported violence against transgender people, and observations of Transgender Day of Remembrance in the city often begin with reading the names of transgender Clevelanders who have been killed.