Earlier this week, I blogged about the death of an 18-year-old trans girl in Carson City, Nevada.
And I got things wrong. The person I described in the original post attached to this URL is a different 18 year old girl named Jazlynn Johnson. Everything I shared about her was tied to a young woman who is alive and loved by her family, connected enough to LGBTQ folx for someone to catch my error. And contact me.
I made a serious mistake. Obviously, it would be terrible to see your own or your kid’s photo in a post about a homicide of someone with the same name. There is no ‘but’ to add onto this. I used inaccurate information, information I honestly did my best to confirm and my best wasn’t good enough. I haven’t made an error of this magnitude before.
I sent my apologies to Jazlynn and her family. I feel absolutely horrible.
Because the reality is that a young trans woman named Jazlynn Johnson was shot to death in a car last week. And now we know nothing about her. I spent many days trying to find her and I missed. So other people who used my source material missed. And the folx on the ground in Nevada missed. We all went looking for her and we have all been unsuccessful. I hope folx in Nevade continue to search for her information.
Both Jazlynnn Johnsons suffered here. I don’t want to downplay the potential harm of my mistake, but I also can’t be quiet about the fact that the second girl is dead.
She is 18 and deserves better from all of us. She deserves LGBTQ groups in her community to come for her, provide accurate information, ensure her life is celebrated along with mourning her death. She deserves to be represented in the criminal justice system as police investigate why her friend shot her and then threw away the gun, but told his parents. And she deserved for me to do my job correctly so as not to delay her recognition.
I am so very sorry. Everyone deserved better. Please keep looking the Jazlynn who was killed.
I don’t know what comes next for me in this work, but it will be informed by this experience.
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