KERA NEWS | By Brooke Colombo | Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton police believe that the suspect in the slaying of 20-year-old Dylan Gurley was motivated by money rather than hate or bias toward Gurley.
She was a transgender woman. She was also experiencing homelessness at the time.
Even though these factors may not have directly contributed to her death, experts say gender identity and homelessness are compounding in violent victimization.
Gurley was at least the 23rd trans or gender-expansive victim of fatal violence identified in 2024, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
She was at least the fifth transgender person to be killed while experiencing homelessness in 2024, HRC reports. Since HRC began tracking fatal violence in 2013, she’s the 36th transgender or gender-expansive victim of fatal violence in Texas.
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Heightened job and housing insecurity — compounded with a lack of affordable housing availability in general — are what advocates report as the reason why transgender and gender-nonconforming people experience homelessness at higher rates.
At the root of these insecurities, the Partnership for Strong Communities reports, is prejudice.
Despite anti-discrimination laws, PSC reports that transgender and gender-nonconforming people still have more difficulty getting jobs and may struggle to maintain that job due to prejudice in the workplace.