Amber and Joseph Steinfeld Sr., the parents of the slain teen found last week in Texas County, say they knew their child liked to dress as a girl and talked about wanting to be female.

But according to them, their 17-year-old's transgender identity was mostly a "social media thing," and they continue to call the teen by the name they chose at birth: Joey.

Texas County authorities did the same in the probable cause statements released after four young people were arrested in connection with the teen's death.

When media outlets reported that Joseph Steinfeld's burned remains were found in a chicken coop near Cabool, many in the LGBTQ community and LGBTQ advocates were upset, but not just about the teen's death.

According to the victim's public Facebook and Instagram accounts, her name was Ally Lee Steinfeld, and she was a transgender female.

The News-Leader, which based its initial reporting on official court documents, does not report information from social media that cannot be verified. In this case, Steinfeld's sister was contacted and she confirmed that her sibling often used the name Ally and had talked to her about being transgender, so the News-Leader reported both names and avoided the use of gendered pronouns outside of direct quotes.

Some readers were not satisfied with the approach.

"You should make an important adjustment to your story," Twitter user Brian Latimer tweeted to a reporter. "Deadnaming trans people is considered violence."

Steph Perkins, who serves as executive director for PROMO, an LGBTQ advocacy group headquartered in St. Louis, explained the term.

"'Deadnaming' is when someone uses the old name/birth name of a trans person," Perkins explained. "Most people don't know what it means, but it is a widely used term within the trans community."

Perkins, who is also transgender, said it's not uncommon for parents and family to be among the last people a transgender person will ask to use the new name and pronouns.

"Different people in Steinfeld's life called them different names and different pronouns. And we shouldn't automatically assume those people are wrong," Perkins said. "As someone transitions, they ask different people in their life at different times to change names and change pronouns.

"If I look at my own experience, everyone in my life calls me 'he, him, his and Steph,'" Perkins continued. "But there was a time in my life where people were calling me by my old name and used 'she' and 'her.' And it was because I hadn't asked them to change yet. We don't have the benefit of being able to talk to Steinfeld."

And because it's difficult to change your name and your gender marker on your ID documents, Perkins said, trans people are often labeled as the wrong name or gender when they pass away.

Perkins said there have been times when someone purposely used his old name or wrong pronoun.

"It feels like an attack in itself," he said.

"For people who are looking at this and looking for ways to do better in their own lives, this is a reminder that trans people are in our community," Perkins added, "and we should be better at protecting them and treating them with respect and using the words to describe them that they ask us to use."

Sarah McBride is national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality.

"No one should be forced to fight to be respected in life only to be disrespected in death. The heartbreak of these murders is only intensified for family, friends, and the broader trans community when trans victims are misgendered in reporting by law enforcement and coverage by the media," McBride said in a statement. "The misgendering serves to reinforces some of the most harmful prejudices and misconceptions people have about trans identities, and in so doing, can feed frequently fatal violence.

"It is a cruel indignity that must be addressed if we are to gain a clearer picture of the epidemic of anti-trans violence and finally address it."

In May, Steinfeld posted on Instagram that she was coming out and was "MTF," or male-to-female. In a posting on June 13, Steinfeld referred to herself as "Trans male to female and I am mostly lesbian but pansexual." In another post that same day, she wrote, "I am proud to be me I am proud to be trans I am beautiful I don't care what people think."

Two young women, Briana Calderas, 24, and Isis Schauer, 18, told authorities they helped burn Steinfeld's body after 18-year-old Andrew Vrba gouged out Steinfeld's eyes, repeatedly stabbed the teen — including multiple times in the genitals — and bragged about the killing earlier this month, according to court records.

Vrba told investigators he initially tried to poison Steinfeld, then described how he stabbed Steinfeld in the living room of Calderas' mobile home, according to the probable cause statement.

No motive is given in the probable cause statement. All three suspects are charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse.

Although Texas County authorities have maintained they do not believe Steinfeld's slaying was a hate crime, many LGBTQ advocates say it shouldn't be ruled out so quickly.

Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, said Steinfeld is the 21st transgender person killed this year in what is a "crisis of violence against members of the trans community."

"(The Human Rights Campaign) is also deeply concerned about the investigation into her death. As details of her brutal murder are confirmed, it seems likely that anti-transgender animus played a role," Warbelow said in a statement.

"This broader epidemic of violence against the transgender community, often motivated by hatred, must come to an end. We will continue to mourn Ally, fight back against transphobia and anti-trans violence, and monitor this investigation closely."

LGBT terms glossary

• Deadnaming: Speaking or publishing the name a transgender person was assigned at birth prior to transition.

• Sex: Classification of a person as male or female. Infants are assigned a sex at birth based on the appearance of their external anatomy.

• Misgender: The use of a word, typically a pronoun, that incorrectly labels a person's gender identity.

• Transgender: An umbrella term to refer to people who identify differently from the gender identity or gender expression of the sex they were assigned at birth.

• Transition: The multi-faceted process of changing one's sex assigned at birth. Steps can include some or all of the following: telling family,friends and co-workers; using a different name and new pronouns; dressing differently; legally changing one's name and/or gender on legal documents; hormone therapy and possibly one or more types of surgery. Transitioning is an individualized process, and one may do all or some of these steps.

Source: GLAAD