Words Matter: Dictionary.com updated its lexicon

In a rare bit of good news, Dictionary.com has added, updated, and amended its definitions of many words, most notably those describing LGBTQIA people.  Language doesn’t just describe, it is used to characterize both positively and negatively.

Dictionaries, like libraries, should be professional and unbiased, above and outside of political ideology.  They should be a reflection of people and society, not an extension of government nor an “authority” of what belongs in society.

“Asexual,” “Deadname,” “Biromantic” and More Added to Dictionary

The dictionary is queerer than ever.

On Tuesday, the website Dictionary.com announced that it is adding 650 new words to its glossary, in addition to revising over 11,000 existing definitions in its search engine. The update — which the site says is its largest-ever — reflects changing vocabularies around race, sexual orientation, gender, and mental health, and several new entries comprise terms pertaining to the LGBTQ+ community. These words include “ace,” “asexual,” “biromantic,” “deadname,” “gender-inclusive,” “trans+,” and “Pride.”

For instance, the newly added search result for “biromantic,” an adjective, refers to an individual “who is romantically attracted to people of two specific and distinct gender identities, as both men and women,” according to Dictionary.com.

[. . .]

“The work of a dictionary is more than just adding new words,” explained John Kelly, a senior editor at Dictionary.com, in a statement. “It’s an ongoing effort to ensure that how we define words reflects changes in language — and life.”

The numerous revisions are designed to put “people, in all their rich humanity, first,” Kelly added.

Kory Stamper (LitHub) wrote in 2017 about the changing definition of marriage.  Although lexicographers are educated enough to understand the need for change, her essay demonstrates part of the problem of dictionaries: not changing “accepted” definitions until there is a critical mass that requires it.  Definitions should change when societies change, even when it’s the tiniest minority.

How a Dictionary Got Into the Marriage Equality Debate

I ducked my head back under my arm and tried to be as Zen as possible, but curiosity got the better of me. I clicked the link and was taken to a clip from The­ Colbert ­Report. “Folks,” Colbert began, “turns out my old nemesis is back.” As he pulled a Collegiate up onto his desk, I maneuvered the mouse over to the pause button and jabbed violently. Noooooope, I thought, no, I can’t watch this. Not after the last two weeks. But the screen had frozen at an odd point, and I felt slightly uncomfortable staring at a grimacing Stephen Colbert. I relented. I slid my glasses up to the top of my head and rubbed my face vigorously. My forehead throbbed where I had been pressing it to my desk.

Colbert was finishing up a joke about “zymosan” when I focused on the screen again. He was saying that we had changed the definition of “marriage,” and added a new meaning: “the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage.” This was true. “That means, gay marriage,” he explained. “I’m beginning to suspect that Merriam and Webster were conjugating more than just irregular verbs.”

I snickered. It had been the first honest laugh I’d had in a while.

[. . .]

Lexicographers like to justify our existence by saying that words matter to people, and that the meaning of words matter to people, therefore lexicography­ matters. This is only a bit of a lie: if a word matters to a person, it’s most likely because of the thing that word describes and not because of the word itself. Sure, everyone has a word (or a handful of words) that they adore because they love the sound, the feel, the silliness or silkiness of the word; I defy anyone to say the word “hootamaganzy” aloud and not immediately fall in love with it, regardless of what it means.2 But scanning through the top lookups on any dictionary website shows that most words that interest us do so because we are unclear about the thing to which they are applied or we want to use the definition to run a litmus test on the situation, person, event, thing, or idea that that word was used of.

We know this bit of behavioral trivia not because this is innate knowledge lexicographers have about how people interact with their dictionaries but because of Internet comments. As dictionaries have moved online, lexicographers have developed a direct connection with users that they’ve never had before. The one thing that is most striking about all these comments—good, bad, ugly, and uglier—is that lots of people are really interacting with language in the etymological sense, expecting a mutual and reciprocal discourse from the dictionary definition.

Isolated Case: The murder of Daniel Prude proves it isn’t.

By now those paying attention all know about the murder of Daniel Prude last March and the similarity to the murder of George Floyd.

Floyd was murdered by strangulation in Minneapolis.  Prude was murdered the eaxct same way in Rochester, 1600km away and eight weeks apart.

That tell me these murders weren’t perpetrated by “lone wolves” or “bad apples”.  It tells me this form of torture and murder has become “standard training”, and cops are being encouraged to use it.

You have to wonder where US cops learnt this.

