In 2016, 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson was found dead in an alley. He had been shot to death with a plastic bag shoved down his throat and his body doused with bleach. The trial for the murder case opened Thursday, and the question on everyone's minds seems to be was the killing of Kedarie a hate crime?

In a report by the NY Times, Kedarie Johnson is described as being a well-liked teen who moved from the West Side of Chicago to the mostly white town of Burlington, Iowa. He enjoyed dressing in women's clothing such as maxi skirts, with decorated fingernails and hair weaves. He was described by his mother as gender fluid, sometimes dressing in men's clothing, sometimes in women's clothing. He preferred to date boys, but he also dated girls.

None of that seemed to be a problem though.

“He was very accepted by everyone,” his mother, Katrina Johnson, said. “That’s why his death really shook this town up.”

Jorge Sanders-Galvez, 23, is on trial for first-degree murder under Iowa law. Kedarie’s backpack and shoes were found in his house.

Kedarie went missing on March 2, 2016, after Sanders-Galvez and a cousin, Jaron Purham, 26, had observed Kedarie only a few hours earlier in Burlington’s Hy-Vee grocery store, where he liked to hang out and use the Wi-Fi. He was wearing long hair extensions, a pink headband, and leggings. His friend testified that before he vanished, he stopped by her house to borrow bras and spoke about being worried someone was following him.

Prosecutors believe that the two men liked women and had brought him back to a house where they had been staying and where they often had sex with various women. The prosecution suggests, though not yet before jurors, that Mr. Sanders-Galvez and Mr. Purham thought that Kedarie was a woman and grew enraged and violent when they discovered otherwise.

Under Iowa's statute, a hate crime is considered crimes against people for reasons that include race, religion and sexual orientation. Gender identity is not covered by the state’s statute. Efforts to have it added died last year in a Republican-held house. However, this is clearly what it is. A first-degree murder conviction carries a serious penalty of life in prison, but the issue has now become whether authorities should separately pursue the case as a violation of federal hate crime statutes. Those do cover crimes motivated by gender identity.

“Look, I think it was a hate crime and it needs to be said as such,” Ms. Campbell, the former counselor, said. “Here was a child — a 16-year-old child — trying to make his way in the world. You cannot convince me that he was not killed because of how he was presenting himself.”

gender nonconforming

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