Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Memorial for Myles LeShai McLean / 61st & Dix Streets NE









From a DC Police report: On Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at approximately 4:26 am, members of the Sixth District responded to the report of a shooting in the 6100 block of Dix Street NE, Washington DC. Upon arrival on the scene, they found Myles LaShay Mclean, 23, of NE Washington DC, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. DC Fire and EMS transported the victim to a local hospital where the victim was pronounced dead.

Myles LaShai McLean was a 23-year-old transgender woman, and the murder is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the city officials. Metro Weekly reports Ms. McLean's vigil was organized by Earline Budd of Transgender Health Empowerment and Ruby Corado with the DC Trans Coalition.

''This is just to remember Lashai,'' Corado says of this vigil and others, ''to show that we care, that we love them, that their life matters. We usually don't want to make it a political event, but it turns out that way because this happens too many times." and ''we also want to bring attention to the fact that most crimes against transgender people don't find justice.''

An extensive and moving report on the situation is in the Blade.

May justice and peace come to Ms. McLean, her friends, supporters, and family.

Further information is at HomicideWatch.


Update: According to WAMU, the original shrine was burned in what is being investigated as a bias crime.

On September 17th, I visited the site, and found the memorial had been rebuilt.




2 comments:

Rosa said...

NO hate. So sad.

Anonymous said...

Some sob defiled it! just burnt it up. I heard it on npr, i was so angry I was pounding on my steering wheel and yelling