Transgender rights activist-blogger Monica Roberts, 58, dies
Posted October 9, 2020 5:50 pm.
Last Updated October 9, 2020 5:54 pm.
HOUSTON — Prominent transgender rights activist and blogger Monica Roberts has died in Houston at the age of 58.
The Harris County medical examiner identified a body found early Tuesday in the parking lot of an apartment complex as that of Roberts. She died of an unspecified “medical emergency,” according to a Houston police statement issued Friday. Friends of Roberts posted on social media that she had been ill before Monday, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Roberts, a native of Houston, launched her award-winning TransGriot blog in 2006 as a forum for transgender people of colour. It became one of the first blogs to identify transgender homicide victims using their correct gender identity and names. Last year, Roberts told The Daily Beast that she took on the task because “I got tired of them being disrespected in death.”
“When you deliberately misgender a victim,” Roberts said, “then you’re delaying justice for that trans person who has been murdered.”
She was also politically active through her CFAIR blog and political action committee, through which she endorsed political candidates sensitive to the rights and needs of the LGBT community. She was a founding member of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition.
The Associated Press
