Friends and family of Gaurav Gopalan as well as politicians and LGBT community activists gathered in Dupont Circle Sunday night for a candlelight vigil in memory of Gopalan, who was killed in Columbia Heights earlier this month.
Reports The Huffington Post:
Gaurav Gopalan once told colleagues he had hoped to host a performance of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” at Dupont Circle’s fountain. Sunday night, friends and loved ones gathered there with candles to remember the slain 35-year-old local theater director by reading passages from that play, “The Tempest” and other works of the great playwright as a memorial to Gopalan, before marching to the street in Columbia Heights where he was found dead on Sept. 10.
“We need to find this killer,” D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) told the crowd, saying that if the perpetrator isn’t found, he or she is likely to strike again. “This has to be stopped and stopped now.”
Reported Fox5,
Gopalan, was well known in the local theater community. As part of the memorial service, many of his friends read Shakespeare. Friends described Gopalan as gentle, affectionate, and brilliant. The group walked from Dupont Circle marching toward the place where Gopalan’s body was found.
Said The Huffington Post,
Although D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton could not attend Sunday’s memorial, her office sent a letter that was read at the vigil. It in, Norton said the recent attacks on transgender victims cannot be tolerated and that Gopalan’s death “is a thundering call to action.” She called on the office of the U.S. attorney to make these crimes more of a priority.
Watch video of the vigil from Fox5 below.
