Groups hope to raise awareness of transgender issues
Scott Stewart
Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: News
Kaaseem Adalla Juanda was a 60-year-old post-operative transsexual woman who lived in Kansas City, Kansas. On Oct. 17, 2005, Juanda's body was found outside a rest stop on Interstate 29 near Glenwood, Iowa. She had been shot in the head.
The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reported a month later, according to the Associated Press, that police could not conclude whether it was a suicide or a murder.
But family members were convinced Juanda was murdered for being transgendered. Juanda's 37-year-old son Derrick told the Nonpareil he believed the man his father was dating may have committed the crime.
"My theory is that maybe this guy my dad was with found out my father used to be a man, so he put a hit on my father," he said. "The gunshot was toward the back of his head, execution style."
Juanda's name joins more than 100 that members of the Gender and Sexual Orientation student agency and its affiliated social group, Queers & Allies, plan to remind students of next week by observing the Transgendered Day of Remembrance.
"There really needs to be visibility," said Caitie Wegener, president of Queers & Allies. "People need to reach out and realize that trans people are being killed in disproportionate amounts."
The Transgendered Day of Remembrance is observed on Nov. 20 in recognition of the 1998 murder of Rita Hester, a highly visible member of the Boston transgender community who died after being stabbed 20 times, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Hester's murder remains unsolved.
'Transgendered' is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity or expression differs from the sex they were born as, according to a reference sheet from GLAAD. The term includes transsexuals, people who change their gender through surgical or hormonal procedures.
The day, observed internationally by groups like Groupe Activiste Trans in Paris to the Human Rights Commission of Tel Aviv, was established by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, who coordinated a vigil in Rita's honor in 1999, according to GLAAD. Smith later launched a Web site "Remembering Our Dead" to draw attention to those lost to anti-transgender violence.
The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reported a month later, according to the Associated Press, that police could not conclude whether it was a suicide or a murder.
But family members were convinced Juanda was murdered for being transgendered. Juanda's 37-year-old son Derrick told the Nonpareil he believed the man his father was dating may have committed the crime.
"My theory is that maybe this guy my dad was with found out my father used to be a man, so he put a hit on my father," he said. "The gunshot was toward the back of his head, execution style."
Juanda's name joins more than 100 that members of the Gender and Sexual Orientation student agency and its affiliated social group, Queers & Allies, plan to remind students of next week by observing the Transgendered Day of Remembrance.
"There really needs to be visibility," said Caitie Wegener, president of Queers & Allies. "People need to reach out and realize that trans people are being killed in disproportionate amounts."
The Transgendered Day of Remembrance is observed on Nov. 20 in recognition of the 1998 murder of Rita Hester, a highly visible member of the Boston transgender community who died after being stabbed 20 times, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Hester's murder remains unsolved.
'Transgendered' is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity or expression differs from the sex they were born as, according to a reference sheet from GLAAD. The term includes transsexuals, people who change their gender through surgical or hormonal procedures.
The day, observed internationally by groups like Groupe Activiste Trans in Paris to the Human Rights Commission of Tel Aviv, was established by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, who coordinated a vigil in Rita's honor in 1999, according to GLAAD. Smith later launched a Web site "Remembering Our Dead" to draw attention to those lost to anti-transgender violence.
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