Jennifer Lauren Gale
Age 48 (born 12 Apr 1960)17 Dec 2008
Austin, Texas (USA)
Not reported
TDoR list ref: tdor.info/17 Dec 2008
Jennifer was found dead outside a University of Texas area church where she regularly slept, after being denied entry to a shelter run by the Salvation Army.
Jennifer Gale was found in an unresponsive state near the rear entrance of the First English Lutheran Church on Whitis Ave in Austin Texas by a staff member shortly after 7:00 am on December 17, 2008. According to an eye witness who was doing maintenance at the church, she did not respond to attempts to wake her up from where she had slept that night on a concrete ramp with little more than a sheet and some news papers. Emergency services via 911 were immediately called and first responders arrived in less than a minute from Fire Station #3 across 30th street from the church. After extended attempts to resuscitate Gale, she was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:26 AM. An autopsy later revealed that she had died from heart disease probably exacerbated by sleeping outside in near-freezing temperatures.
Marti Bier, a policy aide for the Austin City council member Randi Shade, wrote: "Something Jennifer would never talk about, but was a reality for her, is that she is a trans woman living in a transphobic society. Homelessness in the trans community is a really big problem, and one that goes ignored. There are no laws in Texas protecting transgender people, whether from job discrimination, housing discrimination or hate crimes," and "The Salvation Army would not let her in there unless she was grouped with the men. They would make her use her male birth name and completely disregard, and disrespect, her identity as a trans woman."
Bier later partially retracted those comments, saying "So what I wrote the other day about trans services may not have been entirely accurate. I have since spoken with people at both the ARCH and the Salvation Army here in town to learn what they do for homeless trans folks. It turns out the ARCH, while a men's only shelter, is actually pretty educated on the issues and accepts people as they present themselves. While this wouldn't have helped Jennifer Gale except for day-sleeping, it is certainly respectable. They will also provide for privacy in the restrooms/showers for trans folks. The Salvation Army on the other hand... they do apparently have a policy of non-discrimination and they do not turn trans people away, but I'm not fully sold on their ability to actually understand the issue. If they are not full they will give trans people privacy (maybe they have private quarters of some sort), but if full and they are in an overflow shelter situation, as they were Tuesday night, I am under the impression that they will assign people according to their anatomy."
Her facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Jennifer-Gale-100067019589081/
https://web.archive.org/web/20221013085924/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Gale
https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2008/12/iconic-political-candidate-jennifer-gale-found-dead/
https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2010/12/rest-in-peace-jennifer-gale.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32820467/jennifer-lauren-gale
