Honduras: Transsexual and Housekeeper Murdered

A May 16 GAIN release included an AP story about the stabbing death of 50 year-old dentist Sigfrilda Shantall Pastor Arguelles. She was the first Honduran to have sex reassignment surgery and achieve legal recognition as a woman. She and her housekeeper were killed at her home in Catacamas, 110 miles east of the capital, Tegucigalpa. The police found a note in the house from an unknown group calling itself "La Mafia".

Pastor had SRS in the United States in 1976. From then until last November, she tried to gain legal status as a woman. Last November, the government identified her as a woman on her voter registration card.
 

Amarillo, Texas: Transsexual Shot At

From InYourFace on-line news. For prior press releases, check the GenderPAC website at: http://www.gpac.org

[Amarillo, TX: 23 May 98] "At 1:30 in the morning, a loud noise woke me up," said transexual woman Joy Richards. "There were pieces of glass and blinds everywhere, with holes in the far wall." She had been stalked the previous day. Now she is afraid for her life.

Sixty percent of the transgender people responding to GenderPAC's 1st National Survey on Transviolence report that they have suffered physical assault. The story of Ms. Richards puts a human face on that number. On Friday, 22 May 98, she noticed a man staring at her in a neighborhood grocery store.

"I know the difference between lust and stalking in a person's eyes," she said. "As I left the store he was waiting, staring from his pickup. He was looking back at me--glaring. I continued walking; he drove around the corner and passed by me slowly, still glaring. He went up the street past my house and was still staring at me as I crossed the street."

The police responded to her 1:30 a.m. 911 call. There were two bullet holes in the wall opposite her window and two in the brick outside her window. The police called the incident a drive-by shooting. "Yes, I'm definitely moving," Ms. Richards said. "I just hope I can move soon enough. I don't want to be a statistic."
 

El Salvador: Transvestite Sex Workers Murdered

Copyright © 1995-1998 PlanetOut Corporation.

NewsPlanet Staff
June 5, 1998

El Salvador: Seven gay male transvestites and a female sex worker have been shot to death in the last six weeks in and around San Salvador, El Salvador, according to a Reuters report. The latest victim, Santos "Lucero" Cruz, was discovered June 4; the first, Jose Alexis "Karla" Barahona, was found April 26. Activists are not satisfied with the progress of the police investigation, and say police have made no attempt to enlist their help. A police chief admitted to a radio station that the shootings might be the work of a serial killer. Transgender sex workers are allowed to ply their trade only in certain designated areas of the city.

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Try this link for the original Reuters story.

There is a related notice concerning this story posted on our site.

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