Dr. G. Gopalan ("Gigi")
Age 35 (born 6 Dec 1975)10 Sep 2011
Washington, D.C. (USA)
Beaten
TDoR list ref: tgeu/10-Sep-2011/Gaurav Gopalan
Dr. Gopalan, a theater director and aeronautical engineer, was found dead dressed in women's clothing and wearing makeup. They died from blunt-force trauma to the head.
There are indications that they may have been in the early stages of transition, but we will never know for sure.
[Dr] Gopalan, 35, an aerospace engineer and highly acclaimed local theater director, was found dead on the sidewalk in the 2600 block of 11th Street, N.W., about 5:20 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011.
Friends and Bob Shaeffer, [their] partner of nearly five years, said [they] identified as a gay man over the many years they knew [them]. But police said when [they were] found unconscious on the sidewalk a short distance from [their] home in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, [they were] dressed in women’s clothes and appeared to have been carrying a pair of women’s high heel shoes.
With no identification documents found in [their] possession, it took police several days to track down [their] identity. And with no obvious signs of trauma or injury, it took authorities nearly two weeks to determine from an autopsy that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The city’s Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide.
Shaeffer told the Washington City Paper that on the Friday night prior to Gopalan’s murder early Saturday morning [they] told Shaeffer he planned to go out to some of the straight clubs on U Street, N.W. Police have said they obtained video of someone appearing to be Gopalan walking along U Street from surveillance cameras in that area. But they said employees of some of the bars in the area could not recall whether he had been to their establishments. The gay bars Town and Nellie’s are in that area.
Similar to nearly all of the unsolved murders of LGBT people since the year 2000, police told the Blade last week the case remains open and has been assigned to the Homicide Branch’s Cold Case Squad. Police have not disclosed whether they have determined a motive or identified a potential suspect in the case.
In the last months of his life Shaeffer and others who knew Gopalan said [they] began dressing occasionally in women’s clothes and said [they] were going by the name of Gigi during times when he took on a female persona.
D.C. transgender activist Earline Budd, who said she has spoken to some people who knew Gopalan, believes Gopalan may have been in the early stages of transitioning as a transgender woman. Regardless of what Gopalan’s actual gender identity was, Budd said she’s concerned that the beloved engineer and Shakespeare theater director may have been targeted because of the perception that [they] were a transgender woman at a time when trans women had been subjected to violent attacks in D.C.
‘Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide’ research project: The Advocate, 12.09.2011, Metro weekly, 20.11.2011
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gaurav-gopalan-murder-memorial-transgender_n_980512
https://dbknews.com/0999/12/31/arc-6kq2vh4bv5hifjrzzldmmn7xie/
https://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2011/09/21/death-gaurav-gopalan-ruled-homicide
https://wjla.com/news/local/gaurav-gopalan-was-murdered-according-to-d-c-medical-examiner-66796
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2018/01/17/revisiting-10-unsolved-lgbt-murders-in-d-c/
