Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

On April 24, 2021 a 38-year-old Black trans woman named Tiffany Thomas was shot and killed at a car wash in the Red Bird section of Dallas. According to police reports, when a police patrol sergeant was notified by a passerby of an unresponsive person lying on the ground at the car wash, the sergeant responded to the location and found the victim unresponsive and with a gunshot wound. Dallas Fire and Rescue responded and pronounced the victim deceased at the scene. Witnesses reported hearing gunshots in the area at around midnight.

There was a delay in reporting her death because her family insists she was not transgender. Tiffany was found wearing female clothing and was identified by media as a trans woman, then those tweets were removed until the Dallas PD finally released today the information that she was “known as Tiffany” while still emphasizing the family denial.

Over at PlanetTransgender, Kelli has more insight

To deny that the victim was transgender because the family wants a cishet image presented is a gross injustice. This might have been a hate crime. And to refuse to investigate it with that possibility in mind will lead to more murders of transgender people in the future

Tiffany’s exact identity may never be known. The trans community welcomes and affirms her under the trans umbrella, acknowledging her death. There’s no shame for someone AMAB to be wearing women’s clothing at a car wash. It certainly doesn’t mean she deserved to die. Acceeding to the family’s erasure of Tiffany is not only cowardly but a grave disservice to other trans women in Dallas. It is a shameful way to behave.

Tiffany was originally from Fort Worth, Texas and relocated to Mansfield, Texas.

Dallas Police are asking anyone with information regarding this offense to contact Det. Isom with the Dallas Police Department Homicide Unit at (469) 475-6004, or andrea.isom@dallascityhall.com. Please reference case number 070623-2021.

Tiffany is the twentieth trans, nonbinary or gender nonconforming person reported killed in 2021. Nineteen of these neighbors have been BIPOC. She is the sixteenth victim who identified as Black.  In total, there have been TWENTY murders or suspicious deaths in the first 110 days of 2021, an average of one death every 5.5 days. 14 of these victims were under the age of 30. So far. That we know of as many deaths go unreported or unacknowledged.  Note – in this summary, I include suspicious deaths that as you can read below are often later confirmed homicides.

In a particularly vicious three day span (April 21-23), we lost three young women and six trans women total during April, so far.

Rest in power, Tiffany. You deserved more respect in life and death. We will say your name so you are not forgotten.

May your memory be a revolution.

Our list of transgender, gender-nonconforming, and non-binary neighbors lost to violence in 2021. Please do not copy or share this list without attribution.

1. Tyianna Davarea Alexandra – Chicago, Illinois. January 6, 2021. Age 28.
2. Samuel Edmund Damián Valentín – Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. January 9, 2021. Age 21.
3. Dominique Jackson – Jackson, Mississippi. January 25, 2021. Age 30.
4. Bianca ‘Muffin’ Bankz – Atlanta, Georgia. January 21, 2021. Age 31.
5. Fifty Bandzzz – Baton Rouge, Louisiana. January 28, 2021. Age 21.
6. Alexus “Kimmy” Braxton – Miami, Florida. February 4, 2021. Age 45.
7. Chynaa Carrillo – New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. February 18, 2021. Age 24.
8. Jeffrey ‘JJ’ Bright – Ambridge, Pennsylvania. February 22, 2021. Age 16.
9. Jasmine Cannady – Ambridge, Pennsylvania. February 22, 2021. Age 22.
10. Jenna Franks – Jacksonville, North Carolina, February 24, 2021. Age 34. **
11. Diamond Nicole ‘Kyree’ Sanders – Cincinnati, Ohio. March 3, 2021. Age 23.
12. Rayanna Pardo – Los Angeles, California, March 17, 2021. Age 26. ***
13. Aidelen Evans – Port Arthur, Texas, March 2021. Age 24 ****
14. Dominique Lucious – Springfield, Missouri, April 8, 2021. Age 26.
15. Jaida Peterson – Charlotte, North Carolina, April 4, 2021. Age 29.
16. Remy Fennell – Charlotte, North Carolina, April 15, 2021. Age 28.
17. Tiara Banks – Chicago, Illinois, April 21, 2021. Age 26.
18. Natalia Smüt Lopez – San Jose, California, April 23, 2021. Age 24.
19. Tiffany Thomas – Dallas, Texas, April 21, 2021. Age 38.

** Jenna’s death was originally reported as suspicious, but has since been reported as a homicide. *** Rayanna’s cause of death was originally undetermined, but has since been reported as a homicide. **** Aidelen’s cause of death was unspecified, but has since been reported as a homicide

We are also still monitoring these suspicious deaths from 20/21 (in addition to the 44 documented killings.)

• 1Fendi Mon’ezah Armstrong – Lithonia, Georgia, November 11, 2020. Age 39
• Kimberely Patricia Cope – Athens, Georgia, December 27, 2020. Age 40.
• Natasha Keianna – Detroit, Michigan, January 12, 2021. Age 37.
• Bonaire ‘Bonnie’ Black – Atlanta, Georgia, December 31, 2020. Age 19.
• Koko Nia Labeija – Chicago, Illinois, Found June 2020, Identified April 2021, Age 19.