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UNITED KINGDOM
This report was in the Melbourne Star Observer of 26 January 1996:
"Glasgow: In a British legal first, a lesbian who murdered a man with whom her female lover was having an affair has received a reduced sentence because of the "provocation" caused by the relationship. Previously the marital-cheating "provocation" defence has only applied to heterosexual killers, according to a report in The Scotsman. The High Court in Glasgow earlier this month sentenced Vicki McKean, 28, to eight years imprisonment for the murder of Stephen Blackwell, 40, saying his relationship with Connie Andrew, 27, mitigated the crime. McKean had stabbed Blackwell eleven times as he sat in her living room."
(SSO 20 February 1997 - Kevin Muhyiddin - Bath UK murder)
(SSO 060397 transvestite prostitute - stabbed to death - London)
(SSO 130397 Frederick Sweet murdered in Plymouth UK November 1995, Bernard Hawken seriously injured)
ANDREA DYKES, JOHN LITTLE, NIK MOORE murdered in Soho, London, Admiral Duncan pub bombing, April 1999. David Copeland, ex-member of the British National Party, was given six life sentences on 30 June 2000 after the jury concluded he was "bad not mad". As the jury foreman declared him a murderer, and an extraordinary roar erupted from the massed ranks of his victims squeezed on to the benches behind him, David Copeland smirked. Copeland's room in Broadmoor is decorated with a Nazi flag. Copeland taught himself bomb-making from the Internet and became Britain's first serial bomber driven by hatred and racism. He told detectives he wanted to sow the seeds of a race war. During a 14-day bombing campaign, he injured 139 people in blasts that included devices at a street market in Brixton High Street and in Brick Lane, East London, home of the Bangladeshi community. In a letter from Broadmoor, Copeland wrote: "I can't believe I have fooled the doctors." - referring to the assessing psychiatrists.
Gary Reid survived the bomb blast but part of the bomb is still buried in the stump of his left leg, which was amputated above the knee after the blast. Reid, a psychiatric nurse before the blast, said his former job makes him more understanding than most when it comes to the man who planted the bomb.
"It was interesting to see how pathetic he is," Mr Reid said. What he did to me, to all those people, to society was unforgivable, but I have no hate for the man. He is an extreme example of the homophobia and racism that still exists. We must make sure that such a thing never happens to anyone else again."
November/December 2004
In London a spate of violent homophobic attackes has left 5 injured and one gay man dead. All the attacks took place around London's South Bank within a 15 minute period. A gang of youths apparently targeted patrons leaving gay clubs. The dead man was David Morley who survived the 1999 nail bombing of the Soho gay pub. Six people have been charged with his murder. Meanwhile, police are still searching for a man who stabbed a gay man on a London night bus.
SCOTLAND has seen a sharp increase in the reporting of anti-gay hate crime due, police say, to improved reportingstrategies and better liaison with the LGBT communities.
PlanetOut carried the following item as reported by Gay.com U.K on 24 October 2005
London: Men charged in gay man's killing Gay.com U.K. Monday, October 24, 2005 / 04:13 PM
SUMMARY: Two men were charged on Monday with the murder of gay bar manager Jody Dobrowski, who was brutally beaten in a London park.
Two men were charged on Monday with the murder of gay bar manager Jody Dobrowski.
The two men were arrested over the weekend and charged with the killing of Dobrowski, who was beaten to death on Clapham Common on Oct. 13.
Thomas Pickford, 25, who is reportedly unemployed and homeless, and decorator Scott Walker, 33, both from the Clapham area, appeared in a custody hearing on Monday.
Meanwhile, memorials from Jody's family, friends and work colleagues are continuing to pour in.
His mother issued a statement the day after his death, saying his "light would never be extinguished," while his friends have slammed the attackers who killed him.
Police have now said that the attack on Dobrowski was so ferocious that his face was unrecognizable. Officers said the 24-year-old had been punched and kicked until he was dead, with many injuries sustained to his head.
Detectives are urging those who were in the area of the murder at the time to come forward.
They are also keen to speak to anyone who saw Jody before the attack or saw anyone matching the suspect descriptions in the Battersea Rise area earlier in the evening.
The Melbourne paper MCV reported the following in its issue 281 dated 26 May 2006:
A British court heard last week that a man on trial for killing a 34-year-old woman, her two children and her elderly mother, made the attack after the woman told him she was a lesbian.
Welsh woman Mandy Power, her daughters Katie, 10, and Emily, 8, together with Doris Dawson, her 80-year-old invalid mother, were bludgeoned to death in their home in June 1999. Their home was then set on fire in an attempt to cover up the crime.
Only after firemen carried Mrs Power and the children from the house did their facial and head injuries become apparent, the court was told.
"This was not merely a murder, this was a massacre. Three generations of one family were brutally put to death, we say by the defendant, who exploded into an uncontrollable rage," said prosecutor Patrick Harrington, in his opening remarks at the retrial of labourer David Morris, 44, whose earlier conviction was overturned on appeal.
The court was told that Morris was a 'violent thug' with a strong histroy of violence towards women, and that he became enraged when Power rebuffed his sexual advances and told him she was a lesbian.
After committing the murders, Morris set four separate fires, allegedly in the hope that the flames would conceal any evidence of his crime, Harrington claimed.
A gold chain ripped from Morris' neck during his assault, and found covered in Mandy Powers' blood at the scene of the "most extreme violence", eventually led to his arrest.
An investigation byBBC Television's Panorama programme in 2003 claimed that South Wales Police made a string of errors while investigating the Power murder case, with vital witness statements not being properly acted upon.
David Morris has pleaded not guilty. The trial continues.
The following report is from MCV Issue 302, 19 October 2006, headed:
A London man who murdered his ex-girlfriend after she told him she was a lesbian faces a lifetime prison term.
James Seaton was convicted last Thursday (12 October 2006) of murdering Jacqueline Queen after she announced she was leaving him for a woman.
