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Motive, Police Response Probed in Killing of DC Trans Woman

Detectives in Washington, DC are searching for two men after the early Wednesday shooting of Lashai McLean, a 23-year-old transgender woman, reports NBC Washington.

Lashay Mclean was walking in the 6100 block of Dix Street NE with another transgender person before 4:30 a.m. when they exchanged words with two men. Shots were fired, and McLean was struck at least once. She was taken to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

"It just hurts my heart," said Mclean’s boyfriend, Jason Coleman. "It hurts me terrible. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her."

There's no evidence yet that suggests the 23-year-old was shot because she was transgender, police said, but the possibility of a hate crime is being investigated. A $25,000 reward is available for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case. "It’s tragic, it’s awful and it’s unfair," said Earline Budd, of Transgender Center. "And again, no one should lose their lives because of who they are."

WJLA and several other outlets incorrectly use McLean's birth name. McLean reportedly transitioned several years ago, but it's not known if she legally changed her name. On that same note: There are questions about the police response and its initial reluctance to identify the victim as transgender, reports the Washington Blade.

In a press release issued Wednesday afternoon, police identified the victim as "23-year-old Myles Mclean of N.E. Washington, D.C." The release made no mention that “Myles” is the legal birth name given to a transgender woman who had been using the name Lashai Mclean following her gender transition over the past several years.

The press release – the only information released so far by police – says Sixth District officers responded to a report of a shooting on the 6100 block of Dix Street, N.E. at 4:26 a.m. on July 20 and found the victim suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. The release, which doesn’t disclose whether the victim was found in a residence or outdoors, says the victim was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Mayor Vincent Gray has slammed the killing and anti-LGBTviolence. "We know that hate crimes have been perpetrated on people who are transgender or people who might be gay or lesbian," Gray said. "We don’t know that that’s the case here. We’re going to investigate it fully, of course, and we’re going to investigate it from that perspective as well."

LaShai McLean becomes only the latest Black transgender woman killed in our nation's capitol. You may recall that in August 2009, there was a vicious daylight stabbing of a Nana Boo Mack, a young black transgender woman on a Washington D.C. street. There are no suspects, no arrests and few leads. In addition to being at the greatest risk of violence, the murders of black and Latina trans women often remain unsolved.

Watch FOX's report—including an emotional interview with LaShai's former boyfriend—AFTER THE JUMP ...

Clarence Fluker Considered for D.C. GLBT Affairs Post?

R20 friend Clarence J. Fluker, who served as the No. 2 at the D.C. Office of GLBT Affairs under former Mayor Adrian Fenty, could be under consideration to run the office, a "source familiar with the selection process" tells Lou Chibbaro Jr. at the Washington Blade.

[Christopher Dyer] left his post as director of the GLBT Affairs Office Dec. 30 after Mayor Vincent Gray informed him that he would appoint a new director of the office. The City Council created the office through legislation making it a cabinet-level agency in the city government.

Fluker said he remains in his post as the office’s program director. He declined to comment on whether he’s under consideration for the director’s position, saying all inquires about personnel matters must be directed to the mayor’s press office. A press spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry about the matter by press time.

Last month, sources familiar with Gray’s mayoral transition team said at least three others were believed to be under consideration for the director’s position at the GLBT Affairs Office. Among them were Jeffrey Richardson, president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club; Christopher Fitzgerald, head of Gray Pride, the LGBT arm of the Gray for mayor campaign last year; and Sterling Washington, former president of the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual & Transgender Men & Women. Gray has not said when he plans to name the new director of the office.

Clarence would make a terrific LGBT liaison for Mayor Gray. He has contacts across the District and is on a first-name basis with everyone from ball children in Anacostia to Capitol Hill senior staffers.

Former D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray ousted Fenty last fall. Fenty and Gray both had outstanding records on LGBT rights ... but a number of the District's more vocal LGBT activists criticized Fenty's aloof style and the priorities of the GLBT Affairs Office.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty Ousted by Council Chairman Vince Gray

A major upset in our nation's capitol. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty lost the Democratic mayoral primary to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray. Voters overwhelmingly rejected Fenty's often combative style and Gray won with 53 percent of the vote to Fenty's 46 percent.

"Tuesday's vote marked only the third time in District history that D.C. residents have ousted a sitting mayor," adds the Washington Post. "Gray even beat Fenty in his home precinct in Crestwood with 56 percent of the vote."

Fenty and Gray both have outstanding records on LGBT rights but a number of the District's more vocal LGBT activists have criticized Fenty's aloof and abrasive style. Kevin Naff at the Washington Blade writes an excellent post-mortem on the Fenty Administration.

Fenty didn’t understand the importance of serving as the face of the city. Two examples of his absenteeism really struck me. The first came two years ago at the national conference of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a major gathering of hundreds of LGBT elected officials from around the country. It’s an empowering and high-profile annual conference that I’ve attended several times. In Las Vegas and Houston, the mayors of those large cities showed up to welcome the Victory Fund and all the LGBT elected officials that include mayors, members of Congress and others. When the conference came to D.C., Fenty was a no-show, sending his GLBT Affairs director Chris Dyer to welcome visitors in his place.

It wasn’t a deliberate snub; Fenty just didn’t understand the importance of the personal touch. His tone-deafness emerged again and again around the issue of anti-LGBT hate crimes in the city. We’ve covered numerous cases of gay men and trans women who were beaten up or killed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in the past four years. But getting Fenty to respond proved an impossible task. When asked to address the community, he would dispatch Dyer instead, who insisted that the overall number of hate crimes had dropped during Fenty’s tenure.

That may be true, but impressions count. When the community feels under attack — even if the statistics don’t support the sentiment — it means people aren’t patronizing gay businesses and they feel unsafe walking in their neighborhoods. Sometimes residents need to hear directly from their mayor, even if just for a feel-good pep talk and pledge of support. His stubborn refusal to address hate crimes turned many former supporters against Fenty and into the arms of Gray. And like many prominent gay activists who once worked for Fenty, other constituencies began abandoning the mayor over the summer months.

The Washington Post also analyzes the Fenty defeat, describing a mayor "who ignored advisers' early warnings that key constituencies were abandoning him, who shut out confidantes who told him what he did not want to hear and who began to listen only when the race was all but lost."