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Mirabella Reyes
Location: Houston, Texas
Cause of death: Denial of Emergency Care
Date of death: August 30th, 2007

Remember Me: My name was Mirabella. I began to get really sick and found out I had HIV. I was so sick that I had a hard time walking. When I began to hallucinate, my friends insisted that I go to the emergency room. Unfortunately, all the emergency rooms I went to turned me away. Finally, a friend helped me get some care at a clinic. As I waited for the doctor, I began to pass out. The clinic sent me to Ben Taub. The hospital took me off my ambulance and left me in the waiting room for more than 12 hours – even after I passed out from fatigue. I was so sick, that my friend took me home where I rested and when I was well enough to stand, went to another hospital – where they refused me care. By this time, I began to die. Ben Taub finally admitted me, but it was too late. I died soon after being admitted. The hospital tried to charge my friend a storage fee for my body. Harris County handled my burial. They were informed that I was a MTF transgender. They dressed me as a man and buried me. 

Houston News Article:

Transgender Day of Remembrance 

By Anna Thomas 

Estrella Reyes, AKA “Mirabella,” born Jose Antonio Reyes in 1970 in El Salvador, was 37 years old when she passed away.  It is suspected that she died due to a treatable complication of HIV. 

She spent about 16 of her last 48 hours in the emergency department waiting room of one of the largest hospitals in Houston.  She was first sent there by ambulance from a clinic, where the doctor concluded that her condition required emergency care.  She was taken off of the ambulance and placed in the emergency department waiting room, where she sat from 10am until about 11pm, when she gave up and went home.  Her condition deteriorating, she returned to the same emergency room on August 29 at 11pm.  She was finally called back to be seen at 2am, three hours after her arrival.  That was the last time her friends saw her alive.  She passed away at 5am on August 30.

The ordeal continued for her loved ones, as the hospital would not release the body to them.  They said they needed to wait to hear from blood relatives, from whom she was estranged.  No family claimed her body, and she was buried in the county cemetery on Friday, September 28.

 

Victoria Arellano
Location: San Pedro, California, 
Cause of death: Denial of Emergency Care 
Date of death: July 20th, 2005

Remember Me: I came to America as a child. I grew up here and also became HIV positive here. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency put me in prison for being in America. Just prior to my imprisonment, I went to my doctor and my HIV status was diagnosed as being asymptomatic. ICE chose to take away my HIV medication. After a little while, I began to become sick. I asked to see a doctor, but ICE wouldn’t let me. My fellow inmates began to care for me. They would take turns bringing me cool towels to try to cool my raging fever. Finally, I became deathly ill and ICE gave me an antibiotic, but still refused to allow me to take my HIV medications. I began to vomit blood. Finally, over 80 other inmates began to chant “Hospital” over and over again. In response to the protest, ICE took me to see a doctor and brought me back to my cell where I began to hallucinate. They still would not allow me to take my HIV medications. After a few days, I died. ICE sent my mother a check for $245. I was 23 years old.

Ruby Rodriguez
Location: San Francisco, California
Cause of death: Strangled to Death
Date of death: March 22, 2007

Remember Me: I left Nicaragua and came to America to start a new life. I was very involved in community meetings and self-help groups. Prior to my murder, several other transgenders had been attacked. Nobody really knows what the circumstances were surrounding my death, but early in the morning I was found on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Indiana Streets. I had been stripped nude and dumped in a intersection. My murderer had overpowered and strangled me to death. I was 24. Just a few days after my death, the radio personality, Michael Savage said that I was morally sick, a freak, perverted and should have been locked away in restraints. He went on to say that people like me should be grateful that we are allowed to walk around in public. I was 24 years old.

Michelle Carrasco “Chela”
Date of death: March 16, 2007
Location: Santiago, Chile
Cause of death: Mutilation of the Face

Remember Me: While I had received vocational training, I was unable to find employment and was forced into sex work. At 8 AM, I was found dumped in a ditch. My murder had sliced my face into ribbons. I was 54 years old. 

Bret T. Turner
Date of death: April 2, 2007
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Cause of death: Knifed to Death

Remember Me: Last year, I moved to Madison from Houston, Texas. I was attacked in my home while I was crossdressing. I was stabbed 14 times. I was 48 years old. 

Nakia Ladelle Baker
Date of death: January 7, 2007
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Cause of death: Blunt Force Trauma to the Head

Remember Me: I was a 31-year-old transgender from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I transitioned in the early 1990s. Nobody knows who murder me, but my body was found at 5:25 a.m. on January 7th beside my car in a parking lot behind a nightclub called Club Adventura & Billiards. May family said that the local police had tried to convince them that I had killed myself by beating my own head in on purpose. 

Keittirat Longnawa
Date of death: April 2, 2007
Location: Rassada, Thailand
Cause of death: Slit Throat

Remember Me: I knew my murderer singled me out. He thought that I had the power to curse him with a stomach ache. Enraged, he held me down and with a large butcher knife, slit my throat completely open. He then removed my top and dumped my body. I was 31 years old. 

Moira Donaire González
Date of death: March 5, 2007
Location: Viña del Mar, Chile
Cause of death: Knifed to Death 

Remember Me: I was stabbed 4 times in the chest and once in the face by a street vendor. I was 30 years old.

Oscar Mosqueda
Date of death: July 20, 2007
Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Cause of death: Shot to Death

Remember Me: I was out late one night when a young man became enraged over my gender status. He put a gun to my head and killed me. I was 34 years old.

Unidentified Transgender
Date of death: July 7, 2007
Location: Kingston, Jamaica
Cause of death: Shot to Death

Remember Me: I am unknown to the world. I was a transgender trying to live in Jamaica but was gunned down and my body was dumped.

Erica Keel
Date of death: March 23, 2007
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Cause of death: Repeatedly Run Over with a Car

Remember Me: I was thrown out of a moving car. The car then stopped and ran me over again and again and again and then again. Police believe that the diver accidentally threw me out of the car and ran me over 4 times. I was 21 years old.

Hasan “Tamara” Sabeh
Date of death: January 11, 2007
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Cause of death: Shot to Death

Remember Me: I was a 34 year old fashion designer. While at work, a group of individuals wearing official Iraqi police uniforms dragged me into the street. They stripped me naked and then shot me at point blank range. My brother-in-law rushed to cradle my body and the Iraqi police murdered him too. After my death, they publicly mutilated my body and then hanged me as a warning to all GLBT Iraqis.

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