Category: Passings

Patricia Murphy (photos), a 39 year old Albuqurque NM resident, was shot 3 times in Albuquerque's first murder of 2008. Patricia was a prominent drag performer in the New Mexico area. Dana Madsen is being held in lieu of a million dollar cash bond in the murder.
The story was reported January 12th in the Albuquerque Tribune, and was also reported on 365gay.com.

Pioneer sexologist Dr John Money died July 7, 2006 on the eve of his 85th birthday due to complications from Parkinson's disease. A groundbreaking researcher, he is credited with coining the term "gender identity". He was also controversial for promoting surgical assignment of intersex children, a practice opposed by intersex organizations. Cheryl Chase and Denise Leclair discuss his legacy in the Washington Blade. http://washingtonblade.com/2006/7-21/news/national/obit.cfm

Briony Jay, of Towcester, UK, widely considered to be the ?mother? of British trannies, passed away of undetermined cause on February 2, 2006. Born in 1941, and raised in Liverpool, Briony is survived by two stepchildren, and three grandchildren, whom she dearly loved, and by easily 1,000 transgender people in the UK and America, whose lives she touched.

January 17, 2006
by Dr. Laura Ellis

This morning, in the company of his family, Dr Stanley Biber, 82, died in St Mary Corwin Hospital, Pueblo, Colorado. He had been ill for the past 2 months. He had done more transsexual surgeries than anyone else in the world.

Vanessa Murray, 56, passed away on Friday March 26, 2005 at her home in Rhode Island. Vanessa was the well known manager of IFGE's Synchronicity Bookstore from 1995 through 2000. Vanessa had previously been a firefighter in Fall River, MA for many years, but had retired due to illness. After her retirement from firefighting she came to work with IFGE, travelling around the country from conference to conference with the bookstore, and answering our support line. Hers was the first voice that people heard when they called IFGE. She spent countless hours offering support and a sympathetic ear to our callers. She will be sorely missed

(courtesy of Bodies Like Ours)
Over the weekend, we learned of the untimely death last week of David Reimer in Winnipeg. David was the subject of the well-known Joan/John gender experiment in the 1960?s and 1970's by Dr. John Money.  After a botched circumcision, David was given hormones and raised as a girl at the urging of Money, then a sex researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After an awkward childhood and years of teasing, David discovered the truth at age 14, and he took steps to return to his male identity. David took his own life at age 38 o­n Tuesday, May 4, 2004.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.

by Maxwell Anderson Robert

Allen Eads was born December 18, 1945, in a tiny no-nothing of a town in West Virginia. The middle child of three, he had an older and a younger brother. Until the day he died, his mother called him Bobby.

Robert himself used many names. When I met him, he called himself Bob. At times he used Ray, and for those hillbilly times, he called himself Ray-Bob. As he matured, Robert became his name of choice. Robert grew up poor, as did most in West Virginia at that time, but this didn?t necessarily mean he was unhappy. He wasn?t. There were rough times, of course, but all-in-all, he was loved and cared for. His mother was a stay-at-home mom, and since Robert was a ?she? growing up, the bond was strong between them. Although his mother had difficulty with the transition to Robert, she continued to love him, and is with him now, since her death in the early part of 2001.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #99, Fall 2002.

We?ll All Miss Her
by Nancy Cain

I remember meeting Candy Scott in the fall of 1994 at one of the Innvestments meetings in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She spotted me as a newcomer and immediately latched on to me. She wanted to know all about me. I was flattered.

Sylvia Rivera

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #098, Summer 2002

Obituary by Bebe Scarpinato and Rusty Moore
Photography by Mariette Pathy Allen

Sylvia Rivera, Stonewall riot veteran and life- long activist for transgendered people, died during the dawn hours of February 19, 2002 at New York?s St. Vincent?s Hospital, of complications from cancer of the liver. She was fifty years old.