Wielding a hammer and a 12-inch kitchen knife, Seaton launched a frenzied attack upon Queen in the lounge-room of his North London home.
“The only sentence that the law permits me to pass is one of life imprisonment,” Judge David Radford said while summing up.
During the trial the court heard that Queen was probably still alive as Seaton began sawing off her head in a botched attempt to dismember the body.
Manchester Imam defends execution of gay people
Manchester, EnglandManchester's leading Imam has confirmed that he thinks the execution of sexually active gay men is justified. Mr. Arshad Misbahi, who is based at the Manchester Central Mosque, confirmed his views in a conversation to Dr John Casson, a local psychotherapist.
Dr Casson said: "I asked him if the execution of gay Muslims in Iran and Iraq was an acceptable punishment in Sharia law, or the result of culture, not religion. He told me that in a true Islamic state, such punishments were part of Islam: if the person had had a trial, at which four witnesses testified that they had seen the actual homosexual acts."
"I asked him what would be the British Muslim view? He repeated that in an Islamic state these punishments were justified. They might result in the deaths of thousands but if this deterred millions from having sex, and spreading disease, then it was worthwhile to protect the wider community."
"I checked again that this was not a matter of tradition, culture or local prejudice. 'No,' he said, 'It is part of the central tenets of Islam: that sex outside marriage is forbidden; this is stated in the Koran and the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had stated that these punishments were due to such behaviours.'"
"He told me that no Muslim would have spoken to him as I had done - they would have been too afraid, ashamed or inhibited: he admired my courage and openness."
Commenting on Imam Arshad Misbahi's views, Dr John Casson said: "I support the human rights of all people peacefully to practice their religion, including the right of Muslim women to wear the veil if they choose. Equally gay men and women must enjoy the right to be themselves without the fear of being beaten, killed or condemned by homophobic religious people. These condemnatory attitudes have an adverse psychological impact on lesbians and gay men, especially lesbian and gay Muslims."
Gay and human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, of the gay rights group OutRage!, added: "It is disturbing that some British imams are endorsing the execution of gay and lesbian Muslims.
"Imam Arshad Misbahi's homophobic attitudes give comfort and succour to queer-bashers. They encourage conflict and disharmony between Manchester's large gay and Muslim communities.
"Muslim and gay people know the pain of prejudice and discrimination. We should be working together to challenge homophobia and Islamophobia. I hope liberal Muslims will speak out in defence of the human rights of lesbians and gay men," said Mr Tatchell.
The following item is from MCV dated 18 December 2008:
JEFF AKERS - murdered 19 February 2008
Beat Murderer sentenced to life
A 30-year-old man found guilty of the murder of a retired accountant in a public toilet in Surrey has been jailed for life.
The UK's Pink News reprots that Mark Malone will serve at lest 30 years.Report from MCV issue 415 dated 18 December 2008:
Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has released figures showing convictions for homophobic and transphobic crimes in the UK are on the rise.
In the three years to March 2008, more than 2,400 defendants were prosecuted for homophobic or transphobic crimes, while successful convictions rose from 71 per cent to 78 per cent in 2007-2008.
"The CPS can be rightly proud of its record on prosecuting crimes that are motivated by hostility towards people based on their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or disability," Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions said in a statement.
"But there is still more that the CPS, and the criminal justice system as a whole needs to do, particularly when it comes to supporting victims and witnesses throught he process of a court case and helping them to give the best evidence they can."
Julio Rivero was murdered in New York in 1990. It took many months for his murderers to be brought to justice, and when they were, the trial was the first gay hate crime trial in the United states.
"In early 1991, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) Policy Institute released its yearly report, 'Anti-Gay/Lesbian Violence, Victimization & Defamation.' It documents a dramatic 42 percent nationwide rise in the number of incidents of violence between 1989 and 1990. The six cities that participated in the survey exhibited a range of increases, from an 11 percent rise in Chicago to 133 percent in Minneapolis/St Paul.
The report also claims that increased reporting of anti-gay/-lesbian violence (which can indicate an increase in the willingness of victims to file complaints, press charges or simply notify the local community health centre) is not enough to explain the size of the increases in the numbers of reported violent incidents.
The rise in anti-gay episodes reported to all gay community agencies ---- and most police departments reflects a variety of factors----. However, such large increases ---- especially in the number of physical assaults and other serious crimes - also indicate the severity of the problem has grown --- in the past year. [emphasis is that of the report's author]
The NGLTF report goes on to point out that given the geographical diversity of the cities that document increases, 'it is likely that other US urban areas (and perhaps suburban and rural communities) are experiencing a similar upswing.'"
The same issue of Gay Community News provided the following "Information extracted from NGLTF Policy Institute Report, 'Anti-Gay/Lesbian Violence, Victimisation and Defamation in 1990'":
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.: Two assailants repeatedly stabbed a gay man, ripped open his chest, and then slashed his throat. Prior to the murder, witnesses saw the men follow the victim and call him "faggot" and "queer".
QUEENS, N.Y.: A Latino gay man was beaten to death with a hammer in a schoolyard near several gay bars.
ATLANTA: A black gay transvestite was killed by a single bullet in a drive-by shooting.
(USA FBI Uniform Crime Reports - Hate Crime Statistics 1995):
Sexual orientation------------1019--------------1266----------1347---------------1273
Anti-Male Homosexual-------735----------------915-----------937----------------1031
Anti-Female Homosexual-----146----------------189-----------191-----------------131
Anti-Homosexual-------------103----------------125-----------182------------------80
Anti-Heterosexual-------------17------------------19------------19------------------13
Anti-Bisexual------------------18------------------18------------18------------------18
ROXANNA ELLIS AND MICHELLE ABDILL, two lesbians brutally murdered on 4 December 1995 in Oregon by Robert James Acremant, 27. An “urge” prompted him to brutally kill the two women. It was a foiled robbery that pushed him to murder rather than the women’s sexual orientation.
“It wasn’t that they were lesbians, but that made it easier because I don’t like them,” Acremant said.
