Vigil For Lashai Mclean

For those of you in the Washington DC metro area who wish to pay your respects, there will be starting at 7:00 PM EDT a candlelight vigil for Lashai Mclean at the corner of 61st and Dix Streets.

From the DC Center's blog:


The 23 year old McLean was gunned down on the 6100 block of Dix Street, NE in the early morning hours. There was a second person with her, but all accounts have this person escaping the attack. Police state that they are still trying to determine a motive. However, the LGBT community believes that the attack was based off of the fact that McLean identified as a transgender woman.

McLean was highly active within the LGBT community. She spent many days on the premises of Transgender Health Empowerment (T.H.E.) and was known by most of the staff. It is coincidental that the site of her murder was in the same neighborhood T.H.E's Wanda Alston House.  

Mayor Vincent Gray issued a press release which condemned the murder of a member of the LGBT community. He also was quoted as saying "if the investigation concludes that this shooting was the result of bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity, MPD and my administration will work with this community to see that there is an appropriate response to this kind of violence, which cannot be tolerated."

A candlelight vigil will be held at the corner of 61st and Dix street, NE on Saturday, July 23rd at 7:00 PM. Please come out and pay your respects to this young woman lost.

Another Transsistah Killed In DC

We are rapidly approaching the sad anniversaries of the deaths of Tyra Hunter on August 7, 1995, Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis on August 12, 2002 and Tyli'a Mack on August 26, 2009

Tyra, Stephanie and Ukea all died at the same 50th and C Street SE DC corner in different ways.    Tyli'a was stabbed to death at 209 Q St NW in broad daylight then disrespected later in the media.

It's my sad duty to report to you the death of another DC transwoman.  

Her name was Lashai Mclean and she was 23 years old.    Earlier this morning she was shot and killed in the 6100 block of Dix Street NE.   It's in the same neighborhood where the Wanda Alston house, the home for TBLG youth in the Washington DC area is located.

According to a Washington MPD press release reported in the Metro Weekly story by Yusef Najafi, members of the Sixth District station responded to a reported shooting at 4:26 AM EDT.

"Upon arrival on the scene, they found a victim suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel transported the victim to a local hospital where the victim was pronounced dead."

It continues the infuriating pattern of 70% of anti-trans murders being POC's.   I'm also noting that the transpeople getting killed are progressively younger, although I don't have any hard numbers to back that up yet.  

But the bottom line is that we have lost another young transwoman.  Her life was snuffed out by assailants unknown before she even had a chance to live that life.

And I'm tired of it.

3rd Anniversary of Angie Zapata's Death

Three years ago on this date we were beginning to hear the news about a young Latina transwoman named Angie Zapata who was found dead in her apartment in Greeley, CO.     My first report here at TransGriot about it was in conjunction with my rant about the jacked up media coverage misgendering her. 

Allen Andrade, the waste of DNA who committed the crime was later arrested, tried and convicted in a trial that was televised around the nation courtesy of TruTV.   Thanks to Crystal Ann Gray, I was blessed to have her reports on the progress of the trial.  

Even as we were witnessing this historic trial, indicators that we still had a long way to go in terms of educating the public about the reality of our lives still persisted because I had to call out legal commentator Gwendolyn Lindsay-Jackson for referring to Angie as 'it'.


But while Allen Andrade is now locked up in a Colorado prison getting 'three hots and a cot' for the rest of his life, Angie's family and all who loved her are having to deal with the void in their lives because she's not here.  The rest of us are left to wonder what kind of contributions would she have made to society if she was still around?


And sadly, we're still having to light candles for our transpeeps every November because somebody hates them and all of us for who we are.

Paulina Ibarra Case Update

I posted last year about the arrest of Jesus Catalan, who was a person of interest in the August 2009 killing of 24 year old transwoman Paulina Ibarra in Los Angeles.   Turns out there has been some resolution in this case as well.  


In a plea agreement, Catalan recently plead guilty in downtown LA's Superior Court to involuntary manslaughter in the Ibarra case and will receive 12 years in prison for it.  He will be eligible for parole in 10 years.       

That sentence may seem light, but as Karen Ocamb reported in her LBGT POV blog post on the case.

LAPD Lt. Wes Burhmester explained while noting that he could not speak for the prosecutor in the case, the reason for the plea instead of pursuing a murder charge was because the District Attorney must look at being able to prove – beyond a reasonable doubt – to a jury of 12 people that Catalan deserved to be convicted of murder. However, since Catalan had apparently been injured during a struggle with Ibarra, that Ibarra and Catalan knew each other and she was not killed during the course of a felony (like robbery), it would have very hard to prove.

Unfortunately, sometimes that's the way it goes on some of these cases.   You've got to have the evidence to convince a jury and make the charge stick. 

It's probably not a satisfying conclusion for the Ibarra family and all who loved Paulina, but in this instance the person who committed the crime is at least getting some jail time instead of walking the strees as a free man.

Justice For Taysia And Michael

I've been on a mission to do a better job of updating you TransGriot readers about the things I talk about in these electronic pages.  I'm not only doing it for y'all, I also want to know what happened in many of these trans murders and issues I discuss here and how they were resolved.   

One of those cases I talked about was the double murder of Taysia Elzy and her boyfriend Michael Hunt, who were found dead in their Broad Ripple, IN home on December 28, 2008.    It was another case in which I went straight the hell off about jacked up reporting and misgendering of Taysia. 

