Justice for Teish

This was originally posted at The New Gay, and sent in by our San Francisco reader Gina.

Lateisha Green was a vivacious, loving 22-year-old, African American transitioning transwoman living in Syracuse, NY. Unlike many young transpeople, Teish was accepted by her family. She was very close to her mom and siblings, including her 18-year-old gay brother, Mark.

On the evening of November 14, 2008, Teish and Mark received a call from a friend telling them about a house party not far from where they lived. After they arrived in their car, many (but not all) guests at the party started shouting homophobic/transphobic insults at them, mostly about their sexual orientation. Teish and Mark were stunned as they sat in the front seat of the car.

One of the people shouting insults, Dwight DeLee, a 20-year-old man they didn’t know, is alleged to have approached the car with a .22 rifle and shot once at Teish and Mark. Mark, in the driver’s seat, got a surface wound, but the bullet passed through to Teish and hit her in the chest. Mark was able to drive to the hospital as Teish was dying. They told each other they loved one another. Teish was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The trial of Dwight DeLee is coming up on July 13 in Syracuse. It will be tried with a hate crime attachment, although in a cruel twist, Teish will be referred to by her birth name, Moses Cannon, because the NY State hate crime statute only covers crimes against sexual orientation, not gender expression or identity. In a sense, Teish will have her transwoman identity stripped away from her. The generally conservative Syracuse media has repeatedly referred to Teish as a “man” and used her birth name and male pronouns even though, in her life, she identified as a transsexual woman and everyone referred to her as Teish and used female pronouns when referring to her.

Sadly, this case has received a minimal amount of media coverage both within the LGBT community and mainstream media. It is every bit as important a hate crime as those perpetrated against Matthew Shephard and Gwen Araujo but, sadly, most of the numerous murders against African-American transwomen (and there were many such murders in 2008) tend to be under-reported, often unsolved and under-prosecuted.

This outrage cannot continue and our community cannot allow Teish’s murder to be swept under the rug. I’ve created a Facebook site to publicize the case, the trial and as a memorial to Teish’s life. I welcome all of you to join it and to spread the word in the two weeks we have left before the trial begins. You can reach the site by clicking here or you can Google “Justice for Teish.”