TYRA (NEE TYRONE) HUNTER, 24 Transgender, died in Washington DC (see report in PlanetOut 14 August 2000
(SSO 130397 - homosexual youth suicide - no research?)
The following article appeared in The Advocate (USA) on 11 November 1997 - a further indictment of the USA justice system in relation to gay, lesbian and transgender hate crimes - about unsolved murders:
Investigations pending - unsolved murders of gays and lesbians - Hate Crimes, part 3:
by Lee Condon
Since 1991 six gay men last seen leaving New York City gay bars have been killed and dismembered, their remains in garbage bags and left at rest areas along highways.
From 1987 to 1996, 12 men with connections to the gay community have been strangled to death and then dumped in a rural area in the Hampton Roads section of Virginia.
In Denver in 1992 four men were fatally stabbed, each apparently after picking up someone at a gay bar.
In Atlanta 15 African-American transvestites or transgendered people have been murdered from 1987 to 1996. Most were shot after leaving gay bars or clubs featuring drag shows.
Last winter (1996/1997) two double murders claimed the lives of two gay African-American couples who were shot to death in Prince Georges County, Md. (Maryland).
None of the above-mentioned crimes has been solved.
Part of Bea Hanson's job as director of client services at the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project is tracking killers who target gays. For a long time Hanson didn't get anywhere in her efforts to get law enforcement agencies to investigate the cases as serial killings. Local police departments dismissed her suggestions. Her letters to the Federal Bureau of Investigation asking for help went unanswered.
When Andrew Cunanan murdered Gianni Versace, everything changed.
After Cunanan's body was found, Hanson and executive director Christine Quinn wrote to the FBI again. Within two days the FBI's deputy director called and asked for a meeting which was held the last week in Spetember. "They started out by acknowledging they didn't do a good job of reaching out to the gay community in Miami," Quinn says, referring to the city where Versace was killed.
Criticisms of the FBI post-Cunanan have brought unsolved murders of gay men and lesbians to the forefront. "It has fast-forwarded our relationship with the FBI," says Quinn. "We've proved ourselves as people who know what we're talking about. It was an incredibly historic meeting."
Shirley Lesser, executive director of Virginians for Justice, says getting law enforcement to pay attention to the murders of gay men and lesbians is a challenge, pointing to the unsolved Hampton Roads murders. "It's not gay-friendly here," she says. "There is not a public outcry to solve gay murders. Police resources are dependent on where the public wants those resources to go."
To Lesser, the cases should be easier to solve. "The killer or killers are very anxious to get caught," she says. "They leave the bodies on the side of the road in open view." Yet only the latest of the 12 killings has produced a suspect: Elton Jackson, 41. Hampton Roads police will only say that they have not ruled him out as a suspect in the 11 other killings.
Lesser is also frustrated over the unsolved case of two lesbians killed in Virginia while hiking the Appalachian Trail on Memorial Day weekend in 1996. FBI officials told Virginians for Justice that they had not ruled out any motivation, except to say the killings were not a hate crime. "To hear one of the agents say, 'It's certainly not a hate crime' - how can you rule it out?" Lesser asks. "We were concerned the potential for hate violence was being overlooked."
The FBI acknowledged the possible hate-crime link only after pressure was exerted by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "I don't think the gay and lesbian community should have to do that much work to get them to consider it a hate crime," Lesser says.
Thomas Kneir, deputy assistant director for Organized Crime, Drug, and Violent Crime programs, was one of several FBI officials who met in Washington, D.C., with gay and lesbian antiviolence activists. "Regardless of what may have happened in history," Kneir says, "the meeting was about where do we go from here."
As for the Cunanan case, Kneir says the FBI has acknowledged its outreach should have been better: "It probably pointed out to us maybe our liaison with the gay and lesbian community wasn't as good as it should have been."
As for unsolved murders that appear to be serial killings, Kneir says the crimes have been referred to agents who specialize in tracking such cases. In instances where the FBI does not have jurisdiction, Kneir says, the FBI will discuss the cases with local police.
Darryl Cooper, chairman of Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence in Washington, D.C., says the groups' relationship with police has improved in recent years out of sheer necessity. Police are trying to crack 20 unsolved murders of gay men there.
So why are the books still open on so many homicides of gay men and lesbians across the nation?
Dianne Hardy-Garcia, executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, says both police and families of victims compromise murder investigations because they do not want to deal with the issue of sexual orientation. "In some cases we have police who don't want to deal with this," Hardy-Garcia says. "Police officers participate in the closeting of cases. They will tell victims' family members they don't want to bring up the gay aspect of it, saying it might prejudice a jury. It's 'Let's just keep this quiet.'"
In some cases family members find out their loved one was gay at the time of the murder. "Sometimes they don't press the police," Hardy-Garcia says. "They have shame about where [the victims] were and what they were doing."
Quinn agrees, saying she fears that the number of gays murdered is actually even larger than believed because family members have asked that the victim's sexual orientation be kept quiet. "There is a feeling among law enforcement that if it's the wish of the family that the sexual orientation of the victim should not be revealed that they should honor it," Quinn says. "We're going to push the FBI to overcome it."
If murder victims are not identified as gay or lesbian, Quinn says, others may not be made aware of danger in their community and will also be unable to help catch the killer. "The first priority has to be finding the suspect," she says, "not making the family comfortable."
Valuable time was lost in the investigation of the deaths of the two Appalachian Trail victims because victim advocates spent a week haggling with police over whether it should be disclosed that the women were lovers, Quinn says. Also, police in Prince George County were criticized for taking too long to alert the nearby Washington, D.C., gay community that four gay African-American men had been shot to death there in two months.
While most large cities have antiviolence projects to monitor unsolved gay and lesbian murders, large parts of the country are without such advocates. Quinn says she fears that the code of silence surrounding gay murders is still prevalent in some parts of the country and that there may be other serial killers out there besides those who have been identified. "They're the tip of the iceberg," she says. "If you can't identify a victim's sexual orientation, you can never have the community participate in the investigation to catch a murderer."
