Tenth US trans death of 2018 confirmed as body found in Texas creek
A candlelight vigil in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty)
The body of a transgender woman was found dead in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday, just days after another trans woman was found choked to death.
The unidentified victim, who becomes the tenth confirmed trans death in the US this year, was found in the waters of White Rock Creek, according to NBC’s Dallas news affiliate.
A kayaker found the body floating in the water. According to the police, the woman was wearing a black top and black scrub pants.
The Dallas Police Department held a press conference on Tuesday asking locals for help identifying the body.
The police described the victim “as [a] black, transgender female approximately 5 feet, 3 inches, and weighing about 130 pounds.”
They are treating the case as an “unexplained death pending a cause of death determination,” and asked anybody with information to come forward.
On May 9, the body of Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon, a 26-year-old trans woman, was found in her apartment.
- (Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon)
The Dallas Police Department said Flores-Pavon was murdered. Although both women were trans women of colour, police said nothing indicates the two cases are related so far.
Dallas Police said Flores-Pavon had been choked to death. She was discovered unconscious and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
An eyewitness account reported that an unidentified man left her apartment shortly before Flores-Pavon was found unconscious, however, no arrest has been made so far.
A vigil was held for Flores-Pavon on Sunday at Dallas’ Cathedral of Hope.
When Flores-Pavon’s body was discovered, police said there was “no evidence at this time to suggest this homicide was the result of a hate crime.”
Monica Roberts, a board member of local charity Black Transwomen Inc., regretted the case hadn’t been handled as such.
“These murder cases tend to be exceptionally violent and we fail to understand in the community why they aren’t classified as hate crimes,” she said.
“As people are educated about the issues of transgender folks, either on the transfeminine or transmasculine spectrum,” Roberts added. “Acceptance follows along.”
Flores-Pavon was the ninth trans woman to be murdered in the US so far this year.
According to Human Rights Watch, there have been 113 trans and non-binary people killed in the country since 2013.
28 trans people were killed in 2017 alone, making it the year with the highest number of homicides targeting trans or non-binary people.
A UK man who was choked by teens for being gay said there needed to be better education about LGBT issues.
The young man, who was attacked while commuting on the London Underground, received compensation for his attack.
He told the Evening Standard he would be donating it to LGBT charities Diversity Role Models and Just Like Us, which work to educate about LGBT people and tackle homophobia, biphobia and transphobic bullying.
