The DC Stabbings (another trans murder)

[SarahG]

Surprised no one has mentioned this on here yet.

But, yesterday in Washington DC a guy walked up to two trans girls in the city, at 2 in the afternoon, in the middle of the day, and stabbed both of them while saying slur(s), and then ran off whilst the two victims started running for help in the opposite direction.

One of the two were stabbed in the neck, severing an artery and causing her death. The other survived but I haven't seen anything talking about what her injuries were, other than them being serious.

Despite being in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, on a city street- no one has come forward (yet anyway). This guy, whoever he was, was able to stab two girls (one in the neck) in broad daylight in the middle of Washington DC but "no one saw a thing."

Possibly related to the story; according to some articles on this, this all went down in close proximity to a "agency"* in the area that aims at working with trans children/young adults (the murdered girl was fulltime and 21 according to the articles, no word yet on the age of the surviving victim). It makes me seriously wonder if this was a planned attack, with the victims chosen by watching for trans people coming & going from the agency.

The Washington Post's coverage (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082701724.html) of the case has been so bad that Fox News, yes Fox news (their local affiliate) covered it more delicately (http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/082609_q_street_double_stabbing). Upon reporting the case Washington Post has decided that the best way to bring about justice for these girls is to repeatedly state they are "biologically male," repeatedly use incorrect pronouns, and repeatedly state their legal names when that information is known (ATM only the murdered girl's legal name and female name have been publicly released).

I said it before, and I will say it again: there is no reason for any newspaper, let alone a major newspaper, to go to such lengths to talk about "biological sex," how passable a trans victim was, or any other such useless information. In fact they don't even have to use gendered pronouns if they are that uncomfortable in doing so (you can use "they" instead of he/she, this used to be part of English101 before all our colleges went PC-crazy and started forcing people to use "he or she"/"his or hers" for genderless pronoun usage). Considering that fox's coverage (although far from perfect) was so much better makes me wonder if the Washington Post's coverage was intentionally intolerant in order to poison the jury pool by making the victims appear less sympathetic. Why else would this dead girl's female name be referred to as a "street name"?

Like all papers the Washington Post has done special interest stories on trans people before. You know, those cliché pseudo-journalism stories that interview a (almost always MtF) trans person, while showing them clothes shopping or crying after getting SRS or putting on makeup. They do not refer to a trans person's chosen name as a "street name" when their story is discussing a middle class white transitioner... but when its a trans youth, in a city like Washington... the paper chooses to go with terminology that makes the victim out to be some kind of an illicit thug. All they had to do was say "alias." Would that have really been so hard!?

Although not the best article ever written about a trans victim, this one (http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=26915) is by far the most tolerantly worded one I've seen yet on this specific case. Unfortunately, more people will end up reading the one from the Post or Fox.

And people wonder why criminals so easily get away with targeting trans citizens. Now is a good time to remind us all that with VERY sporadic data-coverage, a recent statistical survey (http://questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/every-third-day-the-murder-of-a-trans-person-is-reported/) has found that a trans person is murdered somewhere around the globe no less often than once every 3 days. That does not include statistics from the United States because we refuse to track these crimes when they happen here, out of fear that such tracking would create a "privileged class" of minorities protected by hate crime legislation.

You want to talk about privilege? Let's talk about the non-trans people that are freely allowed to walk around stabbing people in broad daylight... or the witnesses who don't give enough of a shit to help catch the guy.




* According to the one article, the "agency" was the North Capitol Street offices of Transgender Health Empowerment. Their website is here: http://www.theincdc.org/

I think I edited the errors out here- I shouldn't rush posts like this.

[Legend]

WTF these trangsender killings are getting ridiculous.You know something really has to be done if morons are doing it in broad day light.

[rockabilly]

I hope the surviving girl recovers and id's the bastard. No witnesses my ass :angry:

[JeniferTS]

omg..this just saddens me.

girls becareful..always carry
some type of protection.

i've been through sooo much
that i'm very lucky to be here today.

[SarahG]

Now that I've read that "agency"'s website, it appears to be a government program run by or funded by DC's department of health to supply young LGBT people with emergency housing (due to stuff like being kicked out of their parents home for being gay or trans, or for impoverished LGBT people who need emergency housing), vocational training of some kind, and helping to find medical services for young LGBT people in need.

