Nikki Araguz Loyd, a Houston activist known for her commitment to transgender rights in Texas, died in November from a mixture of substances that include heroin, ethanol and medication designed to treat anxiety and panic disorders, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

Araguz Loyd, 44, died Nov. 6 at her home in Humble. She is survived by her husband, William Loyd, and their two children. She most notably fought a high-profile court battle over the legitimacy of her marriage to a Wharton County firefighter who was killed in a 2010 blaze. She also courted reality TV and worked as an entrepreneur in Houston.

In addition to ethanol and heroin, her cause of death lists clonazepam and alprazolam, which both treat anxiety and panic disorders, among the substances that contributed to her death. The death was ruled an accident. Officials with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences declined to say when the cause of death was determined.

William Loyd said his wife battled various forms of addiction throughout her life. He said she recently had been reliant on Xanax, and she planned to go to rehab.

“She knew she had a problem,” he said. “But she did not get it addressed in time.”

William Loyd said he wants her death to raise awareness for prescription drug abuse throughout the country. Her absence still hurts, he said, but he believes she can continue to help people.

“She created change for so many people, and she gave up a huge part of herself up to create that change,” William Loyd said. “Unfortunately, the way she dealt with it was through prescription drugs and alcohol and sometimes other drugs. But the thing I’d always love people to remember my wife by is the hero and overcomer and somebody who fought for the rights of others. Of course, to me and my kids, she’ll always be mom.”

Araguz Loyd’s sister, Vanessa Bockelman-Ball, said her sibling’s life was an open book, and she would have wanted people to learn from her addiction. The siblings were tight-knit. Araguz Loyd moved to the Houston area to be closer to Bockelman-Ball, she said.

“For her to not be in my life is very hard,” Bockelman-Ball said.

Araguz Loyd first gained widespread notoriety in the 1990s when she appeared on TV talk shows to discuss transgender issues, including when she was raped at 13 and infected with HIV. She said she developed as a woman, both physically and emotionally, despite being born a boy.

In 2008, she married a Wharton County firefighter. Two years later, her husband died battling a fire at an egg farm in Wharton, a town of 9,000 about an hour west of Houston.

The firefighter’s mother and ex-wife sued Araguz Loyd to keep her from receiving death benefits, arguing that the marriage wasn’t valid because she was born a man. Araguz Loyd spent years fighting that assertion in court, until in 2014 a state appeals court ruled that she was a woman at the time of her marriage.

The case thrust her further into the national spotlight. She was featured on the television show 20/20, and other transgender activists took up her cause. She also was interviewed for a lengthy profile in Out Magazine and spoke openly of her battle with drug addiction as a young adult.

While her case played out in court, Araguz Loyd was arrested in Harris County after she was accused of stealing a woman’s Rolex watch. She spent nearly a month in jail in 2012.

Shortly after her release, new federal standards took effect requiring prisons and jails to make certain accommodations for LGBT inmates. Araguz Loyd had previously been booked under her birth name. After her theft arrest, Araguz Loyd’s case helped spark a policy change under then-Sheriff Adrian Garcia, requiring that transgender inmates be addressed by their chosen name.

Araguz Loyd met William Loyd, an artist in Houston, following her release from jail. They married the next year. Together they opened the Starving Artist art gallery in Montrose, and in 2014 she launched a web series, “Nikki’s American Dream,” about her life.

Araguz Loyd also rode in Houston’s Gay Pride Parade.

julian.gill@chron.com