On May 27, Tony McDade, a trans man and Tallahassee resident, was killed by a police officer
. No video exists of his death, so both local and national outlets have deferred to the police department’s description: McDade was a suspect in a fatal stabbing; as officers attempted to arrest him he allegedly moved as if to draw a weapon and was shot. Though a Florida law allows the person who killed him to remain anonymous, bystanders identified the officer as white
.
Days after McDade’s death, Equality Florida issued a
report calling the state an “epicenter” of brutal transphobia, a situation they found was exacerbated by the police and local media. “Issues of misgendering by law enforcement and the media often cloud initial reports of trans related violence, disrespecting the victims.” After his death, residents of his apartment
posted Facebook Live videos, contrasting police reports that McDade had posed a threat; one resident in the apartment complex, Clifford Williams, said that police had opened fire on McDade with no hesitation,
contradicting the narrative that officers feared for their safety. But even in such accounts, residents still misgendered McDade.