This might explain why the Post decided to word things the way they did, they probably assumed that the victims were in the area because of the agency knowing it caters to impoverished LGBT youth.

[2009AD]

No witnesses my ass :angry:

Do you know the neighborhood they are talking about? I do. It's a fairly quiet street in D.C.


Despite being in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, on a city street- no one has come forward (yet anyway). This guy, whoever he was, was able to stab two girls in the neck in broad daylight in the middle of Washington DC but "no one saw a thing."

Let's talk about the non-trans people that are freely allowed to walk around stabbing people in broad daylight... or the witnesses who don't give enough of a shit to help catch the guy.

I've lived in D.C. for over 20 years, and I can tell you that not every street in bustling with tourists and members of Congress. You can walk 5 or 6 blocks away from the Capitol and find yourself on a quiet residential street, where a mugging or stabbing could take place and no witnesses are present.

[Silcc69]

Good lord people are barbaric and savage and the guy had balls to do this shit in broad daylight.

[Quiet Reflections]

I love DC but its terrible how ugly the city can be sometimes

[SarahG]

I've lived in D.C. for over 20 years, and I can tell you that not every street in bustling with tourists and members of Congress. You can walk 5 or 6 blocks away from the Capitol and find yourself on a quiet residential street, where a mugging or stabbing could take place and no witnesses are present.

Are you familiar with this location?

[JeniferTS]

dc is horrible especially southeast.

[Quiet Reflections]

I've lived in D.C. for over 20 years, and I can tell you that not every street in bustling with tourists and members of Congress. You can walk 5 or 6 blocks away from the Capitol and find yourself on a quiet residential street, where a mugging or stabbing could take place and no witnesses are present.

Are you familiar with this location?
I know that area and its not that busy

[trish]

Sometimes it all just leaves you speechless.

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

What happened is atrocious and hopefully justice takes place weeks, months, maybe even years down the line.

Here in NYC there have been multiple slayings during the night when many TS/TV streetwalkers work that NEVER made the papers, let alone radio or television. As sad as this is it's folks like you Sarah that are helping because you bring light to the matter. Had you not mentioned it I (and probably several others on here) would never have known about it. So kudos to you

I would tell you to call the Post but let's face it, the newspaper industry is on death's door. Today's real (better detailed) news is found on the net more than it is in a printed paper.

[SarahG]

Here in NYC there have been multiple slayings during many TS/TV streetwalkers that NEVER made the papers, let alone radio or television. As sad as this is it's folks like you Sarah that are helping because you bring light to the matter. Had you not mentioned it I (and probably several others on here) would never have known about it. So kudos to you


Anytime you or anyone else hears of one happening, post the story here.

The girl who was killed in Syracuse last november was almost omitted from the TGDOR because the story was initially unknown, then misreported (by the SYR PD and then SYR DA's office) to be a gay guy killed for being gay, all in sequence in the days before the TGDOR.

Even the LGBT blogs, like the bilerico report, for days thought that the Syracuse story involved the killing of a "gay guy for being gay" and that helped keep the story from reaching more people.

Here the DC cops went around saying the victims were "transgender males"- they didn't mean FtM's, but were trying to say that they were 1- trans, 2- biologically male in the same breath. The media blindly picked it up and ran with it, virtually all but 1 local press group reporting it incorrectly, and consquently the bilerico report's coverage for this article has consisted of this crap:
http://dc.bilerico.com/2009/08/breaking_two_trans_men_stabbed_one_dead.php

By that I am not trying to give their blog bad press, to be fair & clear I am criticizing the papers and tv news shows here, NOT the bloggers. They only have what they have access to in reporting their stories. When you're only given access to crap, you report crap.


I would tell you to call the Post but let's face it, the newspaper industry is on death's door. Today's real (better detailed) news is found on the net more than it is in a printed paper.

Calling would be a waste of time in that I doubt we'd ever possibly see a retraction... but I encourage people to let the Post know how dissatisfied they are, maybe if its enough trouble they'll "try better next time." But given the tone of their "journalism" I highly doubt it (street name? WTF).

