Another media outlet has rectified its coverage of 18-year-old Angie Zapata, a transgender teen who was beaten to death in Greeley, Colorado last week. Zapata, who was born as Justin Zapata, died in her apartment of wounds to her head and face; the Greeley police department now says that the killing may be related to Zapata’s gender identity.
When ABC News reported the story yesterday, it led with the sentence: "The beating death of a transgender teenager in Colorado may have been provoked by her lifestyle, police said." But after angered calls from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, the news outlet changed the sentence to: "An 18-year-old found dead inside her Colorado apartment last week may have been targeted because she was transgender, police said."
This follows the Greeley Tribune’s flub earlier this week, when the newspaper first referred to Zapata as a "he" and then changed it to "she" after gay and transgender advocates complained to the newspaper.
A benefit for Angie Zapata’s Memorial Fund will be held on Sunday at 8 p.m. at Sipres Lounge in Brighton at 1490 County Road 27.
