>> Transgender woman dies suddenly, presented at funeral in open casket as a man
Jennifer Gable, une jeune femme transgenre de 32 ans, est décédée à Twin Falls dans l’Idaho le 9 octobre suite à une rupture d’anévrisme.
Née Geoffrey Charles Gable en 1982, elle avait légalement changé de nom en 2007 et voulait être considérée comme une femme. Pourtant, sa famille n’a pas tenu compte de son choix lors des funérailles qui se sont tenues la semaine dernière, présentant Jennifer sous le nom de « Geoff », les cheveux coupés et vêtue d’un costume pour homme. Un véritable choc pour ses proches et amis.
« Je suis écoeurée », a confié Stacy Dee Hudson, l’une de ses meilleures amies. « Comment peuvent-ils l’enterrer sous le nom de Geoff alors qu’elle a légalement changé de nom? C’est tellement triste ». Dans le faire-part de décès publié en ligne, aucune référence n’est faite au prénom choisi par Jennifer ni à sa volonté d’être considérée comme une femme.
Selon Meghan Stabler, membre du groupe de défense des personnes LGBT Human Rights Campaign interrogée par le Miami Herald, cette affaire illustre l’importance, pour les transgenres, de bien spécifier leurs souhaits dans un testament. Elle regrette aussi que le père de Jennifer ait décidé d' »effacer son identité, soit par ignorance soit par arrogance ».
>> Jennifer Gable, an Idaho customer service coordinator for Wells Fargo, died suddenly Oct. 9 on the job at age 32. An aneurysm, according to stunned friends.
Just as shocking, they say, when they went to Gable’s funeral in Twin Falls, Idaho, and saw her in an open casket — hair cut short, dressed in a suit and presented as a man.
“I am disgusted,” Stacy Dee Hudson posted on Facebook. “A great and dear friend’s mom went to the funeral today. It was not closed casket. They cut her hair, suit on. How can they bury her as geoff when she legally changed her name. So very sad. Jen you will be missed and people who know you know that you are at peace.”
Gable was transgender, born Geoffrey, but living the past few years as Jennifer.
That wasn’t mentioned in her paid online obituary:
Geoffrey Charles Gable, 32, Boise, passed away suddenly on October 9, 2014 while at his job at Wells Fargo Bank.
He was born in Twin Falls on January 27, 1982 to Anthony Clark Gable and Lori Ann Walton.
Geoff and his brother, Steven, were raised from toddlers by their maternal grandparents, George and Joan Walton.
He attended Morningside Elementary School, O’Leary Junior High and graduated from Twin Falls High School in the year 2000.
He was married to Ann Arthurs in 2005 in Hawaii. They were later divorced.
Geoff grew up as a member of the Twin Falls First Christian Church, where he was baptized in 1996.
“No mention of the woman she knew she was and had lived as for several years. Just erosion of her identity and an old photograph of how the father perceived her to be,” said Meghan Stabler, a board member of Human Rights Campaign and member of HRC’s National Business Council.
“I only knew her online. She reached out to me a couple of years ago when she was in transition,” Stabler told the Miami Herald. “The usual: What do I need to worry about at work? Am I going to be OK? Is life going to be better? Can you assure me everything is going to be OK?”
Stabler says Gable’s death “stresses the importance of having a will.”
“She had done what she needed to do legally to be seen as her authentic self. Her father erased her identity either though ignorance or arrogance,” Stabler said. “But who knows what the parent was going through?”
Mike Parke of Magic Valley Funeral Home and Crematory in Twin Falls said Gable’s death certificate listed her as male.
“The death certificate says Geoffrey AKA Jennifer Gable,” Parke said Friday night. “The last few years she lived as Jennifer. They buried him as Geoff. A tormented situation for all those involved.”