Unfortunately, the internet is so dependent on the "mainstream" press that they matter the most when it comes to stuff like this. Had Fox not done a better job (I can't believe I just wrote that; but I did) this story would have been even more ghastly worded in online reports.

[2009AD]

I've lived in D.C. for over 20 years, and I can tell you that not every street in bustling with tourists and members of Congress. You can walk 5 or 6 blocks away from the Capitol and find yourself on a quiet residential street, where a mugging or stabbing could take place and no witnesses are present.

Are you familiar with this location?
I know that area and its not that busy

Correct. the 200 Q St. area is in a neighborhood called Shaw and at 2 p.m., on a weekday, you can walk down an almost deserted street. It's a fairly quiet location, it is not downtown D.C.

Anyways, the point is a horrible crime was committed. My gut feeling tells me that they were stabbed by a deranged man, a man, who would have stabbed anyone walking down that street.

[SarahG]

Anyways, the point is a horrible crime was committed. My gut feeling tells me that they were stabbed by a deranged man, a man, who would have stabbed anyone walking down that street.

Regardless whether or not he was crazy, I think he did pick them because they were trans. After all these articles are saying he was shouting slur(s) as he did it.

Maybe that's the cynical side of me, but when I hear of a story where someone of a specific label is killed, by someone shouting a slur relating to that label- that tells me that label was part of the motivation. We unfortunately do not know what he was shouting ATM, so I am only speculating here.

But to use an analogy from elsewhere: perhaps that guy in Texas who was dragging that black guy by the back of his pickup truck was just crazy, and all the slurs he said at the time were irrelevant. If I were more sheltered or optimistic I would say he was just crazy... after all what normal person would do such a thing?

But then I remember how frequently normal, sane people go around committing such graphic attacks.

[Marilyn]

I lived in DC for 11 years. In fact I used to work on Q st, I personally never had a problem walking down the streets even when I worked in the SE side of the city but back in 2003 one of the girls I knew got shot 4 times by a man she had provided sexual services to earlier that day and who later came back to kill her claiming he didn't know she was a "man". DC can be a dangerous city once you step away from the White House-Capitol Hill areas! Reason why I ended up living in VA for a while b4 moving to NJ/NY area.

[icarus2112]

reminds me of a news story here in Seattle from last December/November. All the news reports said 4 men were stabbed at closing time outside of Neighbours. It was a couple of weeks before I talked to a TS friend and she told me that 2 of the "men" stabbed were TS girls that I kinda knew. The attacker was a boyfriend of another TS girl brought on by some kind of conflict between the girls. The thing that bothered me the most was that every single quote from the Police identified all the victims as men and not a single news agency caught on to the fact the cops were lying due to their ignorant prejudices.

[freak]

Anyways, the point is a horrible crime was committed. My gut feeling tells me that they were stabbed by a deranged man, a man, who would have stabbed anyone walking down that street.

Regardless whether or not he was crazy, I think he did pick them because they were trans. After all these articles are saying he was shouting slur(s) as he did it.

Maybe that's the cynical side of me, but when I hear of a story where someone of a specific label is killed, by someone shouting a slur relating to that label- that tells me that label was part of the motivation. We unfortunately do not know what he was shouting ATM, so I am only speculating here.

But to use an analogy from elsewhere: perhaps that guy in Texas who was dragging that black guy by the back of his pickup truck was just crazy, and all the slurs he said at the time were irrelevant. If I were more sheltered or optimistic I would say he was just crazy... after all what normal person would do such a thing?

But then I remember how frequently normal, sane people go around committing such graphic attacks.

Only one story said anything about a slur and that was a maybe. There is no proof that he said anything, for all we know they may have said something to set him off, called him a crazy bum or something. It is always easy to blame random violence on race or sexual preference, but it is not always the case.

You were not there, no one heard anything but the victim and one is dead so she will not tell and the other said maybe.

[Alyssa87]

gender identity means nothing i guess.

like REALLY? you cant throw a dead dog a bone and use female pronouns?
The girl lived as female. it wasnt a performance or sex fueled hobby.

I dont know if being murdered scares me more or less then the sebsequent coverage that would follow.

