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Tiara Gendi came from Washington to attend Booker's funeral. The program cover described her as a both a “loving son” and an “adored daughter.” Inside, the program featured recent selfies alongside images of her as an adolescent before she transitioned, including one of her in a Boy Scout uniform. Her mother acknowledged in her eulogy that it was not easy for her to accept her daughter’s transition, and signs of that were evident in the service. That her family afforded her a funeral in her true gender was a rare gesture. “Having Muhlaysia Booker’s funeral here is another statement to our community and certainly to communities of faith that we must stand for transgender bodies.”

“Dallas is a tale of two cities,” he said. Cazares-Thomas, hopes that Booker’s death is an opportunity to bring people together and find common ground. A short drive along the nest of interstates leads from South Dallas’ boarded-up storefronts to Oak Lawn’s gleaming multipurpose developments and businesses bedecked in rainbow flags.Ĭathedral of Hope’s senior pastor, Reverend Dr. The two neighborhoods are just miles away from each other, but worlds apart. Cazares-Thomas is the senior pastor at the Cathedral of Hope. Her death highlighted the divide between South Dallas, where the city’s black transgender community is concentrated, and the predominantly white gayborhood of Oak Lawn, where Booker’s funeral was held at Cathedral of Hope in order to accommodate the large crowds. No arrests have been made in her death, and police say there is no evidence linking it to her assault on April 12. We need people to stand up and help protect us because we’re still dying.”Ī beloved figure who became a powerful symbolīooker was already well known in South Dallas, the city’s historically black enclave, where she was born and raised and was ultimately found dead on May 19. “What we need is action behind those words. “What we need is follow-through,” said Carter Brown, founder of the Dallas-based advocacy group, Black Transmen. They say they need laws and policies that will protect transgender people from discrimination and violence, and what they’re seeing from both the Trump administration and statehouses – including Texas – worries them. Killings of transgender people in the US saw another high yearīut their optimism is tempered by their desire for something more tangible than public sentiment.