Is Undercutting a 'Gay Panic' Defense Worth the Possibility of Erasing a Trans Life?

http://endablog.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/is-undercutting-a-gay-panic-defense-worth-the-possibility-of-erasing-a-trans-life/

From Gay City News:

    But NGLTF's [Pedro Julio] Serrano contradicted the implications in the confessed murderer's account of the crime.

    "None of Jorge Steven's friends, and I've spoken to many of them, knew anything about his ever having engaged in sex work, not his family, and not the police," Serrano, who met with investigators on the case, told this reporter. "Nor was he known as a cross-dresser. He identified and lived as a very proud gay man, he was very genuine and authentic. He was just very fashion-oriented and what you could call a gender-bender, but not in a transgendered way."

Well gee, if any of his friends and/or family have the attitude toward trans people and issues that certain elitists on the mainland do, would it be any wonder that Jorge might never tell any of them about being a cross-dresser or possibly even a transsexual?