Pre-op Transsexual Shot and Killed

02/16/2006 5:11:17 PM

Police are looking for the person who shot and killed 21-year-old Ray
Berry, a pre-op transsexual known as "Tiffany."

Police say Berry was shot and killed at the Camelot Manor Apartments
in South Memphis in what appears to have been a robbery-homicide. A
friend who saw Berry's body shortly after the shooting has doubts.

She still had her purse and everything. They shot her in the chest.
They shot her three times. I'm sure they would have taken the purse,
says the friend says.

Berry's friends say she had stepped outside for some fresh air. About
that time, neighbors say they heard about five gunshots. Minutes
later Berry stumbled up to the house looking for help and then died
inside a short time later.

The neighbor upstairs says she hears people arguing in Berry's
friend's apartment all the time. She says just two weeks ago, police
were called because one man had a knife and another had a sledgehammer.

Memphis police won't comment about the victim being a transsexual
because they say it has nothing to do with the case.

If you have any information on Berry's murder, call Memphis Police
Homicide at (901) 545-5300.

Well written article by Ben Popper:

Love In Court
Gay-to-straight ministry and the state go to court.

We have disabled all comments on this blog for the time being due to the sensitivity of the situation at hand. Yesterday an anonymous poster commented on this blog making accusations that to our knowledge have been disputed and in some cases proved incorrect in a court of law, etc...

Regardless, due to information that we know...we are extremely concerned about the sensitivity of this story, and the safety of those involved. D.J. has spoken about his experience at Love In Action, and as of yet we have not published the entire story...We are aware that what D.J. speaks as facts, could be disputed by someone on the other side of the issue with their own words, their own telling of the story. Judging from past circumstances, we know that this could get really threatening and serious. At this time we are backing away from a public representation of this story b/c we cannot be sure how those involved will be affected. We do know this...in a court of law, a judge determined D.J.'s parents unfit to be his guardian for various reasons, purportedly including both emotional and physical abuse. We also know that there is much, much more to this than that, and it's very complex. We know that there are many allegations on both sides of this issue, and for us to blindly take a stand one way or another would be both foolish and without our best judgement.

For those of you who read the anonymous comment on this blog yesterday, just know that the reason we hid that comment is the same reason we've not posted the three page summary of D.J's story here. We do know for a fact that we've had alot of traffic on this blog from Georgia, which is where his parents live. We do know that some facts were misrepresented in that anonymous statement, and we're not going to publish our own knowledge of everything that's happened assuming that everything is 100% true that we've come to know...

We encourage anyone to send us an email about your concerns, comments, disputes, etc...

fighting.homophobia@gmail.com

Yes, we feel that homophobia has no place in our world today...and we fight for the equality of GBLTQ people, however...we realize the importance of advocating, first and foremost, for the safety, protection, and support of all human beings...and therefore we understand the importance in this situation to make sure that what's being said...what's being represented, and what's being revealed is truthful, and in the best interest of those who are doing so.

We have been told that there is alot of money, some private investigators, and highpowered lawyers involved in this case as well....Needless to say, so much of this is over our heads, and beyond our capability of involvment and the last thing we want to do is get caught up in a he said she said argument between parent, and child that has already been so intense that a judge had to intervene, a private investigator has been hired to "dig dirt" on friends of D.J., and allegations have been flying all over the place.

If anyone has comments, questions, etc, please send them via email and we'll do our best to respond, and/or post them if they're relevant and of benefit to readers.

For the record, although we have to be careful about what we present, state as truthful, and get involved in...we feel that regardless of the arguments at hand...D.J. wanted to speak out about Love In Action because of his coercion into the program. It was made very clear that this was his decision, based upon his experience that driving him towards speaking out. Many other things are relevant to this story outside of his stay in/departure from Love In Action...We stepped up to help D.J. speak out at his request, and have tried to take the handling of his story, on a larger level very slowly, although we could've revealed it several days ago. We're stressing the process behind this so much, b/c the details of this situation are somewhat frightening, and therefore the sensitivity of the issues at hand, is overwealming.