[SarahG]

You were not there,

That's why I said I was speculating. :roll:

[BellaBellucci]

Here the DC cops went around saying the victims were "transgender males"- they didn't mean FtM's, but were trying to say that they were 1- trans, 2- biologically male in the same breath. The media blindly picked it up and ran with it, virtually all but 1 local press group reporting it incorrectly, and consquently the bilerico report's coverage for this article has consisted of this crap:
http://dc.bilerico.com/2009/08/breaking_two_trans_men_stabbed_one_dead.php

By that I am not trying to give their blog bad press, to be fair & clear I am criticizing the papers and tv news shows here, NOT the bloggers. They only have what they have access to in reporting their stories. When you're only given access to crap, you report crap.


It's particularly sad because it's not like there aren't established journalistic guidelines on the subject (AP Stylebook). Some 'reporters' just choose to ignore them. Do they do it out of ignorance, hate, or sensationalism? We may never know. Although I will say this: this is another reason why TV/CD people should not be so easily categorized with transwomen.

Oh, and unfortunately 'Nana Boo,' the name one victim used, does sound an awful lot like a street name to me. Still sad though.

http://www.transadvocate.com/associated-press-please-follow-your-own-stylebook.htm

~BB~

[Mugai_hentaisha]

Sad really sad

I am not the one for Vigilantism, but when faced with "no Witnesses" coming forward it tells me that people especially the ladies here at HA need to start thinking about personally protecting yourselves.

I hate to hear of anyone getting killed especially those people who are just being who they know they should be.

Fucking senseless in my opinion

[davinator1212]

Hey, lay off the Mormons

I know several and they are extremely nice people


like any group there are crazies, that does not mean they all are

[2009AD]

Hey, lay off the Mormons

I know several and they are extremely nice people

like any group there are crazies, that does not mean they all are

Mormons? What on earth are you talking about? What do Mormons have to do with this story?

[BLKGSXR]

Hey, lay off the Mormons

I know several and they are extremely nice people

like any group there are crazies, that does not mean they all are

Mormons? What on earth are you talking about? What do Mormons have to do with this story?+1 where were mormons even mentioned?

[Merkurie]

This is another tragedy in the TG community. Sadly its a long way from being in the past.

I know DC well and this has happened before, including DC Fire and Rescue letting a TG girl die after an accident because they were too busy laughing to care for her and get her in the ambulance. And a butch dyke who was murdered on a crowded street in the middle of the so called hip gay area.

Surprizingly DC has a huge TG community (and active sex trade) not to mention LGBi population both out and especially on the down low. Many of them Black. I say this because as a predominantly Black city, these people have family and neighbors who have known them all of their lives and yet are marginalized and discriminated against frankly as a matter of course by many many folk.

The DC council tried to pass legislation recognizing (not granting) out of state gay marriage and the local "ministers" had a riot in City Hall. An actual riot. Yet a whole bunch of these same church people are smokin b*ne and bumpin cats when the sun goes down.

Sadly the majority of DC folks IMHO dont give a rats a** about gay people especially trans people even if they have known them all their lives. This of course leads to sadness, crime and depravity which is quite common in DC.
Peace

[dabaldone]

Once again another murderer walks the streets. The cops don't care...just another tranny murdered (that's what they say). If this happened in any other segment of the population it would get major coverage. These murders are reaching epidemic proportions and yet there is no outcry even from the so called LGBT community...sad indeed.

[SarahG]

These murders are reaching epidemic proportions and yet there is no outcry even from the so called LGBT community...sad indeed.

Oh the LGB community would have reacted in a heart beat... if the press had been told that a guy was screaming fag as he stabbed two flamers, one lethally, in broad daylight.

Just look at how fast the Syracuse shooting got reported on the LGB blogs... when the SYR PD & DA were telling reporters the victim was a feminine "gay guy killed for being gay."

But then when the truth was revealed... you didn't see any mass protests or outcry from the LGB groups demanding the press be more tolerant in their coverage. No, you only really saw that kind of outrage in #'s within trans spaces.

-edited for clarity-

[MrF]

Very tragic. Thanks for the story and the thoughtful analysis. One could say the perpetrator was simply crazy, but a disproportionate amount of crazy violence and hatred is directed towards TG. The least we can do is shed light on the story and criticize the quality of the news coverage.

