On July 29th police in Dallas, Texas found a body dumped in a field, the body was so badly decomposed that it has taken them two weeks to be able to identify the body. The body was that of 22 year old trans woman of colour Shade Schuler.
Despite finding Shade presenting in women's clothing when the police petitioned for help identifying the body they described her as male.
Unfortunately this misgendering has continued even now that Shade's identity has been confirmed, completely disrespecting her identity and her memory. Dallas Morning News this morning released a story describing Shade as male, along with the DPD news release on her story.
It was Trans Pride Initiative's Nell Gaither who confirmed that Shade was transgender.
'Several of us spent time verifying she was trans and trying to learn more this afternoon and evening,” Gaither wrote on Facebook Tuesday night. “Her name was Ms. Shade, and she was only 22 years old. … Our hearts and thoughts are with her family and friends who now must confront this unfortunate taking of life. May we find space in our hearts to celebrate her time with us and the lives she touched. May we find inspiration in this loss to work together, trans and cis alike, to end the violence that has taken so many of our trans siblings from us far too soon.'
Shade marks the 13th trans person to be killed in just the US alone this year, surpassing the number of killings in America for the whole of 2014.
The number of trans women, and trans women of colour especially, being murdered in on the increase, and the number of news reports that still refuse to give those women the respect that they deserve by addressing them with their correct names and pronouns is staggering.
These are women being targeted and killed for being who they are. They are not men. They have never been men. Stop disrespecting their memories, show them some common human decency and respect their memories.
Goodbye Shade, our hearts go out to you and your loved ones.
#HerNameWasShade
Amy.
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