How many other similar murders have gone unreported and mislabelled as “accidents” or “self-inflicted”?  It’s reminiscent of murders during South Africa’s apartheid era that were labelled “natural causes” and “heart attacks”.

Half Measures: Now what about the false arrests and convictions?

California’s senate has passed a bill that will ban the torture and abuse of wrongly placing Transgender women in men’s prisons.  It is highly likely governor Gavin Newsom will sign it and become law.

This is barely a start, not the end of the problem.  Now what about corrupt cops harassing Transgender people?  What about false charges?  What about false accusations being believed by cops (the attacker accusing the Transgender person they were attacking)?  What about biased judges who impose their bigotry upon their jobs?  What about false convictions and false imprisonment?  And what about legalizing sex work for the few who earn their living?  What about cops who falsely accuse Transgender women of “prostitution” because they were carrying condoms?  There is so much more that needs to be done.

California Passes Historic Bill Ending Incarceration of Trans Women in Men’s Prisons

Senate Bill 132 is headed to the desk of California Gov. Gavin Newsom after passing the state legislature on Sunday.

The bill’s author, State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), celebrated its passage following a two-year effort to enact the proposal. He noted that trans female inmates are “at severe risk of assault and sexual victimization because they’re automatically housed by their birth-assigned sex,” especially transgender women of color, and said this vulnerable population should be “housed where they’re safest.”

Transgender people should not be forced into isolation because they aren’t protected where they are forced to live,” he said in a statement. “They should be able live by their gender, and SB 132 will allow for that outcome.”

TERFs will undoubtedly be upset.  They want Transgender women housed with men because they want harassment, assaults, rapes, and murders to happen.  If their actual goal were “protecting biological womyn!” they would be advocating Transgender-only wings in jails and prisons.

But they don’t.  They demand placing Transgender women in with predators because they know what will happen.

The Old Drunk Fell Down: Good riddance

Protesters in Montreal worked to bring down the statue of John A. MacDonald, the first Canadian prime minister.

Activists topple statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in downtown Montreal

A group of activists toppled a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Place du Canada in downtown Montreal on Saturday afternoon in the aftermath of a protest calling for the defunding of the police force.

A handful of people climbed the monument, tied ropes around the statue and held up banners before unbolting it and pulling it down. The falling statue’s trajectory caused the head to fly off and bounce onto the cobblestones below. A video posted to social media captured the moment.

Good.  People may wax poetic about MacDonald as a “father of confederation”.  But the reality is he was a drunk, a racist, and a perpetrator of genocide against the First Nations people.  His treatment of Canada’s indigenous people, the lynching of Louis Riel, Chinese immigrants (the racist “Chinese Head Tax”), his taking of bribes among other crimes makes him a national embarrassment.

Here is what Sir John A. Macdonald did to Indigenous people

Of course, all this was happening in an era that was comparatively brutal almost everywhere

“I have reason to believe that the agents as a whole … are doing all they can, by refusing food until the Indians are on the verge of starvation, to reduce the expense,” Macdonald told the House of Commons in 1882.

It’s one of the most damning quotations ever attributed to Macdonald. And yet, in the parliament record it’s immediately followed by an even more damning comment as the Liberal opposition benches accuse Macdonald of not starving Indians enough.

“No doubt the Indians will bear a great degree of starvation before they will work, and so long as they are certain the Government will come to their aid they will not do much for themselves,” said David Mills, who had served as minister of the interior under the Liberal government of Alexander Mackenzie.

[. . .]

When Macdonald took office for the second and last time in 1878, the plains were in the grip of what is still one of the worst human disasters in Canadian history.

Dustbin Trudeau has spoken out against the improvement of the statue, blathering about history and glossing over their actions.  The writer linked below mentions Dustbin’s own participation in that glossing, but his own father’s crimes are going to be topic matter in the next six weeks with the fiftieth anniversary of the October Crisis.

Licia Corbella: Is Trudeau worried about cancel culture coming after his father’s legacy?

Here’s a damning but accurate opinion piece on MacDonald:

Ten crimes of John A. Macdonald

  1. Founded Canada on stolen land
  2. Criminalized abortion
  3. Criminalized homosexuality
  4. Used of starvation as a weapon
  5. Created a repressive police
  6. Expanded capitalism
  7. Promoted residential schools
  8. Outlawed the potlatch
  9. Imposed a racist head tax
  10. Executed dissidents

Time’s Up: The end of an era in Formula 1

Motorsports aren’t an atheist issue and it’s horrible for the environment.  But if others can talk about blockbuster movies….

