Friends Outraged After Idaho Family Buries Trans Woman as a Man

Friends of a transgender woman from Idaho who suddenly died from a brain aneurysm in October are outraged after the woman's family held an open casket and buried her as a man, the New York Daily News reports.

Friends of Jennifer Gable, 32, were shocked to see her dressed as Geoffrey Charles Gable, her birth name, as she was wearing a striped suit instead of her usual wavy brown hair and smoky eye shadow in an open casket at Magic Valley Funeral Home on Oct. 20.

According to photos obtained by the NY Daily News, Gable's hair was cut short and her obituary does not include anything about her transition to a woman. The obituary did, however, mention Geoffrey's love for baseball and jazz, and cited his failed marriage to a woman.

"They tried to make her look like a boy," Stacy Hudson, a friend, told the newspaper.

"She would not have wanted to relive the horrible life of Geoffrey," her friend for the past two years, Brandan Klosterman, told the NY Daily News. "She wouldn't want to be buried that way."

Gable legally changed her name to Jennifer but her death certificate listed her as a man, the Miami Herald reports.

Gabel learned of her brain aneurysm in early October, and she died from it while working at Wells Fargo Bank.

The NY Daily News reports several people shared their condolences to Gabel's memorial page, and they were all addressed to Jennifer, calling her a "kind and outgoing" woman, who struggled to fit in.

"What her parents have done is just a horrible thing," Klosterman said. "There was a lot of bigotry from her family, and I don't even think they talked to her anymore."

Human Rights Campaign Board member Meghan Stabler, who knew Gabel, told the Miami Herald that Gabel's "father erased her identity either though ignorance or arrogance."

"But who knows what the parent was going through?" she added.