Vigil For Carla Tomorrow

Well TransGriot readers, didn't expect to be back in Dallas this soon. 

I'm back in town to speak at a vigil for Carla Pavon, our sister we just lost way too soon on Wednesday.   

It's being held in the Interfaith peace Chapel on the Cathedral of Hope campus at 5910 Cedar Springs Rd on Sunday starting at 2:30 PM.

Hope we get a nice turnout for it, and see you there . . 

85th Anniversary of Nazi Book Burning

"Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people."
-Heinrich Heine, 1920 

85 years ago today Nazi Germany committed a crime against knowledge. 

After conducting a May 6 raid on the Magnus Hirschfeld Institute which since 1919 had been doing pioneering research on trans and gay people, on May 10, 1933 the institute's 20,000 books and 500 images along with other 'unGerman' books went up in flames in the Opernplatz (now called the Bebelplatz) as Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels spoke in front of a crowd of 40,000 people.

The other critical thing that was seized in that May 6 raid was the Institute's lists of names and addresses.   Some historians assert the list was used by the Gestapo and SS to launch the 1934 purge against the Ernst Rohm led SA and round up of the German TBLGQ people left in the country called Operation Hummingbird. 

Marking the spot in the Bebelplatz where our TBLGQ history and knowledge went up in flames along with other books deemed 'unGerman' by the Nazi regime is a plaque with the Heine quote and a glass panel.   It's a window that allows you to peer into an underground room with empty bookshelves, symbolizing the knowledge and history that went up in flames on that day. 

We are dangerously close in the United States to not heeding the lessons of the rise of Nazi Germany and repeating its deadly to marginalized peoples mistakes.

Conservatives are quick to call any news story or article criticizing them as 'fake news' and even call any news outlets critical to them 'lugenpresse'.

That needs to stop before it does damage to our country we can't fix in a few election cycles .

Number 9- Rest In Power Carla Patricia Pavon

Once again it's my sad duty to inform you that we have lost another trans woman due to anti-trans violence.

The location for this latest trans murder is right up I-45 from me in Dallas, TX.   Our sister we lost far too soon is Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon and she was just 26 years old. 

Her two Facebook pages have her name starting with a 'K', but the Dallas PD crime report has it starting with a 'C'.   

According to Dallas Voice reporting by David Taffet, the Dallas PD and Dallas fire department emergency units were called to her apartment in the Citadel at Preston complex at 6104 LBJ Freeway near Preston Rd at 4:17 PM. 

A Latinx male was seen running from her apartment before Dallas fire department emergency response and police units were called.  Her body was found strangled inside her apartment, and she was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

DPD confirmed at a 3 PM CDT press conference Pavon died from homicidal violence, but there is according to them there is not enough evidence at this stage to investigate this case as a hate crime. 

Carla is the 9th person we have lost to anti-trans violence this year in the US.  She's the seventh trans person of color and the second trans Latina we have lost in the US in 2018. 

She also the first trans person in Texas we have lost this year.   This murder also is infuriating me not only because it happened in my home state, but because she was just 26 years old. 

She was just beginning to embark on her life journey, and who knows what Carla could have accomplished had she been allowed to simply live her life.

This is still an active DPD investigation, and as of yet there isn't a designated person of interest in this case or any suspects at the time I'm writing this.

I'll update the post as more news becomes available.   If you're in the DFW area and you have any information that will help solve the crime and bring Carla's killer to justice, please call the Dallas Police Department or Dallas Crimestoppers at 214-373-TIPS (8377)   You can also call DPD Detective Tommy Raley at 214- 283- 4856


TransGriot Update:  Age that was written in the DPD report was incorrect according to the recently concluded press conference.   Carla's correct spelling on her name is with a C.  Someone was spotted running from her apartment prior to Dallas police and fire department emergency response units being called. 

If a vigil is being planned, will pass on that information.    Post has been updated as of 3:45 PM CDT to reflect the latest info 

     :

Fayetteville, AR Police Investigating Death Of Trans Woman

Last night I received a tip from an area TransGriot reader concerning the death of a 28 year old trans woman in the Fayetteville, AR area named Amrita Tehuti Mekti 

The reader sent me the message because they were concerned that so far no media outlet in the Fayetteville area (home city of the University of Arkansas) is covering the story. The Fayetteville PD have so far been tight lipped about what they know in this developing case.
This media story popped up only after I posted the initial tweet last night concerning this case. Back to discussing our fallen sister. Amrita was well known and loved in the Fayetteville area trans and GNC community, and loved supernatural and sci-fi stories.  
According to the Facebook post of the inTRANSitive group,
Amrita was a loving presence at every inTRANSitive event, fed the community at their weekly dinners at St. Martin’s Episcopal Center, attended almost every demonstration or protest in the  Fayetteville area, and has a special space in the hearts of many people across and beyond the Fayetteville area 

She was found dead in her apartment at The Gables complex at 1526 Oakland Ave. there following a welfare check on Monday after being missing a week . The details of her death are currently unknown and under investigation. An investigation that if foul play is involved, the community wants to see justice expeditiously happen for Amrita and all who loved her.

There were no signs of suicide, and her body is being sent to a crime lab in Little Rock for an autopsy. If it is confirmed that she was indeed murdered, she would unfortunately become the ninth person lost this year in the US due to anti-trans violence She would also saly become the sixth Black trans person and seventh trans POC murdered in the US this year.

Rest in power and peace Amrita, we lost you way too soon.

#BlackTransLIvesMatter #SayHerName TransGriot Update: The autopsy ruled out foul play in Amrita's death...