Hundreds Mourn Death of Transgender Youth -"We need more education"

dailycal

[chance33_98]

Hundreds Mourn Death of Transgender Youth

By JENNIFER KLINE Daily Cal Staff Writer Monday, October 28, 2002

NEWARK—Approximately a dozen UC Berkeley students joined a sea of nearly 1,000 somber faces Friday for the funeral of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo, a 17-year-old transgenderist killed earlier this month.

Despite plans by the UC Berkeley group Cal Queers for Social Justice to prevent known anti-gay preacher Rev. Fred Phelps from attending the funeral, neither Phelps nor any anti-gay protesters showed up.

Phelps, who works for a Kansas church that runs an anti-gay Web site, had planned an anti-transgender protest at the funeral with other church members, according to a church statement.

Cal Queers for Social Justice had planned to do whatever they could "to prevent Fred (Phelps) and his followers from attending and turning the funeral into a circus," according to an e-mail circulated among group members.

Newark police had also prepared for a possible confrontation between Phelps and mourners, said Newark police Lt. Tom Milner. More than a dozen police officers stood outside the church.

Though Phelps did not attend the funeral, his statements did not go unnoticed.

"Fred, you make me so sad," read one banner displayed at the funeral.

"I'm very touched but very sad as well that to get so much attention, you have to have someone dead," said Billy Curtis, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Programs and Services Coordinator at UC Berkeley.

Gay pride flags, flowers and banners with messages like "God bless this beautiful angel, Gwen Araujo" adorned the sidewalk near St. Edwards Catholic Church in Newark where the funeral was held.

With the church filled to capacity, many mourners waited outside. Some sang songs by No Doubt, reportedly one of Araujo's favorite bands.

Family members gathered around the coffin after the funeral procession and released 17 butterflies, one for each year of Araujo's life, as onlookers sang "Amazing Grace."

"It's so quiet and peaceful, (which was) not what we expected," said Araujo's aunt.

Members of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition spoke at the funeral, cautioning listeners not to forget Araujo.

"Please remember Gwen (Araujo), and don't forget this is not an isolated case," said Vanessa Foster, the board chair for the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition. "This happens at least once a month in this country."

Araujo, who frequently dressed as a woman, was killed at a party Oct. 3 when an attendee reportedly revealed he was biologically male.

His attackers beat and strangled Araujo before driving his body 150 miles outside Newark. The body was discovered two weeks later.

Three men have been charged with murder, and the death has been classified as a hate crime.

"A community's heart is broken; Gwen's family's heart is broken," Foster said. "These kinds of tragedies have to stop immediately. We have to get the education out there so people stop lashing out against those they don't understand."

[chance33_98]

"These kinds of tragedies have to stop immediately. We have to get the education out there so people stop lashing out against those they don't understand."

Great. Education. Why don't we also educate people on whites and christians, seems to me they are pretty well misunderstood and hated too. Christians, like gays, are not all perfect. Just like there are lots of types of gay people there are a lot of different sects of religion, and different groups/cultures of whites.

I say we need a white pride flag - we can hang them from our houses, wear them to work, have white pride parades, and fly the flag all over the place.

And while we're at it we will have 'white money' (see earlier article on gay money), white plays where the focus is not on the people in the play but their whiteness and how important it is, etc

[Blood of Tyrants]

Isn't it funny how people who choose to live as if there is no God turn to Him for comfort at times of tragedy? Phelps is a disgrace to the whole idea of "Hate the sin but love the sinner" and I have no doubt that he will be judged just as harshly as God haters/ perversion lovers of UC Berkley.

[ikka]

Yes we need education. Moral education. This poor kid never had someone in a position of authority tell him that what he was doing was just plain wrong. Instead, they let him do his own thing and now he is dead.

[SkyPilot]

-"We need more education"

Read: indoctrination and bullying tactics by homosexuals

[FormerLurker]

Araujo, who frequently dressed as a woman, was killed at a party Oct. 3 when an attendee reportedly revealed he was biologically male.

