Carmen Marie Montoya
Age 2310 Jul 1991
Oakland, California (USA)
Beaten
TDoR list ref: tdor.info/10 Jul 1991/Carmen Marie Montoya
Carmen died as a result of multiple blows from a blunt object to her face and head in what appeared to be an attack motivated by hate.
OAKLAND - [deadname] Fontillas, who was [assigned male at birth], began the transformation to become a woman seven years ago.
[She] died embracing [her] new identity as Carmen Marie Montoya.
Police found the 23-year-old Montoya beaten to death with a blunt object at the Acorn shopping plaza in the 900 block of Market Street about 4:15 a.m. Monday.
[She] was last seen alive Sunday night at the Bench 'N Bar in downtown Oakland, friends said.
Police have no suspects in the case and said they have no reason to believe the killing was a case of gay-bashing. The murder investigation is continuing.
Friends said Montoya was a "transgender," a term used by the gay and lesbian community to describe a person in the process of changing his or her [gender] identity.
"Carmen always had a side that was feminine," said friend Victoria M. Gates. "She was gay only in the sense that she was still [transitioning]. But she considered herself as a woman who was moving toward completing the physical transformation."
Friends described Montoya as a special person who always had a smile for others.
"Carmen was a sensitive person who cared about other people," said Alvin Pickettay, who once lived in Hayward with Montoya. "She liked to dance, write poetry, read and talking to youth about sexuality."
Montoya's own struggles with [her] [gender] identity made [her] a good person to talk to, said Pickettay.
Police data regarding acts of violence against the transgender population does not currently exist. Nevertheless, high profile homicides (in which hatred of transgenderism is believed to be the motivation for murder) are reported in the media. In 1995 alone, 5 such murders received national media attention in the United States (Brandon Teena, Falls City, NE; Deborah Forte and Chanel Pickett, Boston environs; Tyra Hunter, Washington, DC; and Carmen Marie Montoya, Oakland, CA). As is common in hate crime assaults, these episodes involved severe violence (such as multiple stab wounds, strangulation, and genital assault) but in contrast to the norm for investigation other hate crimes (e.g. neo-Nazi attacks) response by the law enforcement and medical providers was allegedly sub-standard in several of these cases.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-murder-of-transgender-wo/143642656/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-murder-of-transgender-wo/143642816/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-murder-of-transgender-wo/143642713/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0