As for the future, perhaps community participation will increase. At the meeting in September, the FBI agreed to ask its field officers to contact local representatives of gay and lesbian antiviolence groups to discuss how they can better work together. The FBI also promised to meet quarterly with gay and lesbian leaders and may use them to help with sensitivity training for FBI agents. The bottom line, says the FBI's Kneir: "We need to make a better effort."
Christopher Jones, 37, was murdered in Baltimore in June 1999 by Gary Mick, who was sentenced on 25 July 2000 in Baltimore, Maryland Circuit Court to life imprisonment plus thirty years for killing one gay man and attempting to kill another, the Baltimore Sun reported. (Item reported in PlanetOut, 26 July 2000)
Michael J Hatch was murdered on 20 October 1999 in Barron County, USA as reported by Hatecrime web site on 8 August 2000, when Raymond C Walton and Corey L Kralewski were being tried for the murder. The hate crime issue was added to the original charges because the victim was intentionally selected because of their belief or perception regarding Hatch's sexual orientation.
Tracy Ranta of Baltimore, Maryland - transgender hate crime murder - 22 November 1999
USA Arthur Carl "JR" Warren - murdered - beaten to death by two 17 year olds and one 16 year old in Grant Town West Virginia 4 July 2000
ERIC FRANKLIN PLUNKETT murdered 28 September 2000 at Gallaudet University. Plunkett, 19, was a gay deaf man with cerebral palsy. (PlanetOut news 2 October 2000)
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered hate crime murder victims in USA - 224 - from PlanetOut - In Memoriam (msrowena@yahoo.com) period covered not specified. (Web site found 2 June 2000)
PlanetOut reported on 28 July 2000 on hate crimes in California: California Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) on 27 July presented new hate crime statistics for the state for 1999. Although the total of 1962 incidents (affecting 2436 victims) represented a 12% increase over 1998, Lockyer acknowledged that might represent an increase in reporting rather than actual crimes, although he emphasised it was far too many either way. He further stressed that "each hate crime is an attack on the victim's personal identity or beliefs, leading to an ongoing fear of repeated attacks ...... the perpetrator views their victim as lacking full human worth" due to their disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Sexual orientation was the basis of 22% of California's hate crimes (436 incidents), second to race/ethnicity at 60% and ahead of religion at 17% and gender or disability at 1%.
About two-thirds of California's hate crimes were violence against persons rather than property. Of the violent crimes, 46% were intimidation, 31% simple assaults, 17% aggravated assaults, 5% robbers, and less than 1% were murders or rapes. Prosecutors filed complaints in 372 cases, achieving almost 62% convictions.
Dr Laura Schlessinger, syndicated radio show in USA has called gays and lesbians "biological errors". Paramount are to give her a TV programme starting on 11 September 2000, and a campaign has been under way for some months now to try and stop the show going ahead. There is a web site www.stopdrlaura.com and many of the large sponsors of her radio shows are now in the process of dropping her - the pink dollar strikes again???
CONTINUAL RISE IN VERMONT HATE CRIMES reported the SSO on 9 November 2000.
The number of hate crimes against gay men and lesbians in Vermont has increased since the introduction of civil unions legislation. Associated Press reports that in 1999, a total of 11 incidents were reported, compared to 13 reports in the first six months of 2000. Max Schleuter, executive director of the Vermont Crime Information Centre, has stated that while the reports should give us some concern, “whether or not it is related to civil unions is a hard argument to make.” There has also been a substantial rise in the number of “hateful incidents” - abusive behaviour which does not qualify for prosecution. Assistant Attorney-General Kate Hayes has stated that the state attorney-general’s civil rights division has received a phone call at least once a week since August (2000) about hate incidents, which include abusive mail, phone calls and emails relating to civil unions.
Gwen Araujo murder trial begins Tom Musbach, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network Wednesday, April 14, 2004 / 05:41 PM
SUMMARY: Describing Gwen Araujo's death as an "execution," prosecutor Chris Lamiero opened the trial of three men charged with killing the transgender teen in October 2002, after they discovered she was biologically male.
The long-awaited proceedings began Wednesday in Hayward, Calif., after three weeks of jury selection. The prosecutor, often referring to the victim by her birth name, Eddie, took several hours to recount how the defendants -- Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, both 24, and Michael Magidson, 23 -- got to know Araujo as "Lida" and later had sex with her. Lamiero also reviewed at length the events leading up to Araujo's death during a house party in Newark on Oct. 3, 2002. Araujo's body was found nearly two weeks later, buried in a shallow grave about 150 miles away from Newark.
The case received widespread media coverage and drew national attention to the problem of anti-transgender violence. "If there is such a thing as a pure crime of hatred, this is surely it," said Shannon Minter, legal director of the Transgender Law Project at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). "Gwen Araujo's only 'fault' was being a transgender person and having the courage to be true to herself."
The three men face murder charges with hate crime enhancements. According to the Associated Press, attorneys for two of the suspects plan to argue that their clients acted in the heat of passion, which would reduce the charges to manslaughter. Minter called the trial "extremely important" because "it is one of the first times that an act of hate violence against a transgender person has been prosecuted anywhere in the country." "If the prosecution succeeds, which I am confident it will," Minter told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network, "the verdict will send a powerful message that transgender people can no longer be attacked and brutalized with impunity. This case also underscores why it is so important to include transgender people in hate crimes statutes."
A fourth suspect in the killing, Jaron Nabors, 20, pleaded guilty in a deal to testify against his friends. He is serving an 11-year sentence for manslaughter.
Copyright © 1995-1999 PlanetOut Corporation. All Copyright & Trademark Rights Reserved.Testimony ends in Gwen Araujo case Eric Johnston, PlanetOut Network Tuesday, May 25, 2004 / 04:57 PM
SUMMARY: Testimony wrapped up Tuesday in the case of three California men charged with murdering transgender teen Gwen Araujo, with defense lawyers arguing that the men acted in a panic.
