Activists Demo for Murdered Transsexual Chanelle Pickett

Cambridge, MA February 27: About 35 Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and activists from around the Boston gathered this morning outside the front entrance to the Middlesex County Courthouse in Cambridge, holding signs reading "there's no shame in loving transsexuals" and "Not Dressed to be Killed" and handing out flyers. Several major New England television station camera crews, as well as radio and print reporters and photographers, interviewed participants.

Stories ran on nightly news on most of the regional major news channels, and while in most cases the stories reported accurately and sympathetically on the intent of the vigil, at least one station - WBZ-TV 4 - got the story wrong in exactly the same way as the egregious reporting when the crime was first reported. The anchorperson, following a quote from a demonstrator calling attention to the stigmatizing of those who transgress gender norms, stated that "police claim that Palmer killed Pickett when he found out that Pickett was a man, Palmer's attorney's may claim self-defense as a motive in that killing." In fact, it is the defense assertion - not police-determined fact - that Palmer did not know Pickett was "not a woman", and the District Attorney is amassing compelling evidence that shows that Palmer not only knew Pickett's gender status, but that he was in fact a man who specifically sought out pre-operative transsexuals for liasons.

Please send an email to WBZ-TV News, 4news@wbz.com, telling them that you expect unbiased coverage of stories involving transsexual and trransgender folk.

Court proceedings, scheduled to open the trial, instead were continued by the judge at the request of the defense, because of new evidence in the case. The judge stated that this would be the last continuance granted in the case, that the trial would indeed start in April. Th4e judge also remarked on the potential effect of the demonstration and leafletting on potential jurors. Organizer Nancy Nangeroni later spoke with a representative of the District Attorney's office and volunteered to make ever effort to avoid in any way prejudicing the case. "The last thing we want to do", stated Nancy, "is to in any way bias the jury or impede proceedings. I'm confident that justice will be done, and that Mr. Palmer (the defendant) will spend years in jail."

Accused murderer William Palmer continues to deny that he knew that Chanelle was transsexual, or that he enjoys the company of transsexuals, despite the fact that he has been identified by a number of Boston-area transgenders as a frequent dater of transsexuals, what they call an "admirer".

Background Information: ANOTHER TS MURDER IN BOSTON AREA