Young black trans lawyer represented at SFMOMA found dead

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Ivory Nicole Smith, a prominent black transgender activist and entrepreneur, was found dead in her apartment on Tuesday. She was 27.

A native of San Francisco and a resident of Tenderloin, she has served as a program officer in the Transgender District and a member of the City’s Office of Transgender Initiatives Transgender Initiatives Transgender Advisory Committee. At the time of her death, Smith was a site manager at the Tymon Bouton Navigation Center, a trans-specific project at St. James Hospital, a San Francisco nonprofit that provides medical services and resources to sex workers.

As part of the Know Our Place campaign, designed to showcase inspirational stories about transgender and gender nonconforming people, Smith was one of several models whose faces appeared on BART trains and in other public places.

In an Instagram post on Wednesday announcing Smith’s death, the transgender district said the San Francisco Police Department’s investigation is “ongoing, but their preliminary assessment has ruled out foul play and murder.”

The standard has yet to receive a response from the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office after requesting more information.

On Friday, the Transgender District will hold a candlelight rally in honor of Smith at the intersection of Turk and Taylor streets in Tenderloin, a historically important gathering place for the trans community.

Smith was also a member of the SFMOMA’s SECA Art Award exhibition, which is currently on display. Per I’m very lucky, very lucky to be transgender Oakland-based artist Marcel Pardo Arisa photographed her alongside San Francisco Bay Area trans leaders as Catholic saints to highlight the community’s sense of joy and tenderness. SFMOMA plans to hold its own picket on an unspecified date.

Jupiter Peraza, a trans activist who worked with Smith in the area, recalled her as a “great, brilliant leader.”

“I had to spend a lot of time with Ivory,” Peraza told The Standard. “We are about the same age, so we definitely have a lot of common dreams and aspirations for the future. I have always been amazed at how she interacted with her community with the greatest grace, respect and love. She led with kindness.”

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