Transgender Woman Deshawnda Bradley Shot To Death While Pounding On Door For Help
Los Angeles police on Friday were searching for the person who shot a transgender woman to death as she banged on the front door of a residence for help.

Deshawnda Bradley, 21, also known as Tata and Deshawnda Sanchez, was shot around 4 a.m. Wednesday, near Wilton Place and 62nd Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Police said they were investigating whether the killing was a hate crime.

“We don’t know what happened,” Bradly’s twin sister, Deshawn Bradley, told The Huffington Post on Friday. “There has been so many stories — mistaken identity or robbery gone wrong.”

The slaying was captured, in part, by a surveillance camera. The video is said to show someone pull up to the house in a vehicle, get out and run to the porch, where Deshawnda Bradley was shot. The person then fled in the vehicle, police said. Police haven’t released the video.

Authorities told HuffPost on Friday they hadn’t named a suspect or person of interest.

In a Thursday interview with KTLA, Detective Christopher Barling said Deshawnda Bradley was attempting to get help when she was shot.

“She was definitely at that door, pounding on that door seeking help,” Barling said.

Investigators haven’t revealed a motive.

Bradly, a resident of Victorville, has family near where she was shot and may have intended to visit the morning of the shooting, according to her sister.

Deshawnda Bradley graduated high school in 2012 and had planned to attend cosmetology school, according to her sister. She had no known enemies.

“She was a loving caring person,” Deshawn Bradley said. “She didn’t bother nobody and didn’t start drama. I don’t know why anybody would want to hurt her.”

CASE PHOTOS: (Story Continues Below)

Barling told KTLA that because the victim was transgender, detectives must consider the possibility that the shooting was a hate crime.

“Even though she was a transgender, that was no reason to take a person’s life,” said Deshawn Bradley. “That’s what she wanted to be and that’s what she was dressed like.”

The crime is eerily similar to the Oct. 2 killing of Aniya Parker, a 46-year-old transgender woman who was shot during an apparent robbery in East Hollywood. The case remains unsolved, Colorlines.com reported.

“She was my other half,” Deshawn Bradley said of her sister. “We were twins and I’m incomplete without her. I’ll never get that back.”

She added, “We just want justice. That’s all we want. Nothing less, nothing more.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Los Angeles Police Department at 213-485-4341. Tipsters wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/05/deshawnda-bradley_n_6277854.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

GOP Reps Call on Labor Department to Cease Implementing LGBT Anti-Discrimination Executive Order

Kyler Geoffroy

www.towleroad.com/2014/12/gop-reps-call-on-labor-department-to-cease-implementing-lgbt-anti-discrimination-executive-order.html

L.A. Trans Woman Murdered While Knocking on Door for Help

Police believe that Deshawnda Sanchez was fleeing from a robbery when she was shot to death, but have not yet ruled out a hate crime.

read more

Mitch Kellaway

www.advocate.com/crime/2014/12/05/la-trans-woman-murdered-while-knocking-door-help

Tyler Oakley Can't Even Handle 'Teens React To Tyler Oakley'
Tyler Oakley, beloved YouTube star, recently got some real talk about what all the teens are saying about him when “Teens React To Tyler Oakley” went viral on Sunday. Naturally, Tyler responded with a reaction video of him reacting to the teens reacting… you got that?

Tyler nervously watched the video, posted by the popular Fine Bros, with whom Tyler is good friends. To his relief, the teens were all about him (for the most part, at least). One teen even declared Tyler her “spirit animal.”

Sounds about right.

Follow HuffPost Teen on Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr | Pheed |

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/05/tyler-oakley-teens-react_n_6278536.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

HRC Mourns the Death of Deshawnda Sanchez

Deshawnda, who friends called “Tata,” is the twelfth transgender woman, and the eleventh transgender woman of color murdered in the United States since June.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-mourns-the-death-of-deshawnda-sanchez?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

PHOTOS: “Peter Pan Live” Was So Light In Its Loafers It Floated Off To Never Never Land

Short of Divine playing the role of Peter, we aren’t sure Peter Pan could get any gayer than last night’s live telecast. Unfortunately, that ended up being our favorite aspect of the very long, very tedious show.

Need proof?

Well for starters, Allison Williams makes a very cute lesbian.

Christopher Walken’s eyebrows deserve their own credit. Each of them. 

And how about that line he repeats with all the pirates — “A hook for every boy and a boy on every hook.” Calm down, sailors.

