Andrea Doria Dos Passos, a 37-Year-Old Unhoused Trans Woman, Killed in Miami Beach

Equality Florida

This article contains descriptions of fatal violence against a transgender person.

Andrea Doria Dos Passos, a transgender woman from Florida, was killed as she slept early in the morning on April 23. She was 37 years old.

Dos Passos, who was unhoused, was sleeping outside the Miami City Ballet in Miami Beach on Tuesday, the Miami Herald reported. At roughly 7 a.m., a worker at the ballet found Passos’ body in a pool of blood, with lacerations on her face and two sticks jammed violently into her nostrils. An examination later found a puncture wound in Dos Passos’ chest.

Surveillance footage from a few hours past midnight caught a person — later identified by police as Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53 — approaching Dos Passos as she slept. Gibert allegedly then began beating Dos Passos with a metal pipe, dumping the pipe in a nearby trash can afterward. Miami police arrested Gibert later that day, according to the Herald. He has been charged with second-degree murder, and is being held without bond at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to Miami prisoner records.

Speaking to CBS affiliate WFOR, Dos Passos' mother, Ana Van Gilst, said that her daughter was a kind person and free spirit. "She was a very loving person. She did not see bad in anybody. She wanted to be friendly with everybody," Van Gilst said.

Miami Beach Police Chief Wayne Jones told the Herald there is currently “no evidence to suggest” that Dos Passos’ killing was a hate crime. But Equality Florida senior political director Joe Saunders told the Herald that the “level of overkill” involved in Dos Passos’ beating and apparent torture “is often one of the hallmarks of hate-motivated violence.” Kristin Browde, vice president of the Democratic caucus Flamingo Democrats, called for officials to add a hate crime enhancement to the murder charge this week and accused Florida Republicans of having “emboldened” violence against trans people.

“Andrea’s blood is on the hands of those who spew hatred and malice without thinking of the consequences of their words and actions,” Browde wrote in a statement from Flamingo Democrats on Instagram. Dos Passos' stepfather, Victor Van Gilst, echoed this sentiment when he spoke to WFOR earlier this week, saying, “I feel the system let her down.”

LGBTQ+ advocates and community members mourned Dos Passos’ death as well this week. “Our siblings deserve LIFE. They deserve HOUSING. They deserve opportunities to find JOY and to exist in SAFETY,” wrote representatives for the South Florida-based nonprofit Transinclusive Group on Facebook. “Andrea Doria Dos Passos deserved more, and we are heartbroken and so angry to learn of the violence which robbed the world of her light and life.”

Also known to his friends and family as Lagend Billions, Arnold was 36 years old.

From 2022 to 2023, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. rose by about 12%, the Department of Housing and Urban Development found in a December report; on any given night, more than 653,000 people in the U.S. are unhoused. LGBTQ+ people are several times more likely than the general U.S. population to experience homelessness at some point in their lives, especially queer and trans youth. But resources specifically serving unhoused trans people are still rare, made rarer by the recent closure of major LGBTQ+ homelessness programs like Casa Ruby.

Dos Passos is at least the second known trans person to be killed violently in Florida in the past month, following the shooting death of Tee Arnold, a.k.a. Lagend Billions, in early April. Last year, Equality Florida issued a travel advisory warning LGBTQ+ people not to visit the state, due to draconian new laws and policies that advocates say have heightened the risk of violence for queer and trans Floridians.

“The system failed Andrea. It failed to protect her, provide the support she needed, and recognize her inherent dignity as a human being,” representatives from the LGBTQ+ nonprofit Pridelines wrote in a statement Wednesday. “This is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a larger problem of violence, hatred, and discrimination against transgender people. The systemic failures that led to Andrea’s death underscore the urgent need for change.”

This article has been updated to include comments from Andrea Dos Passos' mother.

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