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This article contains a mention of fatal violence against a Black trans woman.
Honee Daniels, a Black trans woman who was a beloved member of the trans community in Rochester, New York, was killed in a hit-and-run two weeks ago. She was 37 years old.
Daniels was walking in the street just before midnight on October 2 when she was struck by a vehicle that left the scene, according to local ABC affiliate WHAM. (Family members identified her to WHAM with the last name Moffett, but local activists say she used the surname Daniels.) When police responded to reports of the crash, they pronounced Daniels dead. Gregory Bello, a spokesperson for the Rochester Police Department, confirmed to Gay City News that a suspect had been identified and their vehicle recovered, but that no charges were filed as of October 11. Bello said Daniels’ death was “still under investigation.”
As is too often the case when trans people are killed, Daniels was misgendered and deadnamed in local media following the news of her death. According to The Advocate, local activists reached out to media outlets to ask them to correct Daniels’ name and gender, many of which did so. Javannah J. Davis, the president and founder of W.A.V.E. Women Inc., a Rochester-based advocacy organization that provides community support for Black and brown trans people, told The Advocate that she and her colleagues did receive “timely” responses from media outlets. However, Davis expressed frustration with the way that the Rochester Police Department recorded Daniels’ gender.
“My biggest frustration with that is that the Rochester Police Department first reported her as a ‘man’ at the scene of the accident,” Davis told the magazine. “I wholeheartedly feel that them reporting that was a deliberate insult to her and the Rochester Transgender community because Honee looked nothing like a man in her daily life.” (In his statement to Gay City News, Bello said RPD “doesn’t have a way” to verify Daniels’ identity or that of other trans victims.)
Additionally, Blaque/Out Magazine, a publication for and by Black and brown queer people, noted that such misreporting can also have broader implications. In a press release obtained by The Advocate, Blaque/Out Magazine pointed out that when media outlets misreport the identities of trans people who have been killed, the national statistics about those incidents of violence become “deeply skewed.”
“These errors, whether purposeful or in ignorance, can even lead to delayed justice for families and victims,” the magazine said.
Dominic L. Wright-McCloud, a friend of Daniels for 22 years who considered her “family,” told Gay City News they were “utterly and completely devastated” by her death. Daniels was a beauty expert who made friends easily and “could make anyone look like a movie star with a little time and the right makeup palette,” Wright-McCloud recalled.
“Her death has shaken up my entire world. I have never felt pain like this, and I wouldn’t wish this pain on my worst enemy,” Wright-McCloud said, adding, “The main thing I’d like to see is the truth of what unfolded that night. The right charges need to be filed because she deserves that.”
There will be a memorial service held for Daniels in Rochester on Friday, October 18, according to a post on W.A.V.E. Women Inc.’s Facebook page. Calling hours are set to begin at 1 p.m. Eastern time, with a memorial service scheduled for 6 p.m.
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