Friends mourn transgender woman found shot to death in west Houston - Houston Chronicle
More than a year after Asia Foster attended a vigil for a transgender friend’s violent death, her friends attended another remembrance - her own.
The 22-year-old, also a black transgender woman, has been identified as the person found shot to death Friday on a west Houston roadside. She is the first transgender woman murdered in Houston this year and is believed to be the 38th transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming person killed this year in the U.S., according to the Montrose Center.
Foster’s death highlights the frequency of crimes against black trans women, former employer and friend Dee Dee Watters said, a topic that she was all too familiar with through Watters’ advocacy work.
“To be black and trans and to live in your truth, this is a reality,” she said. “The saddest part to that is knowing whether or not someone is going to be there to care.”
The number of murders committed against transgender, nonbinary or gender non-conforming people are disproportionately against black women, nationwide studies show. In 2019, 91 percent of those murders were against black women, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Another 81 percent of victims were under the age of 30, and 68 percent lived in the south.
In 2019, law enforcement agencies reported 1,395 hate crime offenses based on sexual orientation, 24.5 percent of those prompted by anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender bias, according to the FBI. Foster’s murder has not been classified as a hate crime.
The Montrose Grace Place identified her as the woman who was found Friday, shot to death in the 3400 block of East Greenridge Drive near Skyline drive. A passerby saw her body while driving home around 10:50 p.m., and the medical examiner identified Foster by her legal name.
It was unclear whether the woman was shot on the side of the road or whether she was dumped there, police said at the time.
The Montrose Grace Place, a shelter for homeless LGBTQ people where Foster had once been a client, held the vigil for her on Sunday night. Mourners yelled Foster’s name again and again, making sure not to forget her life.
Foster could only be described as joyful, Watters said. Frequently, the pair would blast music and break out in dance in the middle of the work day. Foster worked on and off as an assistant to Watters over the past two years at her call answering service, sometimes helping with Watters’ separate advocacy work.
Majanae Chambers, another friend, said Foster spoke often about how she wanted to better herself, be more successful and help others. She usually wore a smile and had a carefree attitude, Chambers said.
“She really didn’t like people mad,” she said. “She really wanted to see people smile and do better.”
