TDoR 1995 / 1995 / March / 01 / Tianna Langley


Tianna Langley

Age 19

1 Mar 1995
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA)
Shot

TDoR list ref: tdor.info/1 Mar 1985/Tianna (Timothy) Langley

Tianna Langley
Tianna Langley [photo: philly.newspapers.com]

Tianna was shot once in the back of the head. The case remains unsolved.

[She] wore a stuffed bra and a scarf palled around [her] long wavy hair as [she] went out into the cold winter night.

[deadname] Langley, 19, didn't have a life plan. All [she] knew was [she] wanted to live as a woman, [her] friends said. So, on Feb. 28 [she] put on [her] makeup and went out as a woman [she] named Tianna.

The next day [her] fully clothed body was found sprawled on rocks in a remote area of Fairmount Park near Robin Hood Dell and Strawberry Mansion Bridge. Shot once in the back of the head, [she] had only condoms and $3 in [her] pocket.

Police said they have made no arrests and have no mumpects in the case. The violent death of Langley, who moved to the city just three weeks before [her] murder, hits hard a community of teenagers caught up in the fantasy and glamor of [trans] life

"These kids don't expect to live to see 30, said Tyrone Smith, executive director of Unity, a support group for black gay men. They go to a school system that can't under stand them. A place you are called a faggot and freak. A place where you have no peers. And Langley's death has been a wake-up call to Unity Smith's small-budget organization, whose primary focus in AlDS education and prevention, has become a gathering place for young [trans women]. He said Unity would step up outreach efforts targeting these "I want a facility where we can be with kids and work them through the coming-out process, Smith said.

Langley was buried March 8 in South Jersey. [Her] [LGBT+] friends were not invited and did not attend the funeral, they said. On March 25 Unity held a well-attended memorial service for [her].

Philadelphia Daily News, April 3, 1995

https://philly.newspapers.com/article/philadelphia-daily-news-tianna-langley/123677831/

https://philly.newspapers.com/article/philadelphia-daily-news-tianna-langley/123677786/

http://students673.ucr.edu/docsserver/lgbt/trans_remembrance_display_posters.pdf

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0

Report added: 24 Feb 2019. Last updated: 5 Apr 2024

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