The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is investigating a shooting involving a transgender woman that occurred Thursday morning in the 6000 block of Eads Street NE, in the District’s East Corner.
Affiliate members of the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU) were on scene as the initial responders, according to an email update sent to members of MPD’s Critical Incident Team by GLLU.
The victim was taken to a local hospital and is described as “conscious and breathing.”
The neighborhood in which the incident took place has long been a hangout for transgender individuals, but several high-profile anti-transgender attacks have occurred in the area in recent years, including the shooting death of Lashai Mclean in July 2011, followed by another attempted shooting of a transgender woman two days after Mclean’s death. Other anti-trans attacks that have occurred within a mile radius from the site of Thursday’s shooting include the 2002 double-murder of transgender women Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis and the 2012 stabbing of Deoni Jones.
Metro Weekly will have further updates when more information becomes available.
...moreIt's not often you get to see a wave of joy wash across the Internet, so the first few minutes after the Supreme Court announced its ruling to strike down the worst part of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act were moments to savor.
I tend toward the dispassionate myself, at least when it comes to joy. I'm more likely to express righteous anger, like I did when Congress first passed DOMA and President Bill Clinton signed it into law. The only tears of joy I can recall shedding were those at my own wedding as I exchanged vows with Cavin in front of our families.
Otherwise, I'm generally stoic in a happy sort of way. But watching DOMA fall made my heart a little lighter. And having a friend text me, ''I'm so happy … I think today is the best day of the entire 10 years that I have been here,'' actually did bring a bit of a tear to my eye. Suddenly, he and his partner are free to share the same rights of marriage and immigration that every heterosexual couple in the country takes for granted.
It really is a momentous day.
While I'm looking forward to reading the full opinions — Who can turn down reading another stem-winder from Justice Antonin Scalia, whose bigotry becomes less thinly veiled and more unhinged every day? — but for now I'm just breathing a sigh of relief for those I care deeply about whose legal marriages will now be recognized for what they are: loving and legitimate.
For myself, well, my hopes are muted. Cavin and I live in Virginia. The wedding I mentioned above was a marriage in terms of religious ceremony, a marriage in terms of our families, but not a marriage in terms of the laws of Virginia. While the court struck down DOMA's federal definition of marriage as unconstitutional, it didn't address the section of the law that allows states to not recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
We have an obviously strange and illogical situation here in the Washington area, where the legal status of your marriage may be determined by where you happen to be driving on the Beltway. Even when Cavin and I tie the legal knot later this summer, as we plan to, in the mostly liberal bastion of Falls Church Cavin and I will remain legal strangers.
It's also obvious that, writ large, the patchwork of marriage equality is completely irrational. To drive from coast to coast, our marriages are expected to turn off and on according to our GPS location. That's the main reason that Cavin and I haven't done the full legal yet. Plus, because we've had a wedding and exchanged vows and call each other husband, I feel married already.
But we'll do it now. Things are changing rapidly. When DOMA was signed into law, I never really imagined that it would be challenged so successfully so quickly. That we find ourselves here celebrating a victory – in a battle that a lot of people ''in charge'' of the movement at the time opposed – is simply amazing and awe inspiring. When we finish the next step for marriage equality, having everyone equal under the same Constitution, I want to be a full part of that wave of joy.
For now, though, I'm happy to celebrate the victory at hand and tell my friend congratulations. It's been a long time coming.
Sean Bugg is the co-publisher of Metro Weekly. You can email him at // or follow him on Twitter, @seanbugg.
...moreI am an American. I speak and write English. I've gone to American schools, grown up with American friends, and pledged allegiance to the American flag more times than I can count.
I am also openly gay, and one of over 267,000 undocumented LGBT immigrants in the U.S. and part of the 11 million undocumented Americans whose futures, security, hopes and dreams hang in the balance if Congress fails to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
My parents brought me here from Lima, Peru, when I was 2 years old. I have a younger brother whom I barely know. That's because when our parents brought us over, he was forced to stay behind due to his very young age. My little brother was just an infant at the time. Unfortunately, this was only the first of many times my family would be forced apart throughout the course of my life.
Marco Quiroga
(Photo by Latino GLBT History Project)
Luckily, I had my mother who always put me first, even in the face of great adversity. Mom had long been the victim of my father's domestic violence, but stayed silent for security's sake – and for that of her children. At the time, divorce in Peru was difficult, if not impossible.
Things changed when we came to the U.S., however. Yes, my mother was enduring the pain of being separated from her youngest child, but she had had enough of enduring my father's abuse. In this new country, Mom realized she could leave, that there was a way out – and a way forward – for both of us.
Mom took the little money she'd saved from laboring as a domestic worker and put us on a bus from where we lived, New York, to Orlando to start a new life. We had escaped my father, but were confronted with a different set of challenges. My mom didn't know her rights and couldn't afford legal counsel. Like countless others, she fell through the cracks of our broken immigration system.
My mom tried. She worked hard, and always focused on the safety and well-being of her children. She saved every penny she earned to bring my little brother to the U.S. from Peru. And after 10 years of being apart, he finally came home. This was such a dream come true, because I always wished for a little brother.
My brother is also gay. I remember when he came out to me and told me about what it was like for gay people in Peru, where there are practically no legal protections for LGBT individuals. He grew up facing unimaginable harassment – so much so that he almost tried to take his own life at one point.
I began to realize that my brother and I had more in common than I thought. I, too, had lived a ''double-closeted'' life, hiding both my sexual orientation and my immigration status. I, too, had been living in fear. I was afraid of coming out of the closet and losing my family, and of coming out of the shadows and being deported.
My brother and I shared more than blood. We shared the same story and a similar struggle. It was only five years later, however, that he was deported. It has been eight years since my mom and I have seen him.
I am hopeful, though, that one day I will see my brother again. And I am hopeful that Congress will act on behalf of all of my immigrant brothers and sisters. Because if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that we matter. I matter. My dreams, my brother's dreams, and my mother's dreams – they all matter.
We are not invisible. We work hard, we contribute, and we are critical to the health and prosperity of our country.
Marco Antonio Quiroga is a D.C.-based immigration activist and serves on the Latino GLBT History Project's steering committee.
...moreThis means Arizona state employees will continue receiving domestic-partner benefits while a challenge to the ban proceeds through the courts.
Sean Patrick Maloney got choked up as he talked about the significance of yesterday's Supreme Court rulings.
The reaction in New York City to the Supreme Court rulings was like that in a lot of places, but we just like seeing everyone so happy. Enjoy the photos, and enjoy this moment.
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