Chicago"s LGBTcommunity and its allies are mourning the loss of a recent homicide victim who they say identified as a transgender woman.
known to friends and family as Tiara Richmond or Keke Collier, the 24-year-old was shot and killed Tuesday about 6:15 a.m. while sitting in a car with a man in Englewood. The gunman fled from the 7300 block of South May Street in a red vehicle, police said.
An autopsy determined Richmond, of the 6800 block of South Normal Boulevard in Englewood, died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Cook County medical examiner"s office.
"She loved to dance all the time," said Retta Collins, 26, a good friend of Richmond who knew her for nearly a decade. "She was always the life of the party. Even when we got into fights, she didn"t want to fight."
LaSaia Wade, a transgender rights activist, said she met with Richmond"s family and attended a candlelight vigil with them Wednesday night in Englewood.
Richmond"s family, which includes two sisters and a brother, accepted her for who she was, Wade said. Her family could not be reached Wednesdaynight.
"It was beautiful," Wade, 29, said of the vigil. "They partied, they laughed, they cried trying to remember and hold on to the memories of Keke and knowing that she was loved."
Richmond"s slaying marks the second killing of a transgender woman in Chicagoin six months.
On Sept. 11, T.T. Saffore, 28, was found with her throat slit lying near railroad tracks in the 4500 block of West Monroe Street in West Garfield Park.
Two rallies in the city are planned that will honor Richmond and respond to Trump"s recent rollback of federal protections enacted by the Obama administration for transgender students using bathrooms in public schools.
"It"s a political mess," said Wade, a black transgender woman who runs a nonprofit that helps other gender nonconforming people. "(Trump) pretty much said he is not protecting trans students anymore and also with these last two deaths of Keke and T.T., we need to reunite the transgender and gender nonconforming community now more than ever."
In an earlier Tribune story, police and the medical examiner"soffice identified Richmond with the first name Donnell.
Trump Administration Lifts Federal Guidelines On Transgender Student Bathroom Protections
WASHINGTON Transgender students on Wednesday lost federal protections that allowed them to use school bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identities, as the Trump administration stepped into a long-simmering national debate.
The administration came down on the side of states rights, lifting Obama-era federal guidelines that had been characterized by Republicans as an example of overreach.
Without the Obama directive, it will be up to states and school districts to interpret federal anti-discrimination law and determine whether students should have access to restrooms in accordance with their expressed gender identity and not just their biological s*x.
This is an issue best solved at the state and local level, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said. Schools, communities and families can find and in many cases have found solutions that protect all students.
In a letter to the nations schools, the Justice and Education departments said the earlier guidance has given rise to significant litigation regarding school restrooms and locker rooms.
The agencies withdrew the guidance to in order to further and more completely consider the legal issues involved.
Anti-bullying safeguards would not be affected by the change, according to the letter. All schools must ensure that all students, including LGBT students, are able to learn and thrive in a safe environment, it said.
It was not clear what immediate impact the change would have on schools, as a federal judge in Texas put a temporary hold on the Obama guidance soon after it was issued after 13 states sued.
Even without that hold, the guidance carried no force of law. but transgender rights advocates say it was useful and necessary to protect students from discrimination. Opponents argued it was federal overreach and violated the safety and privacy of other students.
RELATED STORY: How will new transgender guidelines affect suburban schools?
The White House said returning power to the states paves the way for an open and inclusive process to take place at the local level with input from parents, students, teachers and administrators.
The reversal is a setback for transgender rights groups, which had been urging Trump to keep the guidelines in place. Advocates say federal law will still prohibit discrimination against students based on their gender or sexual orientation.
Still, they say lifting the Obama directive puts children in harms way.
Reversing this guidance tells trans kids that its OK with the Trump administration and the Department of Education for them to be abused and harassed at school for being trans, said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.
Activists protested the move Wednesday outside the White House. Respect existence or expect resistance, read one placard.
RELATED STORY: How will new transgender guidelines affect suburban schools?
Conservatives hailed the change, saying the Obama directives were illegal and violated the rights of fixed-gender students, especially girls who did not feel safe changing clothes or using restrooms next to anatomical males.
Our daughters should never be forced to share private, intimate spaces with male classmates, even if those young men are struggling with these issues, said Vicki Wilson, a member of Students and Parents for Privacy. It violates their right to privacy and harms their dignity.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer denied media reports that DeVos, who has been criticized for her stance on LGBT issues, had opposed the change but was overruled by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Spicer said any disagreement was merely over wording and timing.
There is no daylight between anybody, Spicer said, adding that DeVos was 100 percent on board with the decision.