Testimony wrapped up Tuesday in the case of three California men charged with murdering transgender teen Gwen Araujo, with defense lawyers arguing that the men were deceived and acted in a panic.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin June 1 in Hayward, Calif.
On Monday, a clinical psychologist called by the defense testified the three defendants likely went into a "panic," brought on by a combination of anger, shame, drugs and alcohol, after discovering the 17-year-old Araujo was biologically male.
"It would flip them out," said Dr. Andrew Pojman.
Prior testimony revealed two of the defendants had sexual encounters with Araujo.
Advocates for transgender people have repeatedly taken issue with the lawyers' "transgender panic defense" strategy.
Michael Magidson, Jose Merel and Jason Cazares are charged with killing Araujo, who was beaten and strangled at Merel's house in Newark, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2002. They each face 25 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder with hate crime enhancements.
A fourth man, Jaron Nabors, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and agreed to testify against the others. He is serving an 11-year prison sentence.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Araujo's mother asked the court to have the deceased girl's name legally changed, posthumously. The victim was born Eddie Araujo, but chose to go by the name Gwen at age 14.
"I always promised Gwen that I would petition the courts to have her name changed, and I want to fulfill my promise," Sylvia Guerrero told the San Jose Mercury News.
"I wish in her lifetime I had called her Gwen more,'' she added. "I didn't realize how much it would have meant to her."
Guerrero said the name change is not solely about honoring her daughter's memory, but also to force the news media and others to refer to her as Gwen. Guerrero said she wants mainstream news organizations to stop identifying her child as "Eddie 'Gwen' Araujo."
Tina D'Elia, who represents Community United Against Violence and was in the courtroom Tuesday, told the PlanetOut Network the judge took the request under advisement and promised to make a decision within a month.
"So we're hopeful," said D'Elia.
Slain transgender teen gets name change
Tom Musbach, PlanetOut Network Thursday, July 1, 2004 / 05:17 PM
SUMMARY: A California court has recognized the name change for slain transgender teen Gwen Araujo. Activists hope the order will stop lawyers and the media from calling her "Eddie."
A California court has officially recognized the name change for slain transgender teen Gwen Araujo, and family and friends say the court order should spare her the indignity of being referred to with male pronouns or being called "Eddie" during the retrial of her murder.
Araujo's mother and advocates for transgender rights announced the legal name recognition in a press conference on Thursday in Fremont. The official name is Gwen Amber Rose Araujo, changed from the birth name of Edward Araujo Jr.
"I'm elated for Gwen, my family and our friends. This is something that all of us have been waiting too long for," said Sylvia Guerrero, Araujo's mother, who petitioned for the name change on May 25. "It is one of my regrets that I didn't call my daughter Gwen more while she was alive. Having this order granted helps me to put that regret to rest."
Superior Court Commissioner Thomas Surh granted the name change last week on June 23, one day after the trial of her three alleged killers ended in a mistrial. The jurors in the case deadlocked after 10 days of deliberation and were unable to agree on first- or second-degree murder charges. A hearing to determine the retrial date is scheduled for July 30.
Araujo was brutally killed at a house party on Oct. 4, 2002, after some attendees discovered she was biologically male. Three male suspects, two of whom had sex with Araujo, were charged with first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement.
The killing and subsequent criminal trial drew widespread media attention to anti-transgender violence, but it also highlighted problems of accurately portraying transgender individuals in the media and in court. Advocates for transgender rights said Thursday's announcement about Araujo's name should make a strong statement.
"The court's decision sends a clear message to journalists that 'Eddie Gwen Araujo,' 'Eddie Araujo' or the male pronoun 'he' has never been appropriate," Eddie Gutierrez, associate director of regional media for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), said in a prepared statement.
"Make no mistake, this court order is not a symbolic document," said Christopher Daley, co-director of the Transgender Law Center.
"Due to last week's mistrial, Gwen's name and identity will once again be subject to unprincipled attacks from the same defense attorneys who have spent the last several months disrespecting her," Daley said. "It is my strong hope that as we move towards a retrial for their clients, each of these attorneys will give the order the respect it demands by referring to Gwen by her legal name."
Star witness on stand in Araujo retrial Ann Rostow, PlanetOut Network Tuesday, June 7, 2005 / 05:26 PM
SUMMARY: Defense lawyers in the retrial of three men accused of slaying transgender teen Gwen Araujo used part of their opening statements to characterize the star witness as a manipulative liar.
Defense lawyers in the Hayward, California retrial of three men accused of slaying transgendered teen Gwen Araujo used part of their opening statements last week to characterize star witness Jaron Nabors as a manipulative liar. This week, Nabors took the stand.
Prosecutors relaunched the case against Michael Magidson, Jason Cazares and Jose Merel, accused of the October 2002 murder, after the first jury could not decide whether the murder was premeditated, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.
In both trials, the prosecution's case depends heavily on the word of Jaron Nabors, a fourth member of the group who accepted a plea bargain in exchange for his testimony against the others.
Gwen Araujo, who was 17 at her death, befriended the men and had sexual encounters with Magidson and Merel while disguising her birth gender. Her secret was revealed late one night during a party at Merel's house, and the scene turned murderous.
In his testimony on Monday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, Nabors said Merel and Magidson were suspicious of Araujo that night. "I swear, if it's a man, I'm going to fucking kill him. She ain't leaving," Nabors quoted Merel.
The witness recalled Magidson responding, "I don't know what I'm going to do." Nabors testified that he then told Magidson, "Whatever you do, make sure you don't make a mess." Under questioning, the 22-year-old admitted that he thought "there was going to be some physical violence" if indeed Araujo had been deceiving his friends.
Indeed Araujo was exposed that night, at which point Magidson and Merel allegedly snapped, brutalizing the young woman, kicking her, and then hitting her over the head with a heavy frying pan.