I wonder if Araujo had been mistaken for a hot chic and was making out with "one of the guys"? Not saying that it would justify a lethal beating, but I could see why someone might get upset if they just found out that they were swapping spit with another man...

[ErnBatavia]

Normalcy:

[FreeTally]

"This happens at least once a month in this country."

A cross-dresser is brutally murdered once a month? Yeh, ok.

[oyez]

How do you educate those that are adrift? And how do you get around that secular factor that tries to insulate them? The lost follow the lost.

[ellery]

It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach to see Christians protesting at funerals -- especially of those who were brutally murdered. If people like Phelps can muster no compassion for the victim, you would think he could at least respect the sorrow of the victim's loved ones. Or does their bible say only SOME humans are God's children? Good Christians should condemn funeral protests as strongly as good Muslims should condemn celebrations of terrorist acts.

[Paul Atreides]

However, no fanfare and calls for education concerning the two homos who raped and murdered that little boy, Jesse.

[foolscap]

This happens at least once a month in this country."

Ok for the heck of it let's say this factoid is true. That means there are 12 people per year killed by screaming bigoted homophobes. How many millons of people are there in this country? And of them how many are transgender? Does it not seem to you that if killing people for being transgender was a widespread social problem there would be more than 12 dead per year? Does this really reqiure more eduaction or can we just add this up to the fact that some people don't know how to act right may well have killed them even if they were not transgender.

[chance33_98]

First, I'm confused as to why you think a white pride flag is needed to counterbalance gay pride flags.

You missed the point. If I were to wear a white pride, since being white is genetic like being gay..., then I would be considered a facist or hate monger - so why do they get a pass on it? What makes the gay flag any different from a white pride flag?

[montag813]

Three men have been charged with murder, and the death has been classified as a hate crime.

I guess all other murders must be "love" crimes.

[headsonpikes]

"A community's heart is broken..."

And their brain ain't in such great shape, either.

[chance33_98]

Well said. My dissention though comes from what is becoming anti-white/straight. In bringing about education on cultures, different people, ideas, etc the history of the white people in general is show that we are primarily evil and the cause of the world's problems.

I do not see this as any different then if we preached such things in schools about blacks or gays - the idea being that when you perpetually show others in a negative light you foster hate. That is what I see as happening currently, there is no balance. The very thing the left says causes hate is what they are doing to those who are white.

No culture/race has a perfect history, blacks have opressed each other for centuries and still do, but I doubt you will find many books on Africa that really delve into much - somehow the whites will be blamed.

Perhaps what I am trying to say is the air about now seems anti-white - instead of trying to simply display their pride they display and attack.

[dead]

You're right that 12 people a year in a nation of 280 million would hardly be an "epidemic," but I would bet that the actual number of transgendered people killed solely because of their sexuality would be closer to less than one a year.

Still a horrible thing to do, but about as far from an epidemic as the current barbequing of midgets craze.

[weegee]

I have not seen any reports that he took hormones or surgically altered his appearance so he is not "transgendered" (a false notion in and of itself); he was a transvestite. A man who got a sexual thrill out of the fetish of dressing up in the culturally designed manner of dress of a woman.

We are born naked. There is no genetic characteristic to choose to wear a kilt, a mumu, a dress, a skirt, pants, overalls, a suit, shorts, etc.

He had psychological issues. That he tried to spring his sexual kink on complete strangers added to the allure for him. No one deserves to be assaulted but by the same token, if "she" had performed oral sex on a straight male at the party, would it be considered an act of rape or is it "consensual"?

There are numerous accounts of adults who dress as members of the opposite sex and attend high schools in such guise. But we can't question such predatory action.

[weegee]

There is no transgender. To successfully change one's sex would mean that they could then have the sexual component (egg/womb, or sperm production) for reproduction.

At best "they" can surgically alter the outward appearance of their sexual anatomy and take hormonal treatments that may alter voice and some secondary sexual characteristics.

"Transgendered" often refers to those who opt for only half of the surgery (adding breasts but leaving the lower anatomy in tact).

But no one can change their "sex" any more than they can change their race.