The legacy of Jennifer Gale, a homeless transgender woman who died on the streets of Austin in December, lives on. In response to the deaths of Gale and others, the Associated Press reports that homeless shelters around the country are adapting to meet the needs of transgender people. If you’ll remember, in the wake of Gale’s death, we reported that she slept on the streets because no shelter in the city would properly accommodate her as a trans woman. In other words, if she went to the only shelter in town, operated by the Salvation Army, she would’ve been forced to sleep and shower with men. But according to the AP story, this is gradually changing in Austin and throughout the country. Here’s an excerpt from the story, which you can read in its entirety by going here.
Police found former political candidate Jennifer Gale, who was born male and fell into homelessness, dead outside a church in December. Gay and lesbian activists blamed a lack of space for the transgendered in Austin’s shelters.
“When Jennifer Gale passed away, that definitely reignited the flame that we needed to start working on this more,” said Dawn Perkins, community relations manager for Front Steps, which coordinates shelters citywide.
Trans woman Jennifer Gale's death 'reignited the flame' of homeless transgender issues
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There are a couple of misconceptions in this story. First, The Salvation Army is not the only shelter for homeless people in Austin, there are at least 3 others. Secondly, many of these shelters would have closed their showers for her to bath in privacy, and would have worked to find her accomodations. As someone who works for one of these shelters, we have many transgender clients that we treat with diginity and respect, and not only since Jennifer passed away. While I do not know the reasons that Jennifer slept outside that night, the fact that she was transgender may not have had anything to do with that decision. There are not only shelters, but also churches that open their doors to people of every walk of life. What happened is a tradgedy. In fact, anyone that loses their life on the streets is a tradgedy, yet the blame should lie with the lack of affordable, safe, and secure housing, not Jennifer’s gender identification. Yes, we certainly do have a long way to go, but let’s make sure we have our facts straight first.
Dp1187 here is where you can get you facts and the truth…I was there in Austin and spoke about what happen and it had everything to do about her gender identity.