[xploring666]

omg..this just saddens me.

girls becareful..always carry
some type of protection.

i've been through sooo much
that i'm very lucky to be here today.

I dont know how you girls are brave enough to go through everything you do. From coming out to putting up with being physically threatened for who you are and everything in between. You are all heros.

[dabaldone]

These murders are reaching epidemic proportions and yet there is no outcry even from the so called LGBT community...sad indeed.

Oh the LGB community would have reacted in a heart beat... if the press had been told that a guy was screaming fag as he stabbed two flamers, one lethally, in broad daylight.

Just look at how fast the Syracuse shooting got reported on the LGB blogs... when the SYR PD & DA were telling reporters the victim was a feminine "gay guy killed for being gay."

But then when the truth was revealed... you didn't see any mass protests or outcry from the LGB groups demanding the press be more tolerant in their coverage. No, you only really saw that kind of outrage in #'s within trans spaces.

-edited for clarity- Amen Sarah, I should have left the "t" out. There have been 4 or 5 murders in the metro Detroit area over the last 5 or so years and not one suspect has been arrested. I would bet that other major cities have the same issues...a police force and population that simply ignores the voilence that plauges the trans community

[SarahG]

Who Botched the Gender Identity of a D.C. Homicide Victim?

Posted by Amanda Hess on Aug. 31, 2009, at 2:11 pm

BLOG_nana-2
Vigil attendees pay their respects to Tyli’a Mack.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/files/2009/08/BLOG_nana-2.jpg

On Wednesday, Aug. 26, one person was killed and another critically injured in a daytime stabbing outside 209 Q St. NW. In the hours following the homicide, police and reporters gathered witness testimony, formed a description of the suspect, and chased likely motives. This time, cops and journalists were also forced to devote resources to another developing story: the gender of the victims.

Within three hours of the incident, three local news sources had independently verified the victims’ gender identity with police. They all got it wrong.

Fox 5 news reporter Roby Chavez gave this report at 3:59 p.m., about an hour and a half after the stabbings occurred. “D.C. Police sources tell Fox 5 officers found two transgender male victims in front of the building when they arrived,” Chavez reported.


At 4:36 p.m., the Washington Post’s Paul Duggan filed his item on the stabbing, also published in the next day’s paper. “Police said the victims, whom they described as ‘transgender males,’ were stabbed shortly after 2:30 p.m. in the 200 block of Q Street NW.”

WUSA9’s Bill Starks weighed in at 5:23 p.m.: “Officers…arrived and found two transgender males in front of the building at 209 Q Street, both suffering from stab wounds.”

The Washington Blade’s Lou Chibbaro was the first to nail down the correct gender identity of the homicide victim, who has since been identified under her legal name, Joshua Mack, as well as her chosen name, Tyli’a. At 7:06 p.m., four-and-a-half hours after the incident occurred, Chibbaro wrote, “One transgender woman was stabbed to death Wednesday and another was in stable condition with stab wounds from an unknown assailant.”

But even after Mack’s correct gender identity was established, the struggle continued. In “D.C. Transgender Community Outraged After Fatal Stabbing”—filed more than 24 hours after the incident occurred—ABC 7 reporter Sam Ford announced: “One transgender is dead, another is in critical condition.”

Mack was not a “transgender male,” a “transgender man,” or a “transgender.” Mack was a male-to-female transgender woman who clearly appeared to be female. On the reward poster for her homicide, she’s shown wearing eye shadow, shaped eyebrows, and two long braids. “Of course, when the one young lady was murdered and the other was hospitalized, we were quite upset [with the media coverage] because they aren’t transgender men—they are transgender women,” says Brian Watson, the director of Transgender Health Empowerment, which counted both victims as clients. “I know both of the young ladies that were attacked, and they lived their lives as transgender women. They looked like women. For me, there shouldn’t have been any confusion about them being males. If you saw them on the street, you would see they were females.”

Since the victims in this case clearly presented as women, how were they initially identified as “transgender males”?

Chavez, Duggan, and Starks all attributed the “transgender males” identification to “police sources.” Duggan says that the department’s public information office provided him the term. “The police department put it out there, and we went on what they said,” says Duggan. Starks got even more specific, sourcing the terminology to Quintin Peterson, the public information officer on duty when news of the stabbings broke. “‘Transgender males’—those were his exact words,” says Starks. “I’m not trying to get him in trouble or anything, but that’s what was said.”

