‘Being her authentic self.’ Family, community honor brutally slain Miami Beach woman
In life, Andrea Doria Dos Passos surrounded herself with a community that loved her, which surprised and pleased her mother, who long worried she was alone in the world. In death, those same friends and supporters held a vigil Thursday to honor a life taken away in a senseless, violent beating.
In the shaded courtyard of Miami Beach’s Old City Hall, family, friends and residents joined to celebrate Dos Passos’ life. It was an event organized by Pridelines, one of the city’s only LGBTQ+ community centers, where people knew the trans woman intimately.
“This is hard for our organization,” said Edward Summers, executive director of Pridelines. “We’ve had a personal relationship with Andrea, a.k.a. Maggie. She was someone who came to our office every day and interacted with nearly my whole team here at Pridelines.”
Summers recalled how Andrea would frequently relax in their offices and hang out while she handled her personal business. It was a safe space for her, he said, and to have her taken away was heartbreaking.
“Shame, shame that her life was taken this tragically,” he said. “She was ... our whole world, just having fun, enjoying the experience and being her authentic self.”
Police have charged Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53, with beating a sleeping Doria Dos Passos to death with a pipe in front of the Miami City Ballet. Her body was also mutilated when she was found by a ballet employee Tuesday morning.
Ana Van Gilst, Dos Passos mother, was brought to tears hearing how much her daughter meant to those around her. She spent years gently and lovingly pushing Dos Passos to go out into the world and find a community she could embrace.
Knowing her daughter had succeeded was almost too much to bear.
“It gave me so much bliss that she had a community,” she said, holding back tears. “I feel a little bit lighter knowing that she had this group of people that loved her and accepted her.”
While Van Gilst had asked her daughter if she would want to come back to her Coral Gables home, Dos Passos admitted her heart belonged out in the world, she said.
“She wanted to be free,” Van Gilst said. “She wanted to be on the beach. She wanted to swim.”
Aside from Dos Passos’ grandmother and stepfather, along with about a dozen residents, Miami Beach Police Chief Wayne Jones also attended the vigil to pay his respects to the family.
Andrea Contreras, 23, didn’t know Dos Passos but she was compelled to attend and honor her.
“It’s nice to see the support from everyone, especially for the family,” she said. “That was really lovely.”
The murder emphasized for Contreras that to her, while Miami Beach is safer than other communities, there is still a sense of danger, she said.
“Where can you really be safe? Especially since I’m a woman,” Contreras said. “Even my girlfriend and I walking around, we still feel the effects. So it’s just shocking a lot of people think [Miami Beach] is so fun, so party but it’s not.”
Rebe Silvey, 29, shed tears as she listened to the retelling of Dos Passos’ life while holding a lit white candle. While she didn’t know Dos Passos, she wanted to pay her respects.
“I found out that this beautiful person was taken from us way too soon,” she said. “I wanted to come out here and show support for the community and the family that is here.”
Silvey was outraged that authorities were not calling the vicious fatal beating a hate crime and wanted to see more done.
“It’s just really upsetting that the police are not calling this a hate crime when it is,” she said. “I just wanted to...celebrate her life and raise awareness that this is a problem. Trans people deserve to exist and be alive. They deserve to be protected.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said it will continue to investigate the case to see if it qualifies for a hate crime enhancement.
Miami Beach Police have said there is no evidence the attack was targeted and the murder is not being investigated as a hate crime.
Gibert was jailed a day after the slaying and is facing a first-degree murder charge, which was increased from an original second-degree charge in his first court appearance Thursday. He was also denied bond, meaning he will remain in jail for the length of his trial.
Van Gilst said she would only have a few words for the man who allegedly killed her daughter if she ever saw him, which were spoken seemingly without any hate or malice: “Go find help because you need help.”
Thinking of Dos Passos, she wanted to share a message with her late daughter.
“Go look for your grandfather,” she tearfully said, explaining that while she may have never met him in life, they were just alike. “He will take care of you.”
