Police under fire for referring to transgender murder victim as a ‘man’
A trans woman has been shot and killed in Texas – but police officials referred to her as a man.
43-year-old trans woman Monica Loera was shot and killed on her own doorstep in Austin, Texas last week – becoming the first known trans woman to be murdered in the US in 2016.
However, the Human Rights Campaign criticized police in Texas for repeatedly referring to Ms Loera by her birth name and misgendering her.
A number of local media outlets reported a police plea for information which identified the victim as “David Loera” and circulated an old pre-transition driver’s license photo.
29-year-old JonCasey Rowell has since been arrested in connection with the murder.
TransGriot blogger Monica Roberts hit out at the coverage, writing: “The reason we in Texas and Austin didn’t know about it until a week after it happened is because once again, the trans victim was misgendered by the police and subsequently the local media.
“As usual, I’m going to do the Austin media’s job for them and give our sister the respect in death and proper pronouns she deserves and another example of how to properly report on trans murder cases.”
She added: “APD’s information officers need to do a better job a well of informing the media when it comes to dealing with trans murder victims and not misgendering them. “
