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Thread: Gwen Araujo - Transgender Murder Victim

  1. #1
    Boxofpandoraz Guest

    Gwen Araujo - Transgender Murder Victim

    I watched a documentary on this case titled "Trained In The Ways of Men". And while it can't exactly be said that Gwen was a saint, due to the drug use and whatnot, what happened to her was still mind-numbingly brutal.

    The sickest part, in my opinion, is the fact that the three jackasses who killed her got a mistrial the first time around, one of them succeeding in getting one the second time.

    The article doesn't cover this, so I'll share it here:

    Two of them are serving 15 to life, the third, 6 years.

    Rather disgusting if you ask me...

    The article here is from Rolling Stone in 2005. But if you get a chance to catch the documentary on DVD, it's well worth the watch.

    http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...boy_named_gwen

  2. #2
    NOVSTORM Guest
    That is so damn sad. Wait until they become someones bitch in prison. insipid,insignificant idiots. I will never understand why we cannot let people be who they are. Poor Gwen if only she had made a better choice in friendsMoved to San Francisco, they have a community there that helps TG's and she would have been a lot safer. I met this really great person in spades . She and I became friends and about 6 months later she told me she had the operation and was now complete. She was an ex Marine and she had so many problems with the staff at the Vets hospitals.
    BUT she had no problems with the vets! The staff said she had to be in the nmale section because she was male ,so they put her in a room with 6 guys! You could tell she was a woman, she expected trouble but low and behold the guys actualy took up for her. They raised hell and said she served this country for 20 years and you need to treat her with respect and move her to the womans section. Not wanting a expolsive situation they finally moved her. I wrote to Bush about the way she was treated and had about 200 friends on the web send cards to their reprsenatives in congress and their senators to stop this kind of treatment of her. She became suicidal from all of this and went thru hell. All of a sudden I stopped hearing from her and have no one to contact as her children abondoned her because she had asex change and wouldn't let her see her grand kids either. I have written letters and never get replies. I don't know what happened but I wonder all the time. Life for these people is a hell on earth . I am glad you posted this because I am writing her again tonight and hopefully I will get a reply some day.

  3. #3
    Boxofpandoraz Guest
    NOVSTORM, thank you for sharing your story.

    My thoughts and prayers will go out along with your letter, in the hopes that your friend will realize how truly she is loved.

  4. #4
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    At the last company I worked at in California, before moving to Texas, a girl I worked with, lived in the house Gwen was murdered in!

    After the smoke cleared and the police were done, the landlord rented out the rooms in the house to new tenants - including my co-worker! She had NO idea it was THE house!

    Until Gwen's step-father came one day and gave her and everyone else a hard time for being in that house - thinking they all had something to do with the murder.

    The reason why my co-worker moved into the house, was because she was dating a brother of one of the guys who killed Gwen. And before you think she was bullshitting, I did meet the guy one time he came to the job to bring her dinner - and he was the spitting image of his brother!

    My co-worker told me the landlord didn't really fix up the house after the murder, since there were still holes in the walls, carpets torn up from where the blood was.

    And she said the place was haunted. Water in the bathroom turning on by itself, blinds opening at will, the sound of crying, etc.

    She didn't live there too long and she told me some wild stories in regards to that place and the guy who was involved, based on what the brother she was dating told her.

    I thought it was cool knowing someone "attached" in some way to all of that and getting to hear all of that - including the haunted house stories.

    When that story came out in Rolling Stone, I wrote a letter to the editor - which was published, altho they left out all of the part about my co-worker's story and mainly published my feelings on Gwen - how she had played a "dangerous game" andshould have chosen her friends more wisely and how living in the Bay Area, there were better places to find friends and lovers and LOTS of help and programs for Trans-gendered folk.

  5. #5
    gleemonex Guest
    Lifetime made a movie called A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787484/
    I don't really care for Lifetime movies, but this one broke my heart.

    Wow Aries, what other stories did your co-worker tell you about? I don't doubt that house is haunted.

    That was a really good article, Pandora. Thanks for the link.

  6. #6
    Lita Guest
    Sounds a lot like the Tina Brandon story. How sad.

  7. #7
    lisalouver Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Lita View Post
    Sounds a lot like the Tina Brandon story. How sad.
    Tina Brandon and Gwen are the two biggest ones that you hear about, however, there have been many deaths similar to this in the last 30 years.

    http://www.gender.org/remember/index.html

    Many of the names are on this list.

    Sad.

