Gwen Araujo

This week marks 5 years since the murder of Gwen Araujo

Should someone die for being different? Is it OK to kill someone because they aren't who you thought they were? Rolling Stone has a pretty graphic description of the murder, maybe you should go look at the hell Gwen endured before answering that question.

Some lawyers seem to think so. It is called the “Gay Panic” defense.

Prosecutors said they want to limit the use of “gay panic” defenses — where defendants claim their crimes were justified because of fear or anger over their victims’ sexual orientation.

It applies in this case because Gwen Araujo was transgender. She was murdered because some guys she had been intimate with couldn't stand that she wasn't who they thought she was.

The defense lawyers argued that was a valid reason to kill her - the defendants panicked.

Some states are starting to do something about it.

California’s law instructs juries that gay panic defenses are inconsistent with state laws protecting gays and transgender people from discrimination. It was prompted by the murder of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo, a transgender teenager who was beaten and strangled in 2002 after two men with whom she’d had anal sex learned she was biologically male. [edited language to reflect the fact the law was enacted. Z-Deb]

I love this paragraph from a report on conference convened to discuss this "defense." (ebar.com | DA convenes 'panic' conference)

Attorneys and investigators who referred to transgender murder victim Gwen Araujo as "he" sometimes found themselves corrected by a roomful of strangers, and the rules of sexual intimacy sometimes took center stage during discussions of how to defend and honor a victim of violent crime who may also have been promiscuous or perceived to have made some dangerous decisions.

People make bad decisions all the time. They take chances they shouldn't. This does not absolve others of their responsibilities under the law - or under morality. Making bad decisions is not a capital offense.

Would you want to live in a world where anyone considered to have "made bad choices," or was "expendable" for other reasons, could be killed with impunity? Think Nazi Germany, and consider what the pink triangle and the black triangle meant. Remember Srebrenica and all the other places where genocide was (or is) carried out. Think about the way Saudi Arabia treats its citizens. Do you want to live in a place like that?

The whole "gay panic" defense (or "trans-panic" in this case) is another attempt, in a long line of legal maneuvers, to say that people are not responsible for their own actions. They panicked. They freaked-out. Circumstances conspired to rob them of their free will. The devil made them do it. Sorry, no. Unless you are legally insane, you are responsible for every one of your actions. You may not like that, but being an adult is a bitch.

And don't dismiss this as only a gay issue. Read what happened to Cindy Dixon (read to the end of the post) and talk to me about justice. Unless it is justice denied, you have an up-hill battle. Some people's lives are worth life in prison without parole. Apparently - in the eyes of our legal system (or at least some of the lawyers) - other people's lives aren't worth that much.

Of the four people who brutally murdered Gwen Araujo, 2 were sentenced to 15-years-to-life for second degree murder, one plead no-contest to a manslaughter charge and is serving 6 years, and the fourth is serving 11 years as part of a plea bargain.