Hate crimes verdict in Lateisha Green's murder

     Photo of Lateisha Green from the
   Justice for Teish Green Facebook site

Activists and family supporters cheered the July 17 verdict in the trial of Dwight DeLee, accused of murdering Lateisha Green, a 22-year-old African American trans woman of Syracuse, New York.

DeLee was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime in Green’s murder. Although Green was transgendered (born male with a female gender identity), the hate-crimes finding was based on anti-gay bias, indicating the DeLee saw Green as a gay man. New York has no hate-crimes statute that covers gender identity or transgender status.

DeLee becomes the first person in New York State to be convicted of a hate crime in the murder of a transgendered person, and the second in the United States. The first was Allen Andrade, convicted of first-degree murder and a hate crime in the killing of Angie Zapata of Greeley, Colorado. Colorado’s hate-crimes statute covers transgender status.

The interesting thing about the Associated Press story reporting on this verdict is that the story states that “Green, who was born Moses Cannon but began living as a woman at age 16, frequently dressed in women's clothing but was wearing jeans and a T-shirt the night she was killed.” This has also been brought up in other coverage of the murder.

The reality is that women often wear jeans and T-shirts. Women also do not always wear makeup, fix their hair in a particular style, or demonstrate other visible signs of “traditional” female gender appearance.

It is important to understand that, although Green might not have been presenting as a “traditional” female on the night of her murder, she was a woman. Green lived as a woman, identified as a woman, and was seen as such by those who knew her.

And although the hate-crimes statute under which DeLee was convicted was based on sexual orientation, Green’s sexual orientation is not the issue here — her transgender status is the issue.

The bottom line is that the jury found that Green was murdered because of a bias against people who display their gender in “non-traditional” ways, which causes some people — such as DeLee — to assume that those people are gay (or lesbian). In fact, witnesses reported that they heard DeLee use anti-gay slurs against Green before she was shot.

The difference between gender identity and sexual orientation will be addressed in an upcoming Transgender Issues 101 report on this channel. For now, the positive outcome of this trial is that Green’s gender identity was recognized and the jury found that DeLee murdered Green because she displayed an appearance and behaviors considered “non-traditional” for her birth sex, leading DeLee to believe that she was a gay man.

Regardless of how DeLee saw Green, she was murdered because she was “different” from the way he thought she should be. And he thought that, because of this difference, she deserved to die.

No one deserves to die because they are “different” from the way others think they “should” be. If that were the case, everyone would be a target for someone.

The juries in both the Angie Zapata case and the Lateisha Green case recognized this. These decisions may pave the way for increased acceptance — or at least increased safety — for all LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people.

(The Justice for Teish Green Facebook page provides many links to different articles and organization statements about this trial and verdict.)