    I just read Jennifer Finney Boylan's book "She's not there, a life in two genders"

    Fantastic book. She had the surgery, went from man to woman, the college she teaches at supported her and her wife stayed with her to raise their two kids. She has her own website here.

    http://jenniferboylan.net/

    She has gotten a bit famous, she just did a spot playing herself on All my Children last fall.

  8. #8
    RaRaRamona Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Aries65 View Post

    When that story came out in Rolling Stone, I wrote a letter to the editor - which was published, altho they left out all of the part about my co-worker's story and mainly published my feelings on Gwen - how she had played a "dangerous game" andshould have chosen her friends more wisely and how living in the Bay Area, there were better places to find friends and lovers and LOTS of help and programs for Trans-gendered folk.
    I was going to say the same thing. Certainly these people don't deserve to be brutally murdered but they play a very dangerous game. I have known many & they were all the same. It's ridiculous. Here's what I have learned: they weren't happy as the sex they born & they thought they were "supposed to be" the opposite sex. So they went through the ordeal of changing the hair & the clothes & the voice...and guess what? Still unhappy. They just didn't know what to do about it. The assumed it must be that they were born in the wrong body but in fact they unhappy for other reasons.

    Before y'all start freaking out "No, I am a man really!" I am sure every case is not like this but as I said, that's been my experience. Also, they thought it was so thrilling to be with men AND NOT TELL THEM. Yes many were beaten BADLY many times. Did they learn? Heck no! That was part of it for them I think - the misery. I never understood it. It's like a black thugged out guy strutting into a KKK meeting under a sheet - bonding & drinking, lighting a fire, then ripping off the sheet. What do you think is gong to happen? It's stupid.

    I am sorry he was killed but I can't honestly feel too badly for him b/c of his choices.


    Here's something from the article I strongly disagree with:

    ""It's like a fraternity," says Barrie Thorne, a sociologist at the University of California at Berkeley. "You get guys who are invested in being straight but whose bond includes physical and emotional closeness, a lot of homoerotic overtones. They police each other's masculinity." "


    Puh-leeze! Guys can be friends & not be secretly gay. "Invested in being straight??" What? How about they are straight? That guy's gotta be gay. Only gay men assume every straight guy is secretly gay. He probably also thinks those guys want him - want him bad. :P

  9. #9
    Boxofpandoraz Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by RaRaRamona View Post
    Puh-leeze! Guys can be friends & not be secretly gay. "Invested in being straight??" What? How about they are straight? That guy's gotta be gay. Only gay men assume every straight guy is secretly gay. He probably also thinks those guys want him - want him bad. :P
    I agree with you on the fact that men can be close friends without it reaching that type of intimacy, however, I think that the part you quoted from the article was speaking more about the particular group of people who killed Gwen Araujo.

    I know the type, I've met guys like this. The type of guy whose homophobia is so strong any suggestion that he might be homosexual himself (Or in the general company of someone who is homosexual) is met with anger or violence.

    A male I knew once told me "I know you hang out with those gay people...but if they ever come near me, it won't be pretty." Needless to say, that person is not a part of my life anymore. Pshaw...Like my gay friends would stoop THAT low.

  10. #10
    RaRaRamona Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Boxofpandoraz View Post
    I agree with you on the fact that men can be close friends without it reaching that type of intimacy, however, I think that the part you quoted from the article was speaking more about the particular group of people who killed Gwen Araujo.

    I know the type, I've met guys like this. The type of guy whose homophobia is so strong any suggestion that he might be homosexual himself (Or in the general company of someone who is homosexual) is met with anger or violence.

    A male I knew once told me "I know you hang out with those gay people...but if they ever come near me, it won't be pretty." Needless to say, that person is not a part of my life anymore. Pshaw...Like my gay friends would stoop THAT low.
    Honestly though, most men are kind of like that. Not to such an extreme, but they are. Part of is for the reason I stated above - seriously, most (not all) gays I know seriously want straight men & they think they are the gay to change them. That's all I can figure - they have been molested enough so they don't want to be around them anymore.

    I haven't stopped being friends with a guy just b/c he said he didn't like my gay friends, but if any ever got nasty (& some have) I did have to let them go.

    I do get what you're saying though.

  11. #11
    Boxofpandoraz Guest
    I wouldn't cut anyone out for simply not AGREEING with the homosexual lifestyle, but once threats come into play? Nuh uh. That aint happenin' on my watch!

    I hate homophobic guys who automatically think that every gay person they meet is going to want them instantaniously...It's the same vanity as a man who thinks too highly of himself around the ladies.

