Chanelle Pickett

She was described by her twin sister, Gabrielle Pickett, as "high-spirited and confident" and "full of life" with "many goals"[1][7] and by her friends as "beautiful,"[8][9] a "flirt," and "very happy and funny.

[13] In 1992, at the age of 19–20, they appeared on The Jenny Jones Show,[8][14][15] where they discussed their lives and experiences, including the fact that their mother cut ties with them because of their gender identity.

[21] Transmisogynist ideologies and politics were particularly rampant during this time,[3] having been spearheaded by Janice Raymond's 1979 book, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male.

[5] Hester herself once provided a comment on Pickett's trial to local LGBT newspaper In Newsweekly, saying, "I'm afraid of what will happen if [Palmer] gets off lightly.

[34][33][23][12] Although the medical examiner, Dr. Stanton Kessler, ruled Chanelle Pickett's cause of death was manual strangulation,[35][23][36] two defense experts — one of which also testified at O.J.

On December 10, 1995, about 250 people attended a service at a local church dedicated to Pickett that was followed by a candlelight vigil and wreath hanging at the State House on the first day of Palmer's trial.

[39][28][34][40] Nancy Nangeroni,[40] as well as activists Riki Anne Wilchins and Leslie Feinberg, spoke at the event, which was organized by Transsexual Menace in a similar way to the vigils held after the deaths of both Deborah Forte and Brandon Teena.

[41][42][43] They held signs that read "there's no shame in loving transsexuals"[41] and handed out flyers that were titled "TRANSPEOPLE ARE NOT DISPOSABLE PEOPLE!

[2][27][37] In 1999, Gwendolyn Ann Smith observed the similarities between Chanelle Pickett in 1995 and Rita Hester in 1998; after Hester's murder, Smith was surprised to realize that none of her friends remembered Pickett,[6] saying "It really surprised me that it had already, in a short period of time, been forgotten, and here we were with another murder at the same site.”[26][4][5] She started a website called "Remembering Our Dead," where she compiled information about deaths caused by transphobic/homophobic violence.

[4][44] Smith was then inspired to make this memorial a live event, and created the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), which aims to prevent the erasure of trans people who have been victims of anti-trans violence.