Then 20 year old Christopher Conwell was arrested for the crimes and was tried and convicted in June 2010 by a Marion County Superior Court jury for the multiple slayings.   He was facing 131 years in prison but was sentenced one year ago today to 55 years each for the murders of Elzy and Hunt with both sentences to be served concurrently.

Translation: Conwell got 110 years in prison    He tried to appeal it but the original verdict was upheld. 

Justice was served in Taysia and Michael's case.   It doesn't bring them back, but we do have the satisfaction of knowing that their killer is occupying an Indiana state prison jail cell. . 

Victoria Carmen White Update 3-Chambers Arraigned

Alrashim Chambers, the alleged killer of Victoria Carmen White was arraigned earlier today on murder, bias intimidation and weapons charges in connection with her fatal September 2010 shooting.

Chambers pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.  Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Eileen O’Connor noted the bias intimidation charges were added during his indictment last month because he allegedly killed her due to her gender identity

Relatives of Victoria were in the courtroom to watch the proceedings that included her 18 yar old sister and her grandmother. "She was lovable and easy to get along with and had no enemies,” said her grandmother, Floretta Gayle, outside the courtroom. “She was who she wanted to be, and we supported her, from beginning to end.”

Chambers is facing life in prison if convicted, and his next court date is August 2.  If there are any transpeeps in the Essex county-Maplewood NJ area, you may want to consider showing up and supporting the family.

When Is A Hate Crime NOT A Hate Crime?

One of the things I get tired of hearing is that full of caca right wing talking point that 'all crimes are hate crimes', or hearing from non persons of color doubts about the effectiveness of hate crimes laws.

That is until one happens to somebody they know, is part of their ethnic group, or is part of their marginalized group a la Chrissy Lee Polis or Matthew Shepard.

Thanks to Mercedes and a post about this case at her blog, I'm following what is happening in Halifax, NS with Elle Noir.    Last month two people posing as police officers knocked on her door.  She began to open it in response to their claim they were officers, but when she noted that one of the two men was wearing a red bandanna and carrying a gun attempted to slam it shut with her roommate's help.   The perps fired multiple shots through the door with one of them striking her in the right arm before they ran off.

Elle believes it was a hate crime.    The Halifax po-po's don't. 

"They were yelling, 'Tranny faggot, open the door, let us in, let us in,' which leads me to believe they knew who I was. I'm in a second-floor apartment. You know, you have to have a security key to get into the building.   "Obviously it was 100 per cent hatred."

Like Mercedes and Elle, I'm not buying what the Halifax po-po's are selling either since many police officers tend to be conservafools who believe the right wing hype for starters.  I am well aware of the fact that Officer Friendly isn't exactly friendly at times to people of color, and that includes transpeople of color as well.  

We transpeople already have less than cordial relations with them as Amnesty International has documented due to the anti-trans attitudes exacerbated by the hypermacho culture embedded in many police departments.

But back to discussing hate crimes.  

Hate crimes are ones that also send a message to the targeted group irregardless of where they physically live.  The 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was an example of that.  The killing of Dr. James Tiller was designed to intimidate and dissuade any medical professional across the United States who was considering providing abortion services.

The James Byrd dragging death happened over 110 miles away from me in Jasper, TX on June 7, 1998, but the chilling effect of that brutal killing was felt and talked about not only in the African-American communities of Houston and Dallas, but by African-Americans across the USA

In conversations with my Canadian homegirl, she has told me the Byrd attack was discussed in the African descended community of Toronto and amongst other African descended Canadians.


Renee has also talked about how the December 6, 1989 Ecole Polytechnique mass slaying in Montreal affected and continues to affect her and other Canadian women and girls who grew up during that time. .

One of the excuses I hear about opposition to hate crimes laws is that it privileges some bodies over others. 

Um hello, our legal system already privileges some bodies over others. If you attempt to kill the POTUS, the Prime Minister, a congressmember, an MP, a federal judge, any state or provincial politicians, or a police officer, you will get enhanced criminal penalties for attempting to do so.

Ask Jared Loughner about that.

I also agree that the Bill C-389 passage and the Conservatives using fear tactics to attempt to kill it sowed the seeds that probably led to this and sadly future attacks on Canadian transpeople.  Some of those will unfortunately succeed and add more names to the Remembering our Dead list.

Mercedes is correct in stating that someone shouting a transphobic slur at you is not a hate crime.  But if that transphobic slur is followed up by violent action such as a beatdown, weapons being fired at you, someone trying to hit you with a bat or bottle, attempts to stab you with a knife, or attempts to kill you, it most definitely is a hate crime.  

But the bottom line to me is as long as you have people hating others, or willing to in the name of hating other human beings kill those people they dislike in order to send a message to the group they hate, in order to defend the human rights of the marginalized group, hate crimes laws will be a necessary part of the civil rights toolbox.

Victoria Carmen White Update 2-Indictment Handed Down

Alrashim Chambers, one of the alleged killers in the Victoria Carmen White case in New Jersey, was indicted on murder and bias intimidation charges in addition to two weapons charges according to the Essex County Prosecutors office yesterday.

26 year old Marquise Foster, the other person involved in the case, pled guilty in May to hindering apprehension, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The 24 year old Chambers if convicted of the charges is facing life in prison and will be arraigned on July 12..

The 28 year old White was shot four times and killed last September after meeting Chambers and Foster at a local nightclub.   Speculation is it was triggered by Chambers and Foster discovering she was a transwoman. 


As of  yet a trial date hasn't been set, but like the family and friends of Victoria Carmen White and all who loved her, I'm hoping that justice is finally served in this case.