Peterson denies that the police originated the term. “‘Transgender males’ was never used. Not by me or anyone in this office,” he says. “We cannot be held responsible for the terminology the news media chooses to use. We did not put anything out other than what the correct terminology is.” Acting Lieutenant Brett Parson, the police department’s top liaison to the GLBT community who was on scene shortly following the stabbing, similarly defers the misidentification to media reports. “It’s the media that seems fixated on their gender identity. That issue did not come from the chief of police,” says Parson. “We’ve had to correct the media on countless occasions because they have been reporting, insensitively, terms that are not used in the community.”

Wherever the term “transgender males” originated, no one really wanted to touch it. Starks says he never asked Peterson for clarification on what the term “transgender males” actually meant. “I didn’t ask him to go beyond that,” he says. “I assumed that it was referring to a person who may be in the process of either a sex change or someone who is dressing in the clothing of another gender.” When asked if “male” refers to the victim’s biological sex or gender identity, Starks was stumped. “That’s a good question,” he says. Duggan says that the Post avoided parsing the term with a deft use of punctuation. “It was a short brief that we wrote really fast, so we decided to use, in quotes, ‘transgender males,’” says Duggan. “I got beat up a lot over that, because I wasn’t educated on [the terminology] at the time, and I was quickly educated on it.”

For cops and journos, employing the correct terminology is more than a matter of respect. Both D.C. police procedure and Associated Press style mandate that transgender individuals be addressed in accordance with their gender expression. According to the AP Stylebook, reporters are to “use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.” And in 2007, D.C. police adopted one of the nation’s most comprehensive transgender policies, which states that when a police officer is unsure of a person’s gender identity, “the member shall inquire how the individual wishes to be addressed (e.g., Sir, Miss, Ms.) and the name by which the individual wishes to be addressed.”

Of course, ascertaining the correct terminology becomes more difficult when the transgender individual is dead. Sometimes, even the victim’s family can’t help identify the preferred gender. ABC 7’s story on the stabbing included a quote from Mack’s brother, Aaron Walker: “I’m just hurting right now. My mom, she’s got 10 boys, and that’s one of my little brothers and for me to see him pass like that,” Walker said of Mack. (ABC 7 also misidentified Walker as “Aaron Hall,” proving that newsroom slip-ups are sometimes based in sloppiness, sometimes in ignorance).

In the event that a victim’s gender identity is unclear, sometimes it helps to do some reporting. Chibbaro took care to verify Mack’s gender identity with “sources both in the community and in law enforcement” before publishing his story, three hours after the first news of the stabbing hit. “This misidentification is not always the fault of police, or the press, or others—this is something that everyone is grappling with,” says Chibbaro. “The first concern that I have, and that I think the Washington Blade has, is whether the information is accurate.”

As the scene of the daylight stabbing grew dark, reporters set about correcting the terminology in their stories, abandoning “transgender males” for “transgender women” and swapping “he” for “she.” But for some members of the transgender community, the damage had already been done. “[S]ix hours and (at least) six edits later, we finally have gender appropriate language in an article based on a double homicide attempt that was clearly motivated by hatred and transphobia,” wrote one commenter on the Fox 5 story. “[I]’m saddened on so many levels.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2009/08/31/who-botched-the-gender-identity-of-a-dc-homicide-victim/

[SarahG]

Vigil for slain trans woman draws 250
Police working ‘non-stop’ to find killer in ‘possible’ hate crime
http://www.washblade.com/2009/9-4/news/localnews/vigil-header-9-3-09.jpg

Sep 04, 2009 | By: Lou Chibbaro Jr.

About 250 people gathered amid raindrops in Northwest D.C. last week to remember a 21-year-old transgender woman who was stabbed to death as she and a friend were walking to the offices of a transgender services organization.

Police said they found Joshua Mack, who used the name Tyli’a “NaNa Boo” Mack, and another transgender woman suffering from stab wounds about 2:30 p.m. Aug. 26 on the sidewalk in front of 209 Q St., N.W.

