25th Anniversary Of Tyra Hunter's Death

Tyra Hunter should be with us right now eagerly anticipating the celebration of her 50th birthday.
But instead, her life tragically ended way too soon because of two transphobes. 

One of the transphobes was a  Washington DC fire department EMT.   The other was the emergency room doctor at the hospital where she died.

On the morning of August 7, 1995  the 24 year old Hunter was a passenger in a car headed to the salon in which she worked as a hairdresser.   Her mother Margie Hunter was a nurse, and Tyra had transitioned at age 17.   She was popular in the SE Washington DC neighborhood where their family lived.

The car she was a passenger in was involved in an accident at the corner of 50th and C Streets SE.  She and the driver Tedessa Rankin were pulled from the smoking ruins of the Hyundai Excel car Rankin was driving to await treatment by the DC Fire Department EMTs headed their way..   

As the gathering neighborhood onlookers watched an EMT later identified as Adrian Williams began treating a semi conscious Hunter for her injuries.  He stopped and backed away after he cut open her pants legs to reveal her genitalia, saying "This b***h ain't no girl.  It's a n****r, he got a dick..

Williams then began joking with other DCFD personnel on the scene as the neighborhood onlookers witnessing his  and his coworkers transphobic behavior pleaded with him to resume working on Hunter to save her life.

Hunter's treatment was stopped for 5-7 critical minutes as the DCFD personnel on the scene kept cracking transphobic jokes.  An EMS supervisor eventually arrived on the scene and resumed treating Hunter for her injuries. 

She was eventually rushed to the now closed DC General Hospital where .she arrived at 4:10 PM EDT only to receive the same transphobic treatment from the DC General Hospital emergency room staff.

One doctor refused to treat her,    Another assumed because she was a Black trans woman she had HIV and was more concerned about that instead of treating her for the blunt force trauma injuries she sustained in the traffic accident.    Hunter died in the DC General Hospital emergency room at 5:23 PM EDT.

The case sent shockwaves through and angered the DC and national trans community.   Over 2000 people attended her August 12 funeral.    Her mother Margie Gunter later won a $2.9 million judgment in a subsequent wrongful death lawsuit.

It is a case that still resonates with me and every Black trans person around at that mid 90's time as a concrete example of the medical transphobia that can be deadly for us.

25 years later we have a federal government that is trying to return us back to those days when EMT's like Adrian Williams and doctors could refuse to treat us.


Rest in power Tyra.   Your Black trans life mattered to me and ever trans person of your generation.  We will fight to ensure that no one suffers like you did on that August 7 day 25 years ago.

Trump Trying To Push Medical Transphobia

One of the things that I and every Black trans person is painfully aware of is the story of Tyra Hunter. 

On August 7, 1995 she was involved a survivable SE Washington DC traffic accident.  She was unfortunately denied medical care by DC Fire Department EMT Adrian Williams and at the hospital where she was eventually transported and died as a result of the medical transphobia she experienced.

Tyra Hunter is not the only case of documented medical transphobia that resulted in death.   There's the case of Robert Eads, whose story is told in the documentary Southern Comfort.   He died of ovarian cancer because 20 doctors refused to take him on as a patient and treat the disease when it was detected in the early stages and he had better odds of surviving it

These are mine and my community's nightmare scenarios as trans persons when it comes to medical care, and it's why we cheered when the Affordable Care Act was passed with provisions in it to end medical discrimination and medical transphobia aimed at transgender Americans.

Now Dear Orange Idiot, in his never ending attempts to pander to white fundamentalists who hate the trans community, is proposing that medical personnel be allowed to deny treatment to transgender people on the basis of their religious beliefs. 

Not no but hell no will we allow that to happen

What Trump is proposing is allowing the Health and Human Services civil rights office to protect healthcare workers who don't want to provide abortions, treat transgender patients, help them transition or any other medical procedures they have a religious or moral objection to like artificial insemination a woman who is part of a lesbian couple who wishes to have a child.
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This is the use of religion to hurt people because you disapprove of who they are," said Harper Jean Tobin of the National Center for Transgender Equality. "Any rule that grants a license to discriminate would be a disgrace and a mockery of the principle of religious freedom we all cherish."

For for faith based bigots who are in the medical professions, if you didn't want to serve and provide care for all people as you Hippocratic Oath and various professional ethics orgs require you to do, then you should have NEVER gotten into those health care professions in the first place.   

If Health and Human Services goes there, see y'all in court.

Memorial Hermann Has A Medical Transphobia Problem

Went to visit my friend Samantha yesterday who was taken to Memorial Hermann in the Texas Medical Center after having several grand mal seizures on Tuesday morning.

And I was not happy to find out when I arrived late Wednesday morning that what she has experience runs counter to what Memorial Hermann posts

One of the fears we have in Trans World is when we must access the medical establishment while trans is being mistreated. 

We trans peeps have to access the medical world for things besides transition related health care for things such as flu shots, general healthcare exams, mammograms and pap smears   Some of us have had to access emergency health care as well for broken bones or other issues.

Some of us have experienced everything from being repeatedly misgendered by hospital personnel to being hit with outright refusals of doctors and other medical personnel to treat us based on their faux faith based prejudices. 

Medical transphobia can have deadly consequences for us as we transpeeps and our allies are all acutely aware of and has been documented in the 2015 US Transgender Survey.

23% of the respondents in the USTS survey have declined to see a doctor or seek medical treatment because of the fear of being mistreated as a transgender person.

When Samantha recounted to me what had transpired since she was admitted to Memorial Hermann, combined with the misgendering I personally witnessed,  pissed me off.  It also pissed off Kandice Webber, Mo Cortez, Ana Andrea Molina and a long list of people in the Houston advocacy community.

The fact this is happening during Trans Awareness Week in what is considered one of the best medical centers in the United States adds another level of pissivity to what is going on .

Samantha has been repeatedly misgendered by doctors, nurses, and the staff.  The Patient Advocate, after being requested by Samantha Tuesday, wasn't grasping the gravity of the situation and didn't see her until Kandice, who when not doing activism is a supervisory nurse, put them on blast about their piss poor care of her. 

The question that is running through all of our minds as we battle for Sam to have the respectful trans competent healthcare she deserves is  how man other Houston area trans people have suffered through the same crap?

To borrow Kandice's words to the Patient Advocate and other as we witness continues screwup in relation to Samantha's care, "Don't apologize for your mistakes, do better!"

But it is blatantly obvious to me and everyone else who has visited Samantha that Memorial Hermann in the Texas Med Center has a serious case of virulent transphobia, and it's a problem that needs to be rectified immediately.