Thursday, January 01, 2009

Arrest Made In Elzy-Hunt Killings, But I'm Still Pissed

According to The Bilerico Project and Indy TV and newspaper reports, an arrest has been made in the Elzy-Hunt killings.

U.S. Marshals and Fort Wayne police took 20 year old Fort Wayne, IN resident Christopher Conwell into custody Wednesday morning and transported him back to Indianapolis for questioning. Elzy's dark blue 2001 Mercury Sable, missing since the discovery of their bodies on December 26, was found in Fort Wayne.

It also appears that Elzy and Hunt had known their alleged killer for a few months and he'd been a repeat visitor to their northside Indy home in Broad Ripple. Elzy's sister noted that when she met him recently, Conwell mentioned to her that he admired Taysia's car and had been to their home a few times.

But the coverage is still giving me the effect of nails screeching across a chalkboard.

First up, I'm sick of the Indy media using mug shots when there are photos of Taysia and Michael as a couple. If it had been two white peeps killed, would the media have used mug shots for them? Maybe if one of the peeps involved was transgender, but I doubt it.

What Taysia's birth name was prior to the killing or whether she's had SRS or not is not germane to the fact that she and her boyfriend are now dead.

Oh yeah, this is a whole 'nother post, but just because a bioman is dating a pre-op, post op (or ANY) transwoman, it doesn't make him gay.

Once again media peeps, and try to focus here. this is what your journalistic Bible, the AP Stylebook has to say about covering transgender people:

Transgender-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.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.


Okay, if we mere bloggers get that, what up with you MSM peeps with the journalism degrees not understanding those two paragraphs and consistently getting it wrong?

TAYSIA Elzy was living her life as a woman, so SHE should addressed as such since you have clear evidence that is her preferred gender presentation.

Or do you simply not care?

The other thing that's pissing me off is the nasty, racist and transphobic comments being posted by some peeps on the Indy Star comment threads covering the killings.

It didn't help that the Indy media posted the couple's mug shots early on in the coverage and some of them are still doing so despite having other photos available.

But I guess when you wish to paint the transsistah and African-Americans in the worst possible light, even in death, other photos don't matter.

And that aspect of the Elzy-Hunt killing is even more disgraceful than the piss poor lazy reporting so far.

5 comments:

Flrarginergarivb said...

I left a message on one of the TV stations comment lines about the coverage, do you happen to have one for the star?

Monica Roberts said...

Erin,
You can probably go to the Indy Star's website and get the necessary info.

Zoe Brain said...

Monica... I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations and the results horrified me.

I'm not Black. I'm not even American, so I can't "Grok in fullness" your or anyone else's situation. But I do grok figures, and even if I'm wrong by a factor of 10, this is just... I don't know there's a word for it.

We have to do something about this. *I* have to do something, or be ashamed to be a member of the human race.

Can you help?

Monica Roberts said...

Zoe,
If the situation were reversed and it was white transwomen being killed in those numbers, it would be considered a crisis and we'd be hearing chatter from a certain transgender political lobbying group about it.

Since it's 'just Black people' it gets ignored.

Garland Grey said...

Typo Alert: "she should BE addressed as such since"

Feel free to delete comment after correction.

Lovely blog, btw.