Mack was pronounced dead about a half hour later at Howard University Hospital, police said. The second victim was treated at an area hospital for stab wounds and released Aug. 28, according to people who know her. Police said the second victim’s identity was being withheld because of her status as a witness.

Officials with Transgender Health Empowerment, the D.C. group that organized the vigil, joined activists in calling on city leaders, including Mayor Adrian Fenty, to speak out more forcefully against hate crimes, violence and harassment targeting the LGBT community.

Earline Budd of THE said Mack was a long-time client of the organization, which provides social services and HIV prevention programs for transgender people.

Mack and the friend accompanying her at the time she was attacked were walking to and within blocks of the THE offices, at North Capitol and P streets, N.W., friends of Mack said.

As of Wednesday, police said they had no suspects in the Mack slaying or in the stabbing of the second victim.

Police listed the incident as a “possible” hate crime based on preliminary findings of their investigation, said acting Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees the police’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit.

“I want to simply assure you that all the resources available to the detectives of our homicide branch are being brought to them,” Parson said at the Aug. 28 vigil. “They have been working non-stop since this happened and they will continue to work this case until we bring it to a closure.”

Among those attending the vigil were more than a dozen members of Mack’s family, including both parents and a brother and sister. The family members joined Parson and friends of the slain transgender woman in calling on possible witnesses to come forward to help police apprehend the person responsible for the killing.

“All I want them to do is come and tell what they know,” said Beverlyn Mack, Tyli’a Mack’s mother.

At a news conference one day earlier at THE headquarters, Beverlyn Mack and other family members said they knew Tyli’a Mack was transgender and that the family respected and loved her.

“My child was born like everyone else — through a mother’s womb,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s fair for other people to take other people’s lives.”

Christopher Dyer, director of the mayor’s Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs, read a letter at the vigil from Fenty to Mack’s family expressing his condolences over the death of Tyli’a Mack.

Some of the people at the vigil said the mayor and other city government officials have not done enough to address anti-trans and anti-gay hate crimes. They pointed to police reports showing the number of LGBT-related hate crimes have increased in the past two years.

“I want to say that GLOV stands with the transgender community completely,” said Chris Farris, co-chair of Gays & Lesbian Opposing Violence. “We all stand united in asking the mayor of this city to condemn hate crimes against the LGBT community. Stop sending letters and start showing up.”

Gay D.C. City Council member David Catania (I-At Large) told the gathering that city leaders should speak more forcefully than they have against anti-LGBT violence.

“This is an opportunity for every leader in this city, whether elected, whether appointed, whether in the pulpit, to stand up and say this is not acceptable,” Catania said.

“To the family, our profound condolences,” he said. “But to every one of us, let’s go to all of our leaders and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ We want to hear Sunday in the pulpits in this city that this kind of attack is unacceptable, that the lives of GLBT members are every bit as valuable as every other citizen in this city.”

Carla “Magoo” Peatross, a resident of the street where Mack was stabbed and who identifies as transgender, said she was certain that the person responsible for Mack’s death doesn’t live in the immediate neighborhood.

“We have young transgenders and we have older transgenders on this block,” Peatross said. “And they accept them. They never have problems.”

Budd escorted Mack’s family to the location on the sidewalk in front of 209 Q St., N.W., where Mack and her friend were found. Bloodstains were still visible on the sidewalk before rain that fell during the vigil began to wash them away.

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=256199

[SarahG]

duplicate

[mikejones]

This is horrible. RIP to the poor girl.

[Distance]

Were they street workers? In any case, it is just horrible....

[SoCaliDude]

Possible hate crime? What Bull Shit! Fuckers!

[lochaber]

girls becareful..always carry
some type of protection.


Just wanted to add, that if you do choose to carry some item for protection or defense, try and get some training in it, and practice using it. Also, try to be aware of what is legal in your area, and rights and all that.

I'm not trying to say not to carry something, I just feel that having knowledge and skills is more effective then merely carrying something. Even if your just thinking of something like pepper spray, get several identical cans, and use a couple of them up testing and practicing, and try to do this on at least a semi-regular basis. Also read up on the info on them to get some idea of their applications and limitations.

