Tonya Harvey Is The Third Known Trans Person To Be Killed This Year

Carolina Moreno
Updated

Tonya Harvey, a 35-year-old trans woman, was shot and killed in Buffalo, New York, on Tuesday. She is the third known trans person to be killed this year, according to GLAAD.

The Buffalo News first reported the shooting, which occurred on Shepard Street, on Tuesday. Police initially identified the victim as male, but the newspaper correctly identified the victim as Tonya Harvey in a new report published Thursday.

Kait Munro, a spokeswoman for the Erie County District Attorney office, told HuffPost they have not released the victim’s name.

Munro could confirm there is an ongoing investigation into the death of a transgender woman killed this week. Officials are looking into the killing as a possible hate crime.

A picture of 35-year-old Tonya Harvey.  (Photo: Tonya Harvey/Facebook)
A picture of 35-year-old Tonya Harvey.  (Photo: Tonya Harvey/Facebook)

“The Erie County District Attorney’s Office, along with Buffalo Police, is investigating the death of a transgender woman killed on Shepard Street,” the spokeswoman said in a press statement sent to HuffPost. “The DA’s Office is also extremely concerned about a spike in homicides of transgender people across the country and will be, as part of this investigation, looking into whether or not this is a potential hate crime.”

Buffalo Police spokesman Michael J. De George told The Buffalo News the victim was shot just before 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and declared dead at the scene. It was the city’s first confirmed homicide of the year. De George did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

GLAAD updated its list of transgender people killed this year on Thursday, adding Harvey along with other known trans deaths from 2018: 42-year-old Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, who was killed on Jan. 5 in Massachusetts, and Viccky Gutierrez, who was killed on Jan. 10 in Los Angeles, CA.

At least 26 transgender people were killed in the United States in 2017, and almost all of the victims were trans women of color, according to GLAAD.

Also on HuffPost

Kim Coco Iwamoto

In 2006 Iwamoto was <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,229937,00.html#ixzz1eCixXAuI" target="_hplink">elected to a position on Hawaii's state Board of Education</a> and became (at the time) the highest-elected transgender official in the United States. She <a href="http://hawaii.gov/elections/results/2010/general/files/histatewide.pdf" target="_hplink">ran for re-election in 2010</a> and won. See a video of Iwamoto discussing her support of an anti-bullying bill in Hawaii by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgqswbrLsRM">clicking here.</a>

Laverne Cox

The transgender activist <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/26/lgbt-history-month-icon-laverne-cox_n_2011651.html">Laverne Cox</a> came to our attention when she first appeared on VH1's "I Want to Work for Diddy," which made her the first African-American transgender woman to be on a mainstream reality TV series. The show went on to win GLAAD's media award for outstanding reality program in 2009 where Cox accepted the honor and spoke about transgender visibility (VIDEO). Since appearing on Diddy's show, Cox got her own VH1 reality series, "TRANSform Me," which got its own GLAAD media award nomination in 2011. She then exploded within the entertainment industry after becoming a breakout star in the Netflix original series "Orange Is The New Black." The pioneer continues her advocacy in public engagements and frequently writes about trans issues for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laverne-cox/"><em>The Huffington Post</em></a>.

Louis Gradon Sullivan (1955 - 1991)

In 1976 <a href="http://www.lousullivansociety.org/about-lou-sullivan.html" target="_hplink">Lou G. Sullivan began applying for</a> gender confirmation surgery, but was rejected because he identified as gay. At the time, "female-to-gay male transsexuality was not recognized by the medical/psychotherapeutic establishment as a legitimate form of gender dysphoria at that time." After mounting a successful campaign to get homosexuality removed from a list of objections which served to keep interested candidates from undergoing surgery, Sullivan finally obtained gender confirmation surgery in 1986. That same year <a href="http://www.lousullivansociety.org/about-lou-sullivan.html" target="_hplink">he organized FTM</a>, "the first peer-support group devoted entirely to female-to-male [transsexual and transvestite] individuals."

Michael Dillon (1915 - 1962)

Dillon was the first person known to have transitioned both hormonally and surgically from female to male. A British writer, physician, philosopher, and Buddhist, Dillon penned several books including, <em>Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology</em> (1946), <em>Growing Up into Buddhism</em> (1960), <em>The Life of Milarepa</em> (1962), <em>Imji Getsul</em> (1962), and numerous articles. He was in love with another famous transgender person, Roberta Cowell, but she did not share his feelings. He died in India -- where he had moved to study, meditate, and wrote under the name Lobzang Jivaka -- just days after sending his memoir, "Out Of The Ordinary," to his literary agent.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.