Muhlaysia Booker’s life honored by friends, family and City of Dallas during funeral services

Mourners remembered the life of the transgender woman whose death has become a symbol of the dangers faced by people in the LGBTQ community

Transgender woman Muhlaysia Booker struggled in life to get respect because of the extreme gender bias due to the hate she faced as a member of the LGBT community. --Family of Black trans woman Muhlaysia Booker believes...

Muhlaysia Booker speaks during a rally on Friday, April 20, 2019 in Dallas. Booker, a 23-year-old transgender woman, was assaulted by a group in broad daylight on April 12 at the Royal Crest Apartments in the east Oak Cliff area of Dallas. Booker was found fatally shot Saturday morning, May 18, 2019 on a Far East Dallas street. (Ryan Michalesko/The Dallas Morning News)

Hundreds of mourners gathered and paid homage to the life of  Muhlaysia Booker during her funeral at the Dallas’ Cathedral of Hope after she was brutally murdered, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Dallas city officials, Bookers friends, family and faithful members of the LGBT community attended her funeral and came together Tuesday with the clear intention to lift up her life that was “cut short by hatred.”

READ MORE: Family of Black trans woman Muhlaysia Booker believes killer knew her

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we should not be here today. But we are,” the Rev. Neil G. Cazares-Thomas preached to a crowd of mourners at the church.

“She was a young woman whose life was cut short by hatred,” said Stephanie Martin, pastor of the Cosmopolitan Congregation of Dallas.

Booker, 22, was shot to death May 18 in Dallas. Just a month before she was brutally beaten by a group of people but survived and was seeking the help of a therapist to cope with the remnants of that traumatic event.

The video of the beating went viral and police arrested a man in the April attack but haven’t yet tied that suspect to Booker’s murder and they don’t know if there is a connection.

The April attack wasn’t the first for Booker, her mother, Stephanie Houston said.

“Muhlaysia had many fights,” Houston said. “Muhlaysia didn’t start trouble, but she would finish it. … She just always had to defend, defend, defend, defend.”

READ MORE: Sisters not just Cisters: Why do we keep failing Black transgender women?

Will Horn, the pastor of the Cosmopolitan Congregation who delivered the eulogy at Booker’s service let it be known that her life would be praised.

“I came here for a celebration,” he said.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings sent a statement sharing those sentiments to celebrate the slain woman’s life.

“The people of Dallas and across Texas and this country mourn the loss of a bright, fun and loving woman,” read the statement.

The service ended with a video tribute of Booker, a proclamation by city of Dallas and the Texas Legislature, and a recessional with Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” playing.

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