As Araujo begged for her life, two other partygoers, Merel's brother and his girlfriend, left the house in alarm. Neither of them ever called the police.
Nabors says Magidson took Araujo into the garage, tied her up and strangled her with a rope. Later, the men drove her body from the San Francisco suburbs into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and buried her in a shallow grave.
Although Araujo's family reported her missing, her murder was not discovered for several weeks. Nabors spoke of the evening to friends, and under questioning by police, he led authorities to the grave. He pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter, while Merel, Magidson and Cazares were charged with first-degree murder.
Last year, Magidson's lawyer in particular used the "trans panic" defense, insisting that the murder was a crime of passion due to the shock of discovering that Araujo was transgendered. The jury deadlocked on premeditation, and the case was declared a mistrial.
According to the Associated Press, Magidson is positioned to try the same defense a second time. Merel's lawyer says his client cared about Araujo, and did not participate in the worst of it, while Cazares claims to have been outside during the attacks.
Death for hate-crime killer; DA calls gay panic 'ridiculous'
Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network Friday, August 6, 2004 / 07:28 PM
SUMMARY: After a Georgia jury sentenced a man to life in prison for stabbing a gay man to death, the county district attorney called the gay-panic defense "downright ridiculous" this week.
This week a Georgia jury sentenced a man to life in prison for stabbing a gay man to death, but the story is making headlines for what the county district attorney is saying about the convicted killer's defense.
James Lee Shaw told a court he fatally stabbed Rowland Hardwick in a restaurant restroom in August 2002 because Hardwick had a knife and tried to rape him. Shaw claimed that when he was young he was molested by men, telling jurors he suffered flashbacks.
But prosecutors noted that in the 40 times Hardwick was stabbed, Shaw did not have the defensive wounds expected in a struggle. Prosecutors say Shaw was not defending himself from a rape, but attacking a man who had simply made a pass at him.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard says Shaw's defense amounted to nothing more than a "gay panic" defense and said he is sick of it.
"It is demeaning, outrageous, insulting and downright ridiculous for defendants to believe that the death of any human being is justified because he or she is homosexual," Howard said in a quote published by the Associated Press.
Howard has faced the gay panic defense before, when an assistant district attorney from his office was found bludgeoned to death in his east Cobb County apartment in 2001.
Police charged Roderiqus Reshad Reed of Ahmed Dabarran's murder. But Reed's attorneys successfully argued that Reed killed Dabarran in self-defense after being forced to commit a sex act at gunpoint by a third man. Reed was acquitted last year.
In another case last year, one student at Morehouse College was convicted of attacking a classmate with a baseball bat after being stared at in shower stall. Prosecutors say it was a hate crime, but the jury only convicted Aaron Price of aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
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"FBI: Anti-gay hate crimes decline in '03 Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network published Monday, November 22, 2004
Reported hate crimes directed toward gays, lesbians and bisexuals fell slightly last year, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's data on hate crimes published Monday. According to the report, in 2003 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation made up 16.4 percent of the nation's hate crimes. The year before, 16.7 percent of the nation's hate crimes targeted people based on their perceived orientation, which was the highest percentage since the report started publishing 13 years ago.
The report claimed there were 1,239 incidents of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation with 1,479 victims. The year before the FBI reported 1,244 incidents of similar hate crimes with 1,513 victims.
Of the 1,479 victims, 61.5 percent were targeted because they were male homosexuals. Anti-lesbian attacks accounted for 15.6 percent of the attacks. Attacks made on homosexuals at large accounted for 21.2 percent of the attacks. Anti-bisexual violence accounted for 0.07 percent, while attacks against heterosexuals made up 1 percent of the recorded data.
According to the report, hatred based on sexual orientation in 2003 motivated six murders, three rapes, 162 incidents of aggravated assault, 446 incidents of simple assault, 433 incidents of intimidation and 295 acts of vandalism.
California recorded the most violent incidents, 337, against people based on their perceived sexuality. New York came in second, with 71 attacks. And Massachusetts came in at third place with 69 incidents.
According to the FBI, most of the attacks against people based on their perceived sexuality, 30.3 percent, occurred at home. Highways and roads came in at second, making up 25 percent of the attacks. Schools and colleges placed third, with 11.9 percent of the attacks. The report, made possible by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, analyzes data from 11,909 law enforcement agencies.
According to the report, crimes motivated by a person's perceived sexuality made up 16.4 percent of the nation's over 7,400 hate crimes recorded. Hate crimes motivated by someone's religion shared the same percentage. Most of the nation's hate crimes, 52.5 percent, were motivated by race."
NEWS: US group rewards info leading to gay murder conviction
Ross von Metzke | June 28, 2005 Wanda Alston WASHINGTON, D.C.
— The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force announced this week that it had paid $10,000 to two individuals who provided information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man who murdered beloved District of Columbia lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocate Wanda Alston on March 16. The murderer, William M. Parrott Jr., subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on April 21 and is scheduled to be sentenced July 29.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the donation toward the reward by the Task Force contributed greatly to the swift closure of the murder of Wanda Alston," said Sergeant Brett Parson of the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit of the Metropolitan Police Department. "It is partnerships like this, between the community and the police, that make Washington, D.C., a safer place to live."
"Wanda's murder is an awful tragedy and nothing can change that," said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman. "We are gratified that we could help bring the man who murdered her to justice."
Alston's extensive organizing and leadership experience included working as staff at the National Organization for Women and the Human Rights Campaign; she was a founding member and board member of the National Stonewall Democrats; and she was an organizer of four national marches. Alston was involved with the Task Force in many ways, most passionately through participation in its Power Summits and national actions. At the time of her death, she served as the mayor's special assistant for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs.
Parrott told authorities he was under the influence of crack cocaine, and that the motive for killing Alston was to rob her so he could buy more of the drug. He could receive a maximum of 40 years in prison. – Gay Link Content
Ex-cop gets life for killing gay student
PlanetOut Network Wednesday, July 6, 2005 / 04:24 PM
SUMMARY: A former policeman in Columbia, Mo., was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for killing a gay college student with whom he was having an affair.
