HOUSTON – On Transgender Day of Visibility, a worldwide celebration of transgender and non-binary people, the National Association of Black Journalists announced a new scholarship named after transgender journalist and advocate Monica Roberts. The Monica Roberts LGBTQ+ Task Force Scholarship will support Black LGBTQ+ students studying journalism, mass communications, or otherwise interested in reporting and storytelling, the organization announced. The scholarship was created by the task force’s co-chairs, Tre’vell Anderson and Femi Redwood, and recently unanimously approved by the NABJ board of directors. “When our industry finally stops misgendering trans folks and hyper-focusing on our traumas, we’ll be able to trace such a Promised Land to the efforts of Monica Roberts,” said co-chair Anderson. Ad“Since I joined Tre’vell as co-chair of this Task Force, we’ve wanted to honor Monica for her work,” said co-chair Redwood.

HOUSTON – Houston activist and journalist Monica Roberts, 58, died of natural causes outside her southwest Houston home on October 5. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences said Roberts died from a blood clot and suffered from heart disease as an underlying condition. She was the creator of the award-winning blog, TransGriot, which has been covering the trans community since 2006. The GLAAD Media Award-winning blog not only covered the violence against but also shared the accomplishments within the trans community, according to “Out” magazine. See what the Houston and trans community said in honor of the life and legacy of Roberts.

HOUSTON – Journalist and transgender activist Monica Roberts died recently at the age of 58, according to the Harris County Medical Examiner. “I’m shocked at the sudden loss of [Monica Roberts,]” activist and producer Imara Jones wrote. Last year, Equality Texas honored Monica Roberts as our first transgender activist of the year award during our 30th Anniversary Gala. #BlackTransLivesMatter ⁦@TransJA⁩ ⁦@translashmedia⁩ https://t.co/z0mkeDfsYT — imarajones (@imarajones) October 8, 2020Saddened to hear the news that Ms. Monica Roberts (@TransGriot) passed this week. pic.twitter.com/CLcrwBfx5Z — Angela Williams (@RevAngela_W) October 8, 2020Devestated to learn of the passing of Monica Roberts (@TransGriot).

News of Monica Roberts' death sent shock waves through the transgender community in Texas and across the country. “I got tired of them being disrespected in death,” Roberts told the Daily Beast in a profile last year. Willis said she felt a connection with Roberts early in her career, as a fellow Black transgender journalist and organizer from the south. In the years since Roberts began her work, the transgender community has grown to unprecedented levels of visibility and acceptance. But the loss of Roberts, a peer in her tightknit world of elder transgender activists, felt personal, she said.