I have been a Formula 1 fan for decades, since the days of Gilles Villeneuve.  And at that time when I became a fan, the Williams F1 Team of Frank Williams was only in its fourth season, about to win its first World Championships (both the driver’s and constructor’s).  So as a fan, it was sad to hear this week that the Williams F1 Team has been sold to a US investment group for €152 million.  For the first time since 1969, there will not be a member of the Williams family on the F1 grid.

This was inevitable.  Frank Williams is 78 and in failing health, which is saying something considering he spent the last 34 years as a tetraplegic after suffering a broken neck in a car accident, his teams winning seven constructors championships after the accident, including the year of his injury.  He was always a driven man, pardon the pun.  His daughter Claire Williams replaced him as team principal seven years ago. The investment group gave her the option to remain as team principal but she chose to step down.

The team’s failing fortunes are not her fault, but as the team fell further back on the grid, sponsor money becoming harder to find and no upturn in sight, the only options were selling the team or continuing into bankruptcy.  I would rather see the team in new hands with a chance of turning things around (e.g. McLaren, Stewart, Honda) than for a historic name and team to end up collapsing from debt (e.g. Arrows, Shadow, Tyrell, Ligier/Prost, Penske, Toyota).  The resurgence of McLaren and Racing Point (formerly Force India) and dominance of Mercedes (formerly Honda/BrawnGP) give the team and fans hope.

Williams Family Steps Back From F1: What Does The Future Hold? (youtube)

The Story Of Frank Williams: Triumph And Tragedy (youtube)

BBC: Formula 1: Sir Frank Williams and Claire Williams step down from Williams team

Sir Frank founded Williams in 1977 and turned it into one of the sport’s most successful teams.

But after a series of difficult years, the team was sold to US investment group Dorilton Capital last month.

Williams and his daughter Claire, the deputy team principal, are stepping down.

The team have won nine constructors’ championships and seven drivers’ titles, and dominated large portions of the 1980s and 1990s.

But their last win at a Grand Prix was in 2012 and for the past two seasons they have finished last in the championship. Financial losses last year led to the Williams family seeking new investment, and that in turn has led to them leaving the team to make way for new management.

Claire Williams said: “With the future of the team now secured, this feels like the appropriate time for us to step away from the sport.

Something To Say: Two thoughts on the death of Chadwick Boseman

Excuse my delay in posting.  The first week of the school year is madness, as some know.

I read about Chadwick Boseman’s death from colon cancer but didn’t have anything to say at that moment.  I have only heard how the Black Panther film and his other performances affected people, not having seen it myself.  I’ve only seen youtube clips, but I’ll admit he cuts an imposing, handsome and memorable figure.

In the days after his death and reading other people’s words (like the screen capture below), two thoughts came to mind.

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Time To Defenestrate: 95 at 25

Defenestrate is a transitive verb (to throw something out a window), but has one definition that is intransitive: to stop using the Windows operating system.

Windows 95 was released on August 24, 1995 (The Verge), twenty five years ago today (ZD Net).  People loved it or hated it (or both, I’m a 30%/70% split). it changed computing, and not just because it increased Microsoft’s monopoly.  It radically increased the expectation of what a GUI can and should do, forcing other operating systems to improve and add features.  Linux might still be a command line OS and Macintosh still have a black, grey and white screen.  Windows 95 introduced multitasking, plug-and-play support (*), USB support, accessibility features, long file names, multilanguage fonts, among other things.  One major failing of the OS was a lack of a TCP/IP stack as default.  Dialup modems were the standard way to go online at the time without a cable connection and knowing how to configure the system.

(* Plug-and-pray as it was jokingly called for its unreliability.)

As much as I slam Microsoft, I give them credit for one thing: They have maintained backwards compatibility for decades and still do.  Software made for Windows 3.1 (or even 2.0 and 1.0) could run on XP, programs for Windows 95 until Windows 7.  A disk, file or program created in CP/M in 1978 can still be read and used by a Windows 10 computer today (either in emulation or native), which is an amazing feat.  And even now with emulators and multibooting, it’s still possible to keep running software made forty years ago.  Apple intentionally prevents the use of software from two or three previous Macintosh OS generations.

But I would also like Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer to suffer a punishment: One slap across the face for every Blue Screen of Death experienced by users (with billions of people each suffering hundreds of BSoDs, that’s going to hurt).   I want them to receive a kick in the shin for every time they blamed the user by saying “windows was not shut down properly!” after the OS crashed.  I never once shut down windows “improperly” (i.e. hitting the power button instead of closing from the start menu).  All the crashes were the fault of the OS.  (Linux says “Whoops, something went wrong,” which doesn’t assign blame.)