A former policeman in Columbia, Mo., was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for killing a gay college student with whom he was having an affair.
Steven Rios, a 28-year-old married father, also received an additional 10 years for armed criminal action for slashing the throat of his victim, Jesse Valencia.
Rios will not have an opportunity for parole, the Associated Press reported.
Valencia, 23, was found dead June 5, 2004, in a yard near his home. Prosecutors argued that Rios killed the University of Missouri-Columbia student because Valencia had threatened to reveal their affair to the police chief.
Rios first met Valencia in April 2004, when he arrested the student while investigating a loud party. The ex-cop testified that his affair with Valencia began that same night.
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FBI: Hate crimes dropped slightly in '04 Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network Tuesday, October 18, 2005 / 04:27 PM
SUMMARY: The FBI has released hate crimes data for 2004 that show a slight decrease in anti-gay violence, but a national group questions the report's accuracy.
The FBI has released hate crime statistics for 2004 that show a slight decrease in violence against LGBT victims, but a national anti-violence group questions the report's accuracy.
According to the FBI, 15.6 percent of the hate crimes of 2004 were directed against the victims' perceived sexual orientation. In 2003, crimes motivated by sexual orientation made up 16.4 percent of the nation's hate crimes. In 2002 it was 16.7 percent.
The report claims in 2004 there was 1,197 incidents of sexual orientation hate crimes with 1,482 victims. In 2003, there were 1,239 incidents of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation with 1,479 victims. In 2002 the FBI reported 1,244 incidents of similar hate crimes with 1,513 victims.
Of the 1,482 victims, 61 percent were targeted because they were male homosexuals. Anti-lesbian attacks accounted for 14 percent of the attacks. Attacks made on homosexuals at large accounted for 20 percent of the attacks. Anti-bisexual violence accounted for 1 percent, while attacks against heterosexuals made up 2 percent of the recorded data.
The report has been published annually since Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990. The law directed the Attorney General to collect data "about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity."
Clarence Patton, executive director of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), dismissed the report as "The Book of Zeroes."
"If you go by county by county, you will see zero after zero after zero, and what this means is not that there weren't any hate crimes, but no one reported them," he said.
"In 2003, the F.B.I. said there were 725 hate crimes in California," he pointed out. "At the same time, there were 433 incidents reported to us in Los Angeles and 317 in the San Francisco Bay Area."
"The FBI numbers comes from local law enforcement submitting data to them. Many law enforcement agencies don't have to do it, so the FBI doesn't get data from everywhere," Patton said. "A lot of folks from the community are more willing to report to a community-based organization rather than law enforcement."
"Another thing that skews the numbers is that even in jurisdictions with hate crime laws, oftentimes the cases don't get classified as hate crimes," Patton added. "Sometimes it's poor police work, sometimes it's lazy police work. Sometimes it is a lack of clear understanding about what the hate crime policy is."
Patton believes the police need to develop a closer relationship with police organizations so they have a more precise picture of hate crimes in America.
He also thinks a new federal hate crime law needs to be drafted to make the reporting of such crimes mandatory for police agencies.
"We won't know how to solve the problem until we know how big the problem is," Patton said.
Last month the U.S. House of Representatives passed a hate crimes bill that would give law enforcement officers the tools to prosecute crimes directed at a victim because he or she is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The measure still must pass the Senate.
Copyright © 1995-1999 PlanetOut Corporation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Man convicted of hate crime in N.Y. attack Larry Buhl, PlanetOut Network Wednesday, March 29, 2006 / 10:59 AM
SUMMARY: A Brooklyn man is convicted of a hate crime in the severe beating in June of a gay man; activists hail the unusual verdict as a win for LGBT rights.
A 23-year-old Brooklyn man was convicted Monday of committing a hate crime in one of the most brutal anti-gay assaults in New York City last year.
Steven Pomie was convicted on five counts, including first-degree assault and assault as a hate crime, for attacking Dwan Prince outside Prince's apartment in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn in June. Authorities said Pomie and two others beat Prince unconscious and kicked him in the head while screaming anti-gay slurs.
The attack left Prince in a coma for more than a month, and several of his injuries still require rehabilitation. But he recovered enough to provide dramatic testimony at the trial that helped convict Pomie on all counts. He faces up to 25 years in prison, according to Newsday. Sentencing is scheduled for April 24.
The guilty verdict was a win not only for Prince but also for the LGBT community, said Clarence Patton, executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.
"This kind of crime sends shock waves through a neighborhood and through the LGBT community, but too often the perpetrators of anti-LGBT hate violence are never apprehended, let alone tried and found guilty," Patton said.
The reason for the low number of hate crime assault prosecutions is the nature of the crime, Patton said: "Victims tend to be alone, and the assault happens too quickly for the victim to make a positive ID of the assailant." Patton noted that, although many states have laws against anti-gay assaults, it is difficult to prove hate as a motivating factor, and prosecutors are often not confident enough that they can make the hate charge stick.
The prosecution in Prince's case was helped by the fact that several witnesses called police while the attack was occurring. In addition, Anti-Violence Project staff and volunteers went to the Brownsville neighborhood to solicit information and witnesses, and even held a City Hall press conference to raise visibility around the case.
Patton praised the "excellent work of the police investigators and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office in bringing some justice to Dwan" and thanked Anti-Violence Project staff and volunteers for helping to find the perpetrators.
But Patton said he will not be satisfied until the other individuals involved in the attack are charged and brought to trial.
Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia now include gay men and lesbians in hate crime laws, although not all of those specifically cover gender identity.
A new anti-LGBT assault in New York City is reported to the Anti-Violence Project every 36 hours.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------October 14, 2006
Man Attacked in Possible Hate Crime Dies
By AL BAKER
The victim of what the authorities say was a hate crime died in a Brooklyn hospital yesterday, five days after he was attacked, robbed and forced into roaring traffic on the Belt Parkway, where he was struck by a hit-and-run driver.