The Obama administrations guidance was based on its determination that Title IX, the federal law prohibiting s*x discrimination in education, also applies to gender identity.
The guidance did not sufficiently explain its interpretation of that law, Sessions said in a statement.
Congress, state legislatures and local governments are in a position to adopt appropriate policies or laws addressing this issue, he said.
Legal experts said the change in position could impact pending court cases involving the federal s*x discrimination law, including a case to be heard by the Supreme Court in March involving Gavin Grimm, a transgender teen who was denied bathroom access in Virginia.
The justices could decide not to hear the case and direct lower courts to decide that issue.
In a phone interview with the AP, Grimm said of the Trump action: Its not positive. It has the possibility of hurting transgender students and transgender people. Were going to keep fighting like we have been and keep fighting for the right thing.
A patchwork of state laws could continue to emerge as a result of the change. Fifteen states have explicit protections for transgender students in their state laws, and many individual school districts in other states have adopted policies that cover such students on the basis of their gender identity, said Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the Human Rights Campaign.
Just one state, North Carolina, has enacted a law restricting access to bathrooms in government-owned buildings to the s*x that appears on a persons birth certificate. Lawmakers in more than 10 states are considering similar legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Associated Press writers Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, and Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
Shields and Gerson on the Obama transgender decree, Trump’s campaign
TEL AVIV, Israel The young Israeli lieutenant harbored a huge secret for years she was he.
The moment of truth came when a group of cadets asked why the officer they knew as a female was wearing a man"s uniform.
"I [came] to a conclusion that I cannot be an officer and a commander when I"m hiding this major secret," the 22-year-old told NBC News. "If I expect my soldiers to be honest with me I have to do the same with them. I told them I see myself as a man for all my entire life."
As Israel"s first transgender military officer, the lieutenant requested that NBC News identify him as "Shachar," which means Dawn in Hebrew. Shachar said he did not want to garner undue attention while serving.
"Shachar" pictured as a child after asking his parents to shave his head. Dave Copeland / NBC News
Shachar, who was born in a kibbutz in southern Israel, knew from a young age that he did not want to be a girl.
According to his parents, at the age of two he asked to have his hair shaved off. When he was four, he told them he no longer wanted to wear dresses.
From that moment on he looked like a boy, but did not know how to explain his feelings. It wasn"t until Shachar was 16 that he learned the term "transgender" and the missing piece of the puzzle fell into place.
"In a period of three months I told my parents and closest friends and it was a great moment of feeling free," he told NBC News in an interview at Tel Aviv"s Kirya military base.
While Shachar knew from childhood that he identified as a boy, he also knew that his future was in the military, where his mother and father both had been officers.
Israel"s armed forces are among the most accepting when it comes to issues of gender identity, according to Oded Frid, the former CEO of the Israeli National LGBT Task Force rights group.
The army cancelled its equivalent of the U.S. "don"t ask, don"t tell" policy and began drafting openly gay recruits in the late 1990s, Frid said. In America, the policy wasn"t suspended until 2011.
"Compared to other armies in the world Israel"s army is more advanced in its approach and official policy towards the LGBT community but ... in a lot of other areas in the country we are not advanced," Frid said. "Nowhere in the Israeli law is there any recognition for LGBTs in any way and in many areas even discriminates [against] them."
The first openly transgender person enlisted in the Israeli army in 2000. Today there are dozens, according to Lt. Col. Limor Shabtai, the military"s gender adviser.
Shachar knew from childhood that he did not want to be a girl. Dave Copeland / NBC News
According to Israeli law, a citizen can initiate the gender-reassignment process at the age of 18, which coincides with the mandatory draft age.
"The army"s policy is that being transgender is not an obstacle for being enlisted," Shabtai said. "I make sure to talk to every commander where a transgender serves and give them guidelines on how to deal with this situation."
Joining the army was an obvious choice for Shachar, but handling the concept of being a woman was not. However he joined the military, and was drafted as a female.
"My biggest and hardest moment going into the army was standing on line to receive my uniform," he said. "I was listed as female so they gave me the women"s uniform. I took the biggest size you can get so it would not look feminine in any way."
To solve the issue of what to wear, Shachar"s commanding officer allowed him to wear a unisex uniform. They also let him shower at different times in the women"s barracks.
Shabtai says she regularly receives questions from young recruits about coming out.
Shachar, who has started receiving medical treatment, said his colleagues have been supportive.
"My closest commanders wanted to help me however they could and this is very special," he said. "It made me feel that they really wanted me to succeed here in the army and this is what I want young soldiers now to feel."