One other note, not sure how this applies to other items, but if you are carrying a knife, and are asked why you are carrying it by a cop, never say 'for protection' or similar statements. Always claim (even if not entirely true) that it is a tool. If pressed for examples, you use it for opening envelopes, trimming loose strings, and eating apples. Merely stating that you carry something for 'protection' or 'defense' is considered evidence of intent to use the given item as a weapon in many areas. cops, bleh.

Anyways, I think it's a good idea to look into some form of (preferably non-sport oriented) martial art in addition.

It's sad that these things happen, and even sadder that when they do happen, they are handled inappropriately, but you are the only one you can rely on. :(

[TommyFoxtrot]

I've lived in D.C. for over 20 years, and I can tell you that not every street in bustling with tourists and members of Congress. You can walk 5 or 6 blocks away from the Capitol and find yourself on a quiet residential street, where a mugging or stabbing could take place and no witnesses are present.

Are you familiar with this location?
I know that area and its not that busy

Correct. the 200 Q St. area is in a neighborhood called Shaw and at 2 p.m., on a weekday, you can walk down an almost deserted street. It's a fairly quiet location, it is not downtown D.C.

Anyways, the point is a horrible crime was committed. My gut feeling tells me that they were stabbed by a deranged man, a man, who would have stabbed anyone walking down that street.

Yeah I've been down there a few times and I could see it happening. On top of the relative seclusion, there are those trees lining the sidewalk that obscure vision for people looking down the street.

[SarahG]

Murder underscores anti-transgender violence in D.C.
by Michael K. Lavers
National News Editor
Wednesday Sep 16, 2009

Tyli’a "Na Na Boo" Mack’s murder late last month highlighted the problem of anti-transgender violence in the District of Columbia.

As local police to investigate Tyli’a "Na Na Boo" Mack’s murder, transgender activists and others in the District of Columbia continue to demand an end to anti-trans violence in the city.

An unknown assailant stabbed Mack to death and critically injured a friend on Q Street, NW, on Aug. 26. Mack’s mother joined members of Transgender Health Empowerment, Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive, DC Councilmember David Catania [I-At Large,] Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence co-chair Chris Farris, DC Center executive director David Mariner and more than 200 others at a vigil two days later at the spot where the two women were attacked.

The Metropolitan Police Department continues to offer a reward of up to $25,000, but Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told EDGE she feels Mack’s death underscores the fact anti-trans violence remains a serious problem in the District.

"It is really, really clear to me, it’s really bad here," Keisling said.

The MPD does not compile statistics of crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity, but the Web site Remembering Our Dead indicates at least half a dozen trans Washingtonians have been murdered over the last decade. These include Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis, who were shot to death on Aug. 12, 2002, while they sat in their car in a Southeast intersection. Antoine Jacobs shot and killed popular entertainer Bella Evangelista on Aug. 16, 2003. And an unknown assailant bludgeoned Tyra Henderson to death in Northwest in April, 2000.

Acting Lt. Brett Parsons, the MPD’s LGBT liaison, told EDGE the department has not seen an increase in anti-trans violence in the city, but he conceded transgender Washingtonians "tend to be a community at risk for victimization all the time-and that’s a sad statement." There have been 96 murders in the District so far this year. This statistic represents a 26.7 percent decline in homicides compared to 2008, but Keisling maintains race and class remain a motivating factor behind the majority of anti-trans murders in Washington and elsewhere.

"The kind of trans people getting murdered are not white, middle-aged transsexual women like me," she said. "It’s almost always lower income, trans-women of color. If you’re any of those things in the United States, you’re at the greatest risk of violence. It’s horrible."

Ethan St. Pierre, a long-time trans activist who sits on the International Foundation for Gender Education’s Board of Directors, agreed. He noted he feels violence is one of the many forms of discrimination trans people of color in particular continue to face.

"If you are a trans person of color, you’re in deep shit," St. Pierre said. "It’s not going to be easy to get a job. Racism is horrible. It still exists in society."

He further categorized Mack’s death as horrific. St. Pierre added he feels educating trans people and others about the prevalence of anti-trans violence is one of what he described as many necessary steps to prevent it.

"Education is always so important, but there are just people out there who hate so much they don’t care," he said. "If I knew the answer, believe me I would be shouting from the rooftops."


http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=96405