Stopping the silence in Houston

HOUSTON--Around 120 people came out on Monday to remember Myra Ical, a transgender woman who was murdered on January 18 in Houston. The event was organized not only to memorialize a fallen sister, but to protest the callous treatment of her murder by the Houston Police Department (HPD) and local media outlets.

Police insensitively used the male pronoun throughout their press release about the murder. To add insult to injury, they also insinuated that Myra may have been a drug addict or a prostitute, though there was no evidence of either.

Taking their lead from the police statement, local media like the Houston Chronicle also referred to Myra as "he," reporting that "a man was killed and left half-naked in a field known to police as a hangout for prostitutes and drug users near the Montrose area." Every mainstream media outlet used male pronouns and implied that drugs or prostitution were involved.

Myra is the seventh transgender person to be murdered here in Houston in the last decade. Like the previous six cases, the police have no suspects. What's clear from their report, though, is that she fought bravely for her life and suffered serious defensive wounds as a result.

The Transgender Foundation of America (TFA), based in Houston, planned the January 25 candlelight vigil. Word of the event quickly spread, and more than 20 other organizations agreed to co-sponsor it--including Equality Across America Houston, Resurrection MCC, Houston Young Stonewall Democrats, Human Rights Campaign and Impact Houston, among many others.

TFA vowed that this vigil would be different. Instead of gathering only to memorialize Myra with a moment of silence, a moment of noise was also planned. The moment of silence was out of respect for the dead, and the moment of noise was to show that the community has been silent too long.

"Dealing with the murders of transgender people is not something brand new to the consciousness of the transgender population," TFA Director Cristan Williams told the Houston Chronicle. "The time for silence has ended. We want to find justice in this situation."

The program included statements of support from many groups, as well as local activists and leaders remembering those who have been killed and encouraging everyone to action. TFA plans to meet with Houston police to demand that they adopt the Associated Press Stylebook guidelines for reporting such tragedies in the future, which state to use the gender identity (and pronoun) preferred by the individual.

The mood and spirit of the event can best be summed up by Darin Michael Quintero, who rallied everyone for the moment of noise with these words:

As a symbol of our commitment to end our acquiescing silence I invite you to make noise for Myra. Scream! Shout! Whistle! Let our noise shake our neighbors from their complacency and crack the very bedrock of oppression on which this tragedy, and so many other tragedies are built. The time for silence is over!"