    Get over yourself, dude...seriously. LOL!

  12. #12
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    As far as crimes against adults; it is the hate crimes like this that I have the hardest time understanding.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by gleemonex View Post
    Wow Aries, what other stories did your co-worker tell you about? I don't doubt that house is haunted.
    She was home when Rolling Stone and everyone was outside taking photos and interviewing the family. A lot of people were outside and making a huge racket, and she has a baby that was napping, so she went outside and told them to hold it down!

    The guy she was dating, was the brother Paul, who was mentioned in the story. Apparently he left the house when the yelling and stuff started since he didn't want any part of. His crime was not calling the police, and he didn't get any charges brought down on him, but he'll have to live with that for the rest of his life.

    I think my co-worker was a bit too afraid to break things off with him once she knew what was going on, but eventually she did.

    All of us at the company were just freaked out that she knew this guy and lived in that house - since this story was major headlines in the Bay Area - even during the trial.

    I can't say that area of the Bay Area is safe to live in, since a lot of gangs are in that area (Newark, Fremont, Union City), and there's been quite a bit of murders out there. I had a friend who was stabbed to death by her lover in her house - in Newark. That house is a different story altogether and was really haunted! I mentioned all of that on a different thread.

  14. #14
    gleemonex Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Aries65 View Post
    She was home when Rolling Stone and everyone was outside taking photos and interviewing the family. A lot of people were outside and making a huge racket, and she has a baby that was napping, so she went outside and told them to hold it down!

    The guy she was dating, was the brother Paul, who was mentioned in the story. Apparently he left the house when the yelling and stuff started since he didn't want any part of. His crime was not calling the police, and he didn't get any charges brought down on him, but he'll have to live with that for the rest of his life.

    I think my co-worker was a bit too afraid to break things off with him once she knew what was going on, but eventually she did.

    All of us at the company were just freaked out that she knew this guy and lived in that house - since this story was major headlines in the Bay Area - even during the trial.

    I can't say that area of the Bay Area is safe to live in, since a lot of gangs are in that area (Newark, Fremont, Union City), and there's been quite a bit of murders out there. I had a friend who was stabbed to death by her lover in her house - in Newark. That house is a different story altogether and was really haunted! I mentioned all of that on a different thread.
    I am really floored that Paul continued to live in that house. I'm sure he's not a total monster and feels some guilt for not calling the police. I would think that guilt would've motivated him to find a new residence. Then again, being haunted, I guess it serves him right.

    Okay, I'm going to go hunt for the thread that you mentioned. If it's not too much trouble, could you point me in the right direction, Aries-who-lives-in-one-of-the-most-kick-ass-cities-in-Texas?
    Last edited by gleemonex; 03-24-2008 at 05:28 PM. Reason: Kissing up to Aries added

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by gleemonex View Post
    I am really floored that Paul continued to live in that house. I'm sure he's not a total monster and feels some guilt for not calling the police. I would think that guilt would've motivated him to find a new residence. Then again, being haunted, I guess it serves him right.

    Okay, I'm going to go hunt for the thread that you mentioned. If it's not too much trouble, could you point me in the right direction, Aries-who-lives-in-one-of-the-most-kick-ass-cities-in-Texas?
    It's in the "First person dead at the scene" thread - which I bumped up. It's a couple of threads under this one!

  16. #16
    gleemonex Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Aries65 View Post
    It's in the "First person dead at the scene" thread - which I bumped up. It's a couple of threads under this one!
    Thanks Aries!

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by gleemonex View Post
    Lifetime made a movie called A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787484/
    I don't really care for Lifetime movies, but this one broke my heart.

    Wow Aries, what other stories did your co-worker tell you about? I don't doubt that house is haunted.

    That was a really good article, Pandora. Thanks for the link.
    Quite shockingly, this is actually on Channel 5 here in the UK at the moment, and you are right, it is heartbreaking. The bit at the end with Mercedes Ruehl iin the courtroom got me a bit weepy
    Last edited by Wickedkitten; 01-16-2009 at 08:56 AM.

  18. #18
    RubySlippers Guest
    here is an update on a local incident of a young lady who was beat to death after the guy she took home figured her out...so so tragic. she was 18. this a picture of her and her murder.

    http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...1645&catid=339
    Last edited by RubySlippers; 04-12-2009 at 04:27 PM.

  19. #19
    beatlebaby4 Guest
    I'm sure the guy was surprise by his "discovery" and perhaps somewhat embarrassed but to murder someone, come on, where are peoples morals these days? You don't kill someone because you were