Remembering Sam; So Much More Than The Way His Life Ended
The gruesome way that Sam Nordquist died has made international news this week. A few internet pictures have circulated widely that you can imagine he never intended for millions to see, the mug shot of the five monsters accused of taking his precious life away and images of his heartbroken family huddled on a motel room bed overcome with grief after an unexpected pilgrimage to upstate New York to reclaim their beloved Sam. These images and the horrific details of the torture he endured will be the lasting memories most associated with Sam Nordquist for the millions of strangers that only learned his name this week.
Rochester, NY (the city nearest to where Sam was found) is our Editor, Tamara Leigh’s hometown, so Blaque/OUT Magazine began covering Sam’s disappearance and the devastating conclusion earlier than most media outlets, but it was our intention to stop continued coverage until the trial verdict to avoid being a part of the sensationalized coverage that will undoubtably follow a news story of this magnitude. It’s always our goal to tell OUR stories but not to exploit them. However, we came across a short, sweet post made by Face To Face Academy in St. Paul, MN where Sam graduated in 2020 that felt too important not to share with our readers.
If you have never paid attention to the lives or deaths of Trans people in this country before hearing Sam’s story- you should know that every year in this country there are a wildly disproportionate number of Trans people murdered in the United States. Sometimes by strangers in hate crimes but often by family members and intimate partners or by the masses of folks that seem to grow every day who don’t believe that Trans lives matter. Trans people are only 1% of the population but the Blaque/OUT TRAII recorded 33 violent deaths of individuals of Trans, Non-Binary, and Gender-Non-Conforming experience in 2024 alone. That shockingly, is less than in 2023, which was less than 2022 and 2021. By far, they are Black Trans women like Tahiry Broom whose lifeless body was also discovered last week and story you rarely hear. They are mothers and fathers and siblings and friends but their stories, if you ever hear their stories at all, are reduced to the day they died and the person who killed them. We bring you this story because Sam is, and they all are, so-much-more.
The simple post from Face to Face Academy reads:
I write with the heavy burden of informing our school community of the passing of Academy graduate, Sam Nordquist (Class of June 2020).
For someone who preferred helping others in the background, there will be plenty written about Sam that will be a part of a very public conversation especially about how and why he died. What we hope to add to the discussion of who Sam was as a person in life and the impact he had on us during our time together. In that spirit, please take a moment to read the Academy's tribute to Sam:
We encourage you to visit the link, where you will find a beautiful, simple blog written by Darius Husain that tells stories about who Sam Nordquist is and was all the many, many days before that fateful day in February that ended his story. Sam was, as each of the sweet souls we lost are, more than the day that took him away.
