Justice?

San Francisco’s Pride celebration is this coming weekend. The parade is this Sunday starting around 10:30am. I will be riding with TGSF since I am the first runner-up to Ms. TGSF 2004. The theme for this year’s Pride is “Out for Justice.” Some in the T community have also organized a Tranny March for Friday night to show that although we may be a minority within the LGBT community, we are still here. I, along with the other TGSF Outreach Co-Chair, was asked to speak at the gathering. In light of today’s events, I would be honored to say a few words in front of my transgender brothers and sisters.

What happened today, you might ask? Well, the Gwen Araujo trial ended in a mistrial. The jurors could not come to a conclusion on the guilt of the three defendants. All three are accused of brutally murdering Gwen, a transgender youth, in a small suburb here in the San Francisco Bay Area. A fourth man plead to manslaughter in exchange for his testimony. The jury came back 10-2 against first-degree murder for two of the men, and 7-5 in favor of first-degree murder for the third. From what I am reading, none of the jurors thought any of the defendants should walk away with manslaughter, and the judge did not let them consider either manslaughter or second-degree murder since they did not fully acquit them of first-degree murder. The prosecution says they will retry the case, which is not expected to begin until next year.

I wasn’t able to get that involved with this case because I was going through my own turmoil of going full time and having facial surgery. I had friends that did attend portions of the trial, and they can probably provide better accounts of the proceedings than I can. I know Gwen Smith was present and has some words about all of this in her blogger.

It’s too bad justice wasn’t served. Hopefully it was just delayed. I know that there are a lot of people who know that these four men did a very bad thing in murdering Gwen, but it’s too bad that the defense attorneys can get away with pushing this gay panic thing on the jury. Via channels, I heard that the defense lawyer was able to tell the male jury members (8 of the 12) that they should look at the murder through the eyes of the defendants, and that the women should think like a man in order to understand. Pathetic. Perhaps people will see the injustice that transgender people face on a continual basis. Let’s turn it around for a moment. Four gay guys who aren’t openly out as being gay are hanging out at a party in their residence when a fifth man, who a few of them have had sex with, shows up to party as well. During the course of the night, they find out this guy is really a straight woman who just comes across as being fairly masculine. They beat and strangle her to a bloody corpse, then bury her over 150 miles away. Do you think these four gay guys are going to get first-degree murder charges even though they had “straight-panic” for a moment and felt rage against this straight woman? You bet they will, especially if they killed a straight woman. Why then, is it different if the victim is a transgender woman? Her essence was female. These men saw it, but when confronted with her physical body, their macho male ego was shattered. OMG…they were gay. Whatever. Listen, if you think a transgender woman is pretty, it’s no big deal. You're not gay. Most men are going to find her attractive as well. Gwen was a very pretty young woman and there were obviously a few men attracted to her. It’s too bad their fragile egos felt the need to kill her.

Hopefully, one day, justice will prevail.