More below the fold.

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Blown Away: Was one of the mass exinctions a result of a supernova?

A new item in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) hypothesizes that the Late Devonian mass extincion was a result of a supernova.  It would need to have been much closer or more powerful than Kepler’s supernova of 1604 to destroy the ozone layer and kill much of Earth’s life, but not enough to wipe out the planet.  It’s comparable to being in the survival zone of a nuclear blast (e.g. 10km away from the bomb dropped on Hiroshima).

If the blast were a very short term event (i.e. a single burst lasting a few hours) and not prolonged, being on the far side of the planet might be enough to survive.  Africville was spared the brunt of the 1917 Halifax explosion because it was on the far side of a hill.

Supernova triggers for end-Devonian extinctions

PNAS first published August 18, 2020

Abstract

The Late Devonian was a protracted period of low speciation resulting in biodiversity decline, culminating in extinction events near the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary. Recent evidence indicates that the final extinction event may have coincided with a dramatic drop in stratospheric ozone, possibly due to a global temperature rise. Here we study an alternative possible cause for the postulated ozone drop: a nearby supernova explosion that could inflict damage by accelerating cosmic rays that can deliver ionizing radiation for up to ∼100∼100 ky. We therefore propose that the end-Devonian extinctions were triggered by supernova explosions at ∼20 pc∼20 pc, somewhat beyond the “kill distance” that would have precipitated a full mass extinction. Such nearby supernovae are likely due to core collapses of massive stars; these are concentrated in the thin Galactic disk where the Sun resides. Detecting either of the long-lived radioisotopes Sm146 or Pu244 in one or more end-Devonian extinction strata would confirm a supernova origin, point to the core-collapse explosion of a massive star, and probe supernova nucleosynthesis. Other possible tests of the supernova hypothesis are discussed.

This is testable.  If the right Samarium or Plutonium isotopes are found in the environment, it would back up the theory.  Cool.

Santayana Revisited: Did she forget history, ignore it, or is she trying to repeat it?

Most know George Santayana’s quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  I have a corollary: Those who ignore the past are trying to repeat it.  And Pauline Hanson lives down to that.

Australia’s resident loudmouthed lout is infamous and well known for both being a racist and a TERF, two facts she’s willing to display at the drop of a hat.  Now you have to wonder if she is just ignorant of Australia’s racist past of Stolen Generations, or if she wants to repeat it.  Most likely, the latter.

Pauline Hanson Says Transgender Kids Should Be Taken Away From Their Parents

In an online gathering of hard-right commentators, Australian Senator Pauline Hanson said parents who believed their child might be transgender should have their children taken away them, OutinPerth reports.

Hanson appeared on Pellowe an online political discussion program alongside others such as Queensland MP George Christensen and a spokesperson from the Australian Christian Lobby.

Hanson said parents who take their children to the doctor and believe their children are transgender are “bloody idiots” and “need their heads read”.

[. . .]

Hanson said she believed parents who wanted a child with the opposite gender brainwashed them into thinking they are trans.

Is Hanson stupid enough to “think” the growing number of Transgender people is due to parents forcing it on kids? Probably.

The breeding pair wanted me reindoctrinated into the catholic cult by force when they learnt I was always an atheist. I can imagine them doing worse had they learnt my sexual orientation and later my Transitioning. I know the violence they perpetrated for other things, so I can easily picture them doing worse.

I hope I’m not being flippant or dismissive of Indigenous Australian people’s experiences when I say this would be a Stolen Genderation.

My Genderation

A new genderation of film, about trans people, by trans people, for everyone

 

Odds And Ends: How life is different here

Some of the differences in local policing and traffic.  Note that any empathy for cops not causing problems does not equate to “support” for violent policing:

Suspect shot and wounded after ramming police car

A wanted man driving a stolen car suffered a bullet wound to the head after a police detective fired three shots at his vehicle when he rammed their unmarked police car in Chiayi County last night, August 21.

[. . .]

The suspect refused [to exit the vehicle], and rammed the police car. The squad leader, named Lee, in order to protect the safety of personnel and police equipment, fired three shots at the suspect vehicle: one at the left-front tire, one at the left-side door, and one at the window, according to China Times.