And these pirates look a bit too elated doing a side shuffle.

Then there’s Tiger Lilly and her band of native twinks.

Edit: band of flexible native twinks. Where are the female natives, by the way?

And for even more smooth faces and pouty lips, there’s the lost boys.

There’s gotta be a porn out there that starts like this.

Yeah, there definitely is.

They’re even into light bondage.

And then there’s the native twinks vs. the lost boy twinks, which really just speaks for itself.

So basically…

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/9uN6OEWjZvY/photos-peter-pan-live-was-so-light-in-its-loafers-it-floated-off-to-never-never-land-20141205

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1649

Kyler Geoffroy

www.towleroad.com/2014/12/towleroad-guide-to-the-tube-1649.html

Hot Sheet: From Trevor to Marco

Our top 10 entertainment and events highlights this week include Trevor Live L.A., Fleetwood Mac, Julianne Moore, and the stunning new Netflix series Marco Polo.

read more

Advocate.com Editors

www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/hot-sheet/2014/12/05/hot-sheet-trevor-marco

An Open Letter to the HRC
July 13, 2013
February 16, 2014
December 5, 2014

Dear Human Rights Campaign,

Where is the outrage?

Do something. At the very least, say something. I started to send this letter after Zimmerman was acquitted after killing unarmed Trayvon; I started again to send this letter after a grand jury declared a mistrial in Michael Dunn’s killing of unarmed Jordan Davis; and now, the non indictment after Darren Wilson’s killing of unarmed Michael Brown. This whole exercise has become a sickening exposition of this country’s ongoing and escalating brazen racial terrorism — a perverse, unending mad-lib of innocent Black murders met with White impunity:

“__________________ (unarmed black man’s name) was shot and killed by ________________________ (white police officer’s/ or white private citizen’s name) and was ____________________ (not charged, not indicted, acquitted [circle one]) and walks free. “

And that’s not even mentioning Akai Gurley who was killed “accidentally” by an officer in a Brooklyn stairwell; and that’s not even mentioning the killing of Tamir Rice in Cleveland with his toy gun. And that’s not even mentioning Eric Garner who was choked to death in Staten Island over loose cigarettes. And that’s not even mentioning all the names of the Black and Brown innocents whom we don’t know. Because presumably, for every name that is publicized, there are many more names of innocents that aren’t and never will be. It seems callous and blind to celebrate gains in marriage equality on one hand while in the very same moment, the civil rights of a major section of the LGBTQ community are being grossly violated. The Human Rights Campaign’s visible, vocal support would be momentous in bolstering the sustained national critique and reinforcing the “in the streets” protests that are happening all around the nation. Our civil rights are under attack.

Especially given the 2012 Gallup’s recent finding that non-whites are disproportionally more likely to identify as LGBTQ, I’d expect that our leading “equality” organizations would take an aggressive stance and wield the voice of its expansive membership; and lend its expansive legal networks, political cache, and financial resources to the struggle to change the “Stand Your Ground” law and other flawed legislation like it.

The HRC should be just as vocal in its dissent about racial injustice as it is in celebrating the coming out of celebrities. If we are ever going to overcome the artificial divide between the African-American community and the LGBTQ community (which have been overlapping communities with common goals and the shared dream of equal citizenship in this country from Bayard Rustin onward) now is the time to fortify and publicly announce that solidarity. Imagine the power in knowing that a hate crime committed against a Black person would necessarily incur the scrutiny and political response of the entire LGBTQ community, and conversely that a crime committed against a LGBTQ person would necessarily incur the scrutiny and political response of the entire Black community.

What does it matter if we can marry or be openly ourselves if the children raised from our unions cannot be protected? The repeated judicial and legislative failure to hold individuals and institutions accountable for the value of Black lives represents not just an attack on Black and Brown people, but is an attack on LGBTQ people. HRC should take immediate action to defend and affirm the members of its community. If it really is one struggle — one civil rights movement — then let it truly be ONE movement. Let’s stand together on all fronts. We must speak up for each other. I’m urging HRC to please…. do something.

It is not enough to ACT UP, but we must ACT UP all the time.

Respectfully,
Dee Rees

www.huffingtonpost.com/dee-rees/an-open-letter-to-the-hrc_b_6275530.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Sam Smith Leads 2015 Grammy Nominees

Openly gay singer ties Beyoncé for most nominations; Sia and Brandy Clark also score big.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/sam-smith-leads-2015-grammy-nominees?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed