Trans Advocate Monica Roberts Was Not Killed in a Hit-and-Run

UPDATE (10/13): 

Contrary to earlier reports, which stated that towering journalist Monica Roberts had died as the result of a hit-and-run, an autopsy has revealed that the cause of Roberts' death was likely related to blood clots in her lungs. She was not the victim of a hit-and-run incident.

PREVIOUS (10/9): 

Houston-based transgender writer, activist, and advocate Monica Roberts was killed in a hit-and-run near her home this week, police say.

Roberts created the groundbreaking blog TransGriot in 2006 to bring attention to issues relating to trans women, particularly trans women of color. She was also a founding member of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, and was a leader on countless political and educational campaigns.

Among the numerous awards she won are the Trinity Award from the International Foundation for Gender Education, a special recognition from GLAAD, HRC’s John Walzel Equality Award, and the Susan J Hyde Award for Longevity in the Movement from the National LGBTQ Task Force, among many others.

The news of her passing was received with shock from friends and colleagues.

"Monica Roberts was an icon and a trailblazing voice for transgender rights, both in her home state of Texas and around the country," wrote Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David. “For decades, Monica has been a fierce leader - bringing light to the injustice transgender people face, especially Black transgender women. She leaves behind a strong, and vital legacy - one that every LGBTQ person and ally should work to honor and advance. Rest in power, Monica, and thank you."

“She spent her life advocating for and chronicling efforts to hold space to ensure that we can all get free,” wrote David Johns, executive director of National Black Justice Coalition. “We’re better because of her life and leadership, and her unyielding commitment to Black people. I pray that those she touched, knowingly and not, will honor her life and her legacy by remaining engaged in the protracted struggle for radically inclusive social justice.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner recalled working alongside Roberts for years, first as a state legislator and later as mayor. "Monica walked every hall of government with professionalism, grace, and toughness to ensure transgender individuals and everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community would not be forgotten or overlooked,” he wrote.

Roberts frequently brought attention to the violence that trans women of color face at disproportionate rates. This June, amid the national reckoning with police violence and racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd, Roberts wrote an op-ed for them. explaining that police brutality aimed at Black people is as American as apple pie. “The police brutality regularly aimed at African Americans is rooted in slavery and anti-Black racism,” she wrote. “The slave patrols in the South were designed to terrorize and control Black people, and those authoritarian slave patrol tactics made their way into the police departments tasked with patrolling our neighborhoods.”

“No reporter this year has covered the breadth of Black trans women’s lives — and very often, deaths — the way this journalist has,” wrote Pride Media CEO Diane Anderson-Minshall earlier this year, when The Advocate recognized Roberts as a Woman of the Year for 2020.

Police have not released any details about the driver or the car involved in her death. They believe she was killed between 9 p.m. and midnight Monday evening.

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