Emphasis mine.  The first shot was to disable the vehicle, the second a warning shot to demonstrate intent.  Only a third was fired to injure when the driver did not comply, not ten or twenty shots from multiple cops.  Wouldn’t it be nice if that sort of escalation of force were the norm instead of seeing situations like this as opportunity to kill with impunity?

More below the fold…

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Pair Off: Guess who the republiclowns invited to their convention?

Denis Rader and the Hamburgler.

Yes, the picture quality is terrible, but who really wants to see these two at high resolution?  I want to see criminal resolution for them.

White Thugs Who Pulled Guns on BLM Protesters to Take Part in GOP Convention

G.I. Ken and Karen, the white St. Louis couple who had trouble sitting in their living room and minding their own business, the same cop-loving couple who felt deputized by their whiteness to pull guns on Black Lives Matters demonstrators—who weren’t even fucking with them—will participate in the virtual Republican National Convention next week.

[. . .]

On Monday, the Trump campaign announced that Mark and Patricia McCloskey, affectionately known as Ken and Karen McGoFuckThemselves, would endorse the president of the people who believe that violence is the answer to peaceful protest during the virtual slavemaster convention, the Hill reports.

Sadly, Ken and Karen have become heroes of the right after a video emerged of these gun-toting miscreants and their divisive message of wielding guns during peaceful marches because America.

Left To Die: Greece now has its own SS St. Louis

The New York Timid (paywall) reported last Friday that Greece has intentionally towed over a thousand refugees out into the Mediterranean Sea on inflatable rafts and abandoned them.  Insider covered the story with its own write-up.

Greece has secretly sent away more than 1,000 migrants, taking them to the edge of the country’s territorial waters and then abandoning them at sea

At least 1,072 migrants were sailed to the edge of Greece’s water territory on inflatable life rafts and abandoned by Greek authorities, The New York Times reported.

The Times analyzed evidence from multiple sources, including academic researchers, the Turkish Coast Guard, and independent watchdogs groups. They found that there were at least 31 different incidents of these expulsions in the past few months.

Najma al-Khatib, a 50-year-old Syrian teacher told The Times that on July 26, she and 22 others including babies were taken by masked Greek officials from a detention center on the island of Rhodes while it was dark outside. She told The Times they were left on a “rudderless, motorless life raft” and were later rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard.

“I left Syria for fear of bombing — but when this happened, I wished I’d died under a bomb,” she told The Times.

Human rights groups have made similar accusations against Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and other countries.  When rightwing, corporate, xenophobic and racist media cover it, you know it’s because the story can no longer be hidden or ignored.

“Turnbacks” (towing boats back to the country of origin) are the “official policy” of countries, but on the open ocean there are no eyes to witness governments that commit crimes against humanity.  How many unseaworthy boats full of people have been abandoned and murdered?  (Not *if*, but how many.)  Oceans are huge; the Pacific is larger than all land masses combined.  It is easy for a freighter to be lost without a trace, never mind a ten metre vessel.

In 2019, Carola Rackete was threatened with jail or prison for rescuing people whose ship was sinking.  If she hadn’t intervened, it’s likely all on board would have died.  Governments are sending a clear message: leave people to die, or you will be punished.  This is a gross violation of international law of the sea which says ALL boats, regardless of flag, have a legal obligation to aid any vessel in distress.

Who needs death camps, the cost of bullets and the risk of witnesses when the ocean will kill people for free and sea animals will consume the bodies:?

Lights Out: Pete Way, 1951-2020

Pete Way died last Friday, aged 69 (August 7, 1951 – August 14, 2020). He died of complications following an accident he suffered two months ago.

Way was a bass player and songwriter, and original member of and with UFO through their height of their success. After leaving the band in the mid 1980s, he formed Fastway with Fast Eddie Clarke (ex-Motorhead) but could not stay with the project due to record company contracts. He formed a new group named Waysted and recorded several albums before returning to UFO.

In December 2014, The Concourse (back when Deadspin was worth reading) published this aptly titled article:

Spinal Tap IRL: The Brief, Sordid Reign Of ’70s-Rock Legends UFO

Let’s try something here. Here’s a song called “Hot and Ready,” by the band UFO. Give it a listen.

If this doesn’t rock your ass off—if you’re thinking, “Ehhh, maybe, I’m not sure”—then go back to nursing your IPA and nodding along to the Mountain Goats or Sam Smith or whoever. I can’t help you. But if you have the correct opinion—if you wonder, “Holy shit, that is an amazing solo, and it’s just the opening riff? Who is that?”—then you have uncovered one of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest secrets.

