The trial for Angie Zapata is under way. The story is horrific and all too common. You can read an article about the trial
here.
Show your support for a lost sister.
Angie was killed by an intimate partner who clames that she did not disclose her status as a trans*woman. He claims that after spending the night with her he suspected she may have "been a man". He grabbed her crotch and beat her to (he thought) death. While removing implicating evidence, swiping her car keys and credit card, Angie gurgled and started to sit up. He then took a fire extinguisher and killed her.
He later told his girl-friend that "gay things need to die" and "I had to kill it".
Personally, I'm sick of the assumption that Angie tricked him into anything. Thus far this is what the defense is using to get a lesser charge conviction. Using the "gay panic" defense unfortunately works very well - even in cases where the murderer had prior knowledge of a woman's status and a history of dating trans*women.
This story hits close to home. This may be just another sad event to most of you. But, for me and gals like me this the the fear we have every time a date actually decides not to bail out on us. True or not, there is a real assumption among Trans*women that guys can have sex with us, feel guilty/disgusted with this new event, murder us and get a pitifully short sentence (if they are even caught and convicted).