"This was a huge loss," Silber said. "This person didn't just die. He literally suffocated. He suffocated over a period of time. . . . A life was lost here due to unbelievable mistakes." Steven Anderson, the city's attorney, refused to comment on the verdict.

Jurors shook Margie Hunter's hand and wished her well before they left the courthouse yesterday. The jurors declined to speak with the attorneys and the media about the case.

"It's nice to see that the jury did not seem to have gotten hung up on the fact that the decedent was transgendered and that they saw that she deserved to be treated like everybody else," said Dana Priesing, a transgendered lawyer who watched the trial and posted testimony summarieson the Internet every day.

Members of the transgendered community attended the trial daily to show support for Margie Hunter and to raise awareness about people who cross genders. Hunter's face has been emblazoned on T-9-shirts over the words "God's Gift" and two coalitions have been formed in his name. Since Hunter's death, at least a dozen community groups have staged protests claiming that the city government is tolerating bigotry.

The D.C. Fire Department launched an internal investigation after the accident to determine who made the crude remarks at the accident scene. When Margie Hunter filed her lawsuit, the Fire Department stopped the investigation. No one was disciplined, but every member of the department was forced to attend diversity training sessions.

"The jury looked at all the facts and recognized that Tyra was not a man dressed as a female but a human being," said Earline Budd, a transgendered activist who watched most of the trial.

"She lived her life as a woman, but all of that is erased," Priesing said. "In court, she became Tyrone, and the people who knew her called her `he.' That is sad to me. Maybe it was because in a legal proceeding, you have to go by the official name. But I think we should honor her by calling her what she called herself."

Cutline: After the jury announced its decision, Margie Hunter, the mother of Tyrone Hunter, leaned her head against the shoulder of investigator Ted Howard.

D.C. Workers Denied Aid to Man Dressed as Woman, Lawyer Says

Maria Elena Fernandez Washington Post Staff Writer
December 9, 1998; Page B3

Tyrone Michael Hunter lived his life as a woman. Known as Tyra, the successful hairstylist dressed in women's clothes, wore makeup and took hormones to develop breasts. But when Hunter was hurt in a car crash and emergency workers discovered his male genitalia, they withheld critical treatment, according to closing arguments in a wrongful death suit in D.C. Superior Court. "Mr. Hunter was conscious. He was sitting up," attorney Richard F. Silber told the eight-member jury during his closing arguments Monday. "When a firefighter cut his pants leg and discovered that this person who looks for all intents and purposes like a female is a male, he stopped working on him. Mr. Hunter was turning blue. We know that he was suffering at that moment, and yet they weren't doing anything about it. They pulled back and were laughing and snickering."

But the District's attorney, Steven Anderson, during his closing arguments yesterday, denied that the worker's reaction contributed to Hunter's death and said that as a transgendered woman, Hunter, 24, was "used to being called names."

Hunter died Aug. 7, 1995, after a horrific car crash. His mother, Margie Hunter, sued the city alleging discrimination and malpractice. The trial began Nov. 10, and deliberations will resume today. Throughout the case, Hunter was identified as a man, although it was acknowledged that he presented himself to society as a woman.

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