Prosecutor: Transgender Teen 'Executed'

[AmyStrange]

Prosecutor: Transgender Teen 'Executed'
Wed Apr 14, 5:25 PM ET

By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer

FROM: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040414/ap_on_re_us/transgender_killing_1
HAYWARD, Calif. - The killing of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo was cold-blooded murder carried out by three men who became furious when they found out the beautiful girl they had sex with was biologically male, a prosecutor told a jury as their trial opened Wednesday.

Araujo, 17, was beaten and strangled in 2002 in a slaying that has drawn national attention to violence against transgender people, or those who believe their sexual identity is at odds with their biology.

Angry shouts of "Are you a woman or a man?" escalated to murder, fueled by the explosive combination of insecure male egos and "tough guy" personalities, prosecutor Chris Lameiro said.

"Make no mistake about it, Eddie's death was an execution," said Lameiro, who used female pronouns when referring to Araujo as "Gwen" or "Lida," the names she went by, but male pronouns when talking about Araujo as a victim.

<SNIP>

TO READ THE REST GO HERE:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040414/ap_on_re_us/transgender_killing_1




sig:
"The Truth knows no master" - AmyStrange said to me in a dream

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Dave (AmyStrange.com) Ayotte
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[benburch]

1. God damned homophobes.

I'll bet they were all Republicans, too.

[AmyStrange]

2. I'm against the death penalty totally...

but sometimes (every once in a great while) I wish I could do it to someone like that guy got it in the "Green Mile"...

d

[David__77]

3. Gender issues.

I have to assume that Araujo was pre-operative. If she still had a penis, I wonder how it is that the men didn't realize it. It's a scenario I'm sure has happened quite a bit actually. It does concern me that a young person like Araujo who is transgendered would run a high risk in such a situation. If I had a friend, I might advise them to find partners who were OK with transgendered people. But maybe that's a backward sentiment on my part. I mean, the other part of me says, if Araujo truly is female (hence transgendered), then why is it JUST to have to indicate the biological birth sex?

[Nihil]

7. Hadn't got that far?

The report that they'd "had sex with" her doesn't necessarily mean
intercourse - when you'd expect them to notice a slight difference in
the expected physiology - but the "surprise" would still have a serious
effect on their egos when the truth was announced at a party of their
peers.

Wasn't it "The Crying Game" that had a similar moment of discovery?
Still, at least in that film there was a happy ending (unlike here).

[TexasMexican]

4. Pics

[IndianaGreen]

5. Gwen Araujo

This reminds me of the movie "Boys don't cry" about the life and murder of Brandon Tina, played by Oscar-winner Hillary Swank.



In Memory of Gwen Araujo

Gwen Araujo dreamed of becoming a Hollywood make up artist. She has been described as a beautiful person both inside and out and always smiling. She always thought of herself as a girl, preferred the name Gwen, and always wanted a sex change. She lived in Newark, CA, a small town 30 miles from San Francisco, the supposed gay mecca of the United States.

At age 14, Gwen had the courage to come out to her parents. She grew out her hair and wore crop tops and women's jeans. Finally, at age 17, she borrowed her friend's miniskirt and her mom's blouse and had the courage to go out in a skirt as herself for the first time.

"She went through a lot of pain, and people didn't respect her, her mother, Sylvia Guerrero, said. "It took a lot of guts. She's strong, and she finally came out."

Gwen went to a house party introduced as "Lida," and passed as a beautiful girl. That is until Paul Merel's girlfriend discovered in the bathroom that she was transsexual, and announced it at the party. Authorities say that Michael William Magidson, 22, Jose Antonio Merel, 22, and Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, punched Gwen in the face, beat her, gashing her face, and then dragged her to a garage while she was semi-conscious and strangled her with rope until she was killed. The men then allegedly tied her wrists and ankles, wrapped her in a bedsheet, and drove her body to Silver Fork Campground, about 100 miles away in El Dorado County.

http://transyouth.net/stories/gwen_araujo.html

[AmyStrange]

10. she's very beautiful...

I find it interesting that most males (and way too many females) think God is male.

maybe there's something behind all that?

d

[cleofus1]

6. so sad....

What a complete waste. There is no excuse for this and I hope they get a max sentence.

[saigon68]

12. They would probably be recruited by Blackwater

But for their high bails

[IndianaGreen]

8. Meanwhile, we are about to have our first transgendered rabbi!

Testing The Borders Of Inclusivity

HUC admits first transgender rabbinical students as broader community begins to confront such issues.

Debra Nussbaum Cohen - Staff Writer



When Reuben Zellman was a girl, he didn’t know that he wanted to become a rabbi. But since he began identifying as male four years ago, his Jewish involvement has become more intense and, with the support of his synagogue community, he realized that he wanted to become a leader of the Jewish people.

Zellman has recently been granted his wish with admission to the Reform movement’s rabbinical school. He will begin his studies next summer. Sources say that Zellman will be the first transgender individual ever to study in rabbinical school.

“I applied to rabbinical school because I love Torah,” said Zellman, in an interview from his San Francisco home. “I realize that there are political ramifications to what I’m doing and hope that they will be positive,” said the 24-year-old, who currently studies music and teaches Hebrew School at his synagogue, the predominantly gay Sha’ar Zahav. “And I hope people will remember that I’m a regular human being like others are.”

Zellman, a California native, declined to specify how his physical appearance has changed since he began his transition from female to male, but described himself as a transsexual as well as someone who falls under the broader scope of transgender.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=7562

[AmyStrange]

9. I apologize...

and on such a sad thread that I couldn't see the whole title of your thread and I thought it said rabbit instead of rabbi. I was going to ask if they turned a male rabbit into a female rabbit would a male rabbits still go at it? I think they would. I have seen too many dogs go at it with anything that moves or doesn't. I don't think it's as unnatural as a lot of folks want everyone to believe. My belief is that any living thing capable will have sex with anything regardless of what it is if the need is great enough, but what defines the field until we need it enough is all psychological...

Just my stupid weird mind thinking outloud sorry, but I appreciate your post earlier Indiana about Gwen.

I'll shut up now,

d

[IndianaGreen]

11. I am learning a lot about transgender community

I think it was the film "Boys don't cry" that made me aware of the "T" in GLBT and the serious discrimination they face even among the gay community.

I thought "transgender" was only people that "changed sex", but the term "transgender" is rather broad, according to the article:

Transgender is a broad term which can mean any of several different things: people born with ambiguous genitalia or with both genders’, or who may be born with the chromosomes of one sex but with the sex organs of the other, or may have the chromosomes and physical characteristics of one gender but feel that they are the other, and who may cross-dress or take hormones or have surgery to change their sexual identity.

Transgender individuals may, in the end, be hetero-, homo- or bisexual. Zellman says, “I identify as queer.”

[AmyStrange]

13. I think it's more because we all want someone to care for us...

and sex can be the ultimate expression of that care and when someone "decides" to willingly care for you THAT much, why would you kill someone for that... unless it was only about the sex. Then, it would make total sense what happened to Gwen.

Being a male, I know for a fact that most of us have a BIG problem in that area. It's mostly all about sex, and scoring is more important than finding someone we care for so much that we love them beyond their sex...

d