Retrial Begins in Transgendered Teen Gwen Araujo Murder

Juru selection begins tomorrow.


http://www.pbs.org/niot/citizens_respond/newark_update.html


October 2002 - Students at Newark Memorial High School were about to premiere the school's fall play, "The Laramie Project," when they learned that a peer had been killed in a crime horrifyingly reminiscent of the one they were exploring on stage. "The Laramie Project," the story of how Laramie, Wyoming, dealt with the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard, focused the country's attention on hate crimes against gays and lesbians. Four years later, the Silicon Valley suburb of Newark would come into the national spotlight for a similar tragedy in what some have called one of California's most brutal hate crimes in recent memory -- the killing of Newark transgender teen Gwen Araujo.

Student actors performing on stage

Newark Memorial High student actors perform opening night of "The Laramie Project."
"This incident was the type of thing we hoped to prevent by doing this play," says Newark High drama teacher Barbara Williams. "We were just too late."

Seventeen-year-old Araujo was born Edward Araujo Jr. Older sister Pearl Serrano says Eddie, as the family called him, "always felt like a girl." At 14, when Eddie began to make the gender transition, "she was being very true to herself and very brave," Serrano adds.

Eddie's transition to Gwen, the name she asked friends and family to call her, wasn't easily accepted by the greater community. She was ostracized at school and by her church. "When she told me that she didn't identify with her body, I told her that ... it wasn't going to be an easy transition for her [and] for us," says Sylvia Guerrero, Gwen's mother. "But we took it day by day, and regardless of whether she was Eddie or Gwen, she was still my kid."

Guerrero's worst nightmare became a reality one fall night when Gwen disappeared. Two weeks later, the police were led to Gwen's body by then-19-year-old Jaron Nabors. He described a late-night party and how the crowd knew Gwen as a young woman by the name
Sylvia Guerrero

After losing her child to violence, Sylvia Guerrero is organizing for the rights of the Transgender community. (Photo: Dan Krauss)
of "Lida." Two of the men at the party had sexual relations with her on another occasion. That night, the group confronted Gwen with questions about her gender. When they discovered she was biologically male, they reacted with violence.

In a series of attacks, Gwen was punched, slapped, kicked and struck in the head with a skillet. Six Newark young people were there that night. As the confrontation escalated, two would decide to leave, without ever calling the police. Gwen pleaded for her life, but her last words, "Please, don't, I have a family," would not stop her killers from choking and strangling her to death. Then the four men drove 150 miles away to the Sierra foothills, burying Gwen's body in a shallow grave and swearing each other to secrecy. As the gruesome details of the case were made public, residents were stunned to learn one of their young people had been so brutally murdered. The discovery that local youth, and former students of Newark Memorial High School, were charged with Gwen's killing intensified the tragedy.

The parallels with Laramie in the aftermath of Gwen's death were about to become more remarkable. Fred Phelps, an anti-gay extremist from Kansas who had protested in Laramie after the murder of Matthew Shepard, threatened to protest Newark Memorial High School's
Newark resident Gail Nelson dresses up as an angel

Newark resident Gail Nelson joined an angel action to stand up against hate and violence against all youth.
performance of "The Laramie Project." School administrators and the local newspaper were bombarded with faxes declaring, "God Hates Newark."

On opening night, a group of concerned residents wanted to send a different message to their neighbors and the swarm of national media representatives that had descended on their town. Borrowing a page from "The Laramie Project," they dressed as angels to protect cast members from Phelps' followers, who showed up that night with hate placards such as "God Hates Fags."

Watch a video excerpt from the angel action that night.
[Watch the Video 56k | 220k]

The Newark student cast

The Newark student cast line up at curtain call with Moises Kaufman, creator of "The Laramie Project."
Inside, the student actors nervously prepared for the sold-out opening performance. Playwright Moises Kaufman, who wrote "The Laramie Project," sat in the audience with community members and Gwen's family. "I was very moved," said Kaufman, who flew out from New York to witness this urgent presentation of his work. "We came to a room to listen to teenagers tell us about hate and about understanding and about compassion and about how to rise from the destruction of all this."

Watch video clips from interviews with other student actors.
[Watch the Video 56k | 220k]

While the play was a success, Newark would still have to face how such a brutal killing could happen in its town. Two months later, the city and the school district sponsored a community forum. Residents expressed fear and horror at the violent reaction by Gwen's killers and urged their city leaders to recognize the intolerance toward the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in Newark.

Pat Skillen, a retired school librarian, didn't want the community dialogue to end that night. A member of the local chapter of Parents and Families and Friends of gays and lesbians (PFLAG) and the mother of a gay son, Skillen organized with other concerned residents to form Not in Newark. The citizen group -- made up of school teachers,
Activists marching in the Newark city annual parade

The local chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays march in the Newark city annual parade September 2003.
students, parents and residents -- took their school safety concerns to the district's top educator. New Superintendent of Schools John Bernard supported the group's recommendations for teacher training and a new diversity respect statement to be distributed districtwide.

As Newark continued to grapple with what steps to take in the aftermath of Gwen's death, three of the young men charged with her murder went on trial in March 2004. The prosecutor presented weeks of testimony and called countless witnesses, arguing that the defendants' actions were premeditated. But one defense attorney asked for a lesser charge of manslaughter, arguing that his client had reacted violently in the heat of passion. The trial came to a disappointing conclusion for all parties when the jury deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial.

Person holding sign in memory of Gwen

Newark residents came together after the tragic death of local teen Gwen Araujo.
Days later, hundreds of passionate supporters of Gwen and her family marched through the streets of San Francisco behind the banner "Justice for Gwen." At a city hall rally, Gwen's mother voiced the belief shared by many in the Bay Area transgender community. "Had she been biologically female, justice would have been served," says Sylvia Guerrero. "As long as I have a breath in my body, I will do whatever it takes to get justice for Gwen and, in turn, the transgender, gay, lesbian community."



Michael Magdison, 24, Jason Cazares, 24, and Jose Merel, 24, will be retried in May 2005 for Gwen's killing. (Twenty-one-year-old Jaron Nabors, who led police to Araujo's body, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2003 and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.)

In May 2004, after months of collaboration with members of Not in Newark, the city council unanimously passed a stronger nondiscrimination policy. The previous fall, "The Laramie Project" cast and Not in Newark members testified before city leaders, proposing the new policy as well as training for all local government employees in how to recognize and respond to anti-gay and anti-transgender harassment and bias.

"For the longest time, I think it was OK that people said we need to promote tolerance," says Jim Reese, Newark assistant city manager. "But a lot of people have to get past [that]; you don't just tolerate people. You accept them."

Group of people dressed as angels

Newark residents stage an angel action to block anti-gay picketers at the opening performance of "The Laramie Project."
At the annual Children of Our Friends Award ceremony sponsored by PFLAG, Reese and other city employees who perform in a local band provided the entertainment. With individuals from the gay, lesbian and transgender community sitting in the audience alongside Newark police personnel and city officials, the celebration united people who probably wouldn't have come together before the death of Gwen Araujo.

Every month, a transgender person is killed in this country. And publicly speaking out against such hate-motivated violence has become Gwen's family's mission. "Out of her tragedy, I want to bring something positive out of her memory," says Sylvia Guerrero. "It does help to know that some people are learning and listening, and there is change occurring."

--Article by The Working Group

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For more information about the Araujo case and Newark, CA, visit online local newspapers The Argus or The San Jose Mercury.