Tyra Hunter

Tyra Hunter (circa 1970 - August 7, 1995) was a 24 year old transsexual woman who died after being injured as a passenger in a car accident. Emergency medical technicians at the scene of the accident uttered derogatory epithets and withdrew medical care after discovering her birth sex, and ER staff at DC General Hospital subsequently provided dilatory and inadequate care.

On December 11, 1998 a jury awarded Tyra's mother, Margie Hunter, $2,873,000 after finding the District of Columbia guilty of negligence and malpractice. While $500,000 of the amount was awarded for damages attributable to the withdrawal of medical care at the accident scene, a further $1,500,000 was for conscious pain and suffering endured by Tyra in the emergency room as the result of medical malpractice. Dana Priesing, an observer at the wrongful death trial, wrote that the evidence supported "the inference that a stereotype (namely that Tyra was an anonymous, drug using, TG street person) affected the treatment Tyra received," and that the "ER staff, as evidenced by their actions, did not consider her life worth saving."

T.Y.R.A. (Transgender Youth Resources and Advocacy), a program of the Illinois Gender Advocates and Howard Brown Health Centers, is a Chicago area transgendered youth initiative named in the memory of Tyra Hunter.