LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — Once again we learn from UK’s The Guardian of another stateside transgender murder that flew under the radar this year — this time the killing occurred in Aurora, Illinois on March 7, 2015.
Trans woman Keyshia Blige was declared dead at a hospital after being shot while driving a car and subsequently crashing the vehicle. No suspects have been arrested nor are reported details on the cause of death. Aurora police say it is not a hate crime but they are working on some theories.
Chicago media initially reported the story stating the victim was male. A follow-up story apparently alluded to a male “transitioning” and taking hormones. However, it was the victim’s friend, Sasha Love, who told The Guardian earlier this week Blige identified as transgender. Love, who states she was Blige’s best friend, says Blige was most happiest after starting transition. Love also stated Blige was a prior victim of a hate crime in which 4 men were convicted.
——-
It looks like we are going to rely on UK media for the tracking of trans murders in the U.S.
The previous murder reported by The Guardian — Kansas City: https://lexiecannes.com/2015/08/25/second-kansas-city-trans-murder-flies-under-radar-until-uk-newspaper-ids-victim/
Illinois: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/26/keyshia-blige-trangender-homicide-illinois
Watch LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ Or get the DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332
Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/
Categories: Deaths, Murder, Transgender, Transsexual, Trans
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS 
Well, if they can’t silence us while we’re alive…Or ignore us. Or misidentify us. I’m kind of leaning away from the word “misgendered.” (Gender is a noun and we really shouldn’t try to turn it into a verb. Or maybe that’s just my English major making a fuss) When the media says, “That was a MALE,” it might be better to simply reply: “Misidentified, Mr/Miss Cisgender Reporter! You didn’t do your job very well. Try again or go back to Journalism 101 and get it right.”
No, the press doesn’t much care if they get it right unless we hammer them. Every. Single. Time. Exhausting, isn’t it? But I take some comfort in knowing that there are at least 700,000 of us and a lot less reporters. On the other hand, I take no comfort whatsoever in knowing that the curve of transgender murders is rising/accelerating and the straight world is either getting bored with all this “trans stuff” and actually trying to ignore us or so pissed off and freaked out that they’re killing us in record numbers. Higher visibility has a price. As for myself, I’m seriously considering buying a purse-sized pepper spray for the first time, ever.
Good point about “misgendered”, however, I write to be understood, hence my adoption of words I would never normally use, like cis, trans. I did draw the line at trans*. And yeah, I went with the pepper spray route myself. Thanks for the comment!
Yet… if gender is performed then it also has actions… a use as a verb. ??
Perhaps – getting self nit picky – I should/could have written… if at least parts of gender is about performance… rather than calling gender completely performance… which I think few of us would subscribe to; perhaps a Gender Outlaw, here or there might.
Your point is important. Stating that the reporter “misgendered” a murder victim points to a blatant MISTAKE made by the reporter.. In fact, I think it is best to state, “the victim was MISIDENTIFIED by reporter, First and Last name. This denotes a ‘mistake’ made by the reporter. Saying ‘misgendered’ is not a strong enough word when trying to ‘make a point’ on a trans murder and make no mistake, he knew what he was doing. Please understand the use of the word misidentified rather than misgendered is NOT a criticism but a suggestion that we all begin to use stronger more assertive wording AND tying then tying it directly to the reporter and his ‘mistake’. That just might make reporters THINK in the future particularly if they see their colleagues being identified as making mistakes in their reporting..
I am also glad Lexi has identified this anomaly in reporting between the the US and UK.. Thank you Lexi..
My question is how many more of use will have to die before something is done to stop it?
This is a very good question Jennifer Davis. How many more martyrs do we need to have before there is such an uprising in the transgender community that no one can ignore us any longer? Maybe we need to take a hint from the African-American community, every time there is another murder of a transgender person, there should be a protest march or rally. No I am not being sarcastic, I am saying that we need to, no, have to stop being invisible. Let the world know that we’re EVERYWHERE, maybe then they’ll stop treating us like clowns, jokes, or psychos.
Gandhi employed nonviolent civil disobedience, so did Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, so why not? Recognization of our civil rights to part of society is worth it!
One thing that stands out about this story, is that the of murder of this transwoman, as you said, seems to have gone completly under the radar of the US LGBT media, but a British based news media service was able to pick up on this missed identifiction of the victim. WTF? I’ve always figured the the number of murders of trans people significantly being under reported because of situations like this. This needs to change. Our sisters are being slaughtered in the streets. How much more blood will be shed and how many more of us must die? This year’s TDOR is going to be an especially somber one.