The victim, Michael J. Sandy, turned 29 on Thursday. McCartha L. Lewis, his aunt, said dozens of his friends and relatives gathered at Mr. Sandy’s bedside at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center about noon as he was taken off a respirator that was supporting his breathing.
“He was already brain dead,” Ms. Lewis said. “He was already gone. Michael is at peace at this moment, resting peacefully right now.”
She added, “It was a very sad moment at that time, and up to now it is still a very sad time for us.”
Three Brooklyn men have been charged with hate crimes in connection with the attack on Mr. Sandy, who grew up on Long Island and worked in the interiors department at the Ikea store in Hicksville.
Officials said the men singled out Mr. Sandy for being gay and plotted to rob him by using AOL instant messages to lure him to a parking lot by Plumb Beach near Sheepshead Bay about 9:40 p.m. Sunday.
Detectives investigating Mr. Sandy’s Internet communications in the hours before the attack were led to the first suspect, John Fox, 19, of Knapp Street in Brooklyn, a sophomore at SUNY Maritime College. The other two suspects are Gary Timmins, 16, of Gerritsen Beach and Ilya Shurov, 20, of Sheepshead Bay. The three men have been charged with first-degree assault as a hate crime and first- and second-degree robbery, also as hate crimes, according to the police.
A fourth man was questioned and released, officials said, though the investigation is continuing.
Yesterday, a grand jury indicted Mr. Fox on charges of assault and attempted robbery as hate crimes, according to court and law enforcement officials. On Monday, prosecutors are expected to reconvene the grand jury to ask it to reindict Mr. Fox on felony murder charges.
Also on Monday, the grand jury is expected to consider an indictment against Mr. Shurov, and on Tuesday, against Mr. Timmins.
Michael Brick contributed reporting.
Victim, 72, of Detroit hate beating dies
SUMMARY: Andrew Anthos, 72, whose dream was to light up the Michigan State Capitol in red, white and blue, dies Friday of injuries sustained in a hate beating.
Andrew Anthos, whose dream was to light up the Michigan State Capitol dome in red, white and blue, died Friday of injuries sustained in a Feb. 13 hate beating.
Though Anthos, 72, was visiting with friends as recently as Wednesday, his condition declined rapidly in the past two days and he was administered the last rites late Thursday in Detroit Receiving Hospital.
The attack, which left Anthos paralyzed from the neck down and virtually without speech, shocked the gay community, which reached out to his family with love and support -- as well as anger and a resolve for justice.
"There's going to be a great deal more attention now that this, unfortunately, has become a homicide," said Jeffrey Montgomery of Michigan's Triangle Foundation.
"We have worked with prosecutors here for many years, and all the buttons that can be pushed are being pushed right now," Montgomery said.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has offered to pay for Anthos' funeral, Montgomery said.
"So many people want to pay their respects," said Anthos' niece, Athena Federis, adding that she considers the gay and lesbian people who've offered their support "like family."
The gay, biracial Anthos, known to loved ones as "Buddy," had been riding the bus that evening from the public library back to his Detroit apartment when another passenger annoyed with his singing approached him and asked if he was gay.
Anthos left the bus and helped a wheelchair-bound fellow passenger through the snow, only to be followed by the assailant, who hit him in the back of the head with a metal pipe and fled.
The wheelchair-using friend was able to provide some information, Detroit Police Detective Sgt. Ryan Lovier said. But police still seek potential witnesses aboard the bus, which would have arrived at the stop near Detroit's Windsor Towers apartments roughly between 6 and 6:30 p.m.
The assailant is described as a light-skinned black man, no more than 23 years old, about 5 foot 7 and 150 pounds, wearing a dark coat and pants, Lovier said. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate)
Gay American Heroes, the traveling monument that memorializes gay men and women who have been killed due to homophobic violence, is scheduled to be displayed in the Florida Capitol Rotunda April 28.
The monument features the names, pictures and stories of more than 500 people who were killed in homophobic hate crimes. Recent inductees include Lawrence King, the 15-year-old who was shot and killed in school in California, and Simmie Williams, the 17-year-old who was killed on Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.
Lynn Mulder said he and his wife, Skipper’s mother, Patricia, are excited to hear that the display will be held on Skipper’s birthday. The event was originally planned for April 21 but had to be moved.
This report was in MCV (18 September 2008) and updates news of Matthew Shepard's brutal murder 10 years ago:
A public commemoration, homouring hate-crime victim Matthew Shepard, who was murdered 10 years ago, is to take place in Minneapolis. Shepard was brutally beaten by Aaron James McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson after they met him at a bar in Laramie, Wyoming, on 6 October 1998. The pair tortured and bashed the 21-year-old student before tying him to a fence in a paddock. Shepard died in hospital six days later. A candlelight vigil, followed by a reading of The Laramie Project, a play which documented Shepard's murder and the subsequent trial, will take place next month. McKinney and Henderson are serving life in prison.
Meanwhile, the authors of The Laramie Project are to return to Laramie, to research an epilogue to the award-winning play. The group said through a spokeswoman that it intended to discover "what, if any, effect the intervening years have had on the town and its people," the New York Times reports.
Report from MCV Issue 415:
Violence against LGBT people is likely to be on the rise in the USA, the New York City Anti-Violence Project has reported.
The organisation, which documents assaults against LGBT people, cited the recent fatal baseball bat beating of an Ecuadorian immigrant, Jose Sucuzhanay, as the latest indication that anti-gay assaults were increasing.
Sucuzhanay died last Friday night, five days after he and his brother were attacked while walking home with their arms around each other by a car load of men shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs.
"We are witnessing what appears to be an increase in both the occurrence and severity of violence motivated by racism, homophobia and transphobia," Sharon Stapel, the Anti-Violence Project's executive director, told the Associated Press.
GAY AND LESBIAN HATE CRIMES - BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RECOMMENDED READING LIST