In the annals of rock history, tucked way behind your Zeppelins and Floyds, just trailing your Big Stars and Thin Lizzys, but just ahead of your Raspberries and Budgies, there resides a band that only die-hards and full-on music geeks seem to truly appreciate (or even know): UFO.

At the height of their mid-’70s heyday, this hard-living, ass-kicking, spandex-wearing quintet rocked like few have dared to rock, even if few dared to rock alongside them. They boasted a haughty, combative frontman with great pipes; a hedonistic, polka-dot-pants-wearing bass player who made Keith Richards look like Debby Boone; and simply one of the best hard-rock guitarists of all time. They should have ruled the era when the amps were loud, the Camaros fast, the mullets magnificent and unironic. UFO put out five good-to-brilliant studio records that stand toe-to-toe with any of the great albums of that era; then, in 1979, they released their masterpiece, Strangers in the Night, a powerful, punishing live album with the visceral impact of a Jack Lambert clothesline tackle.

Emphasis in the last paragraph is mine.

That describes Pete Way and UFO perfectly. UFO had the songs and the talent, but they just couldn’t put it together. Their career highlight was 1979’s “Strangers In The Night”, still one of the greatest live recordings of all time. Here are a few more UFO highlights:

“Lights Out”

“Doctor, Doctor”

“Mother Mary”

“Love To Love”

I saw Pete Way play live once, and he lived up to the reputation. Iron Maiden played in Vancouver in 1986 (“Somewhere On Tour”), and they had Waysted as the opening act. Steve Harris was a huge fan of Pete Way and UFO, the music and sound had a huge influence on Iron Maiden. This was Harris’s way of paying tribute to his hero. I immediately went out and bought the debut album “Save Your Prayers”. The opening track “Walls Fall Down” still stands up, and though I’m not much into “power ballads”, I always liked “Black And Blue”.

Accolades, tributes and obituaries are coming from all over rock music: Ultimate Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Radar, Louder Sound, New Music Express, and many others. Sea of Tranquility (a youtube channel covering hard rock and heavy metal) provides a thorough, kind and respectful obituary of Way’s career.

An Example Made: El Salvador does what the US fails to do

In 2016, Camila Díaz Córdova sought asylum in the US as a refugee, fearing for her life because she was a Transgender woman. The US rejected her claim, deporting her back to El Salvador. Less than a year later, she was murdered by three cops.

But here’s where the story takes a turn: the cops were arrested. Not only arrested, but tried, convicted and now sentenced to prison. Twenty years isn’t sufficient, but compared to the US, it’s justice. It should be a massive embarrassment and damnable statement of US courts, but more likely it will be brushed off as “corruption and incompetence”.

El Salvador police officers convicted of killing trans woman who had been deported from U.S.

Three police officers were convicted in a Salvadoran court in the 2019 murder of Camila Díaz Córdova, a transgender woman who had been deported from the United States the year before.

The three officers convicted of aggravated homicide July 28 were Jaime Geovany Mendoza Rivas, Luis Alfredo Avelar Sandoval and Carlos Valentín Rosales Carpio, according to the newspaper El Diario De Hoy. Each officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Diaz left El Salvador in 2018 and traveled to the U.S. with a migrant caravan to request asylum, as NBC News previously reported. After her claim was rejected, she went back to El Salvador where she reportedly returned to sex work. After midnight on Jan. 31, 2019, she was arrested for public nuisance and intoxication.

According to El Diaro De Hoy, she was beaten by the arresting officers in the patrol car and left in the road for dead. She was found and later taken to a hospital where she died from her wounds on Feb. 3, 2019.

In 2017, the United Nations called for an investigation into the surge of violence against transgender women in El Salvador. Local LGBTQ groups have counted the killings of at least 600 transgender people since 1993.

Last year, 34 members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement demanding better treatment for transgender people in their custody, highlighting reports of mistreatment in detention and deaths like Cordova’s that followed deportations.

When Camila Díaz Cordova was killed, many feared it would be another unsolved murder in El Salvador, which in recent years has had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Instead, the convictions last week were the first time a Salvadoran courtroom had convicted someone in the killing of a transgender woman, local activists say.

“This landmark ruling is much needed in a country where LGBT Salvadorans and their families rarely see justice for violent crimes,” José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “The outcome of Camila’s case sends a powerful message to Salvadoran society that anti-LGBT violence will not be tolerated.”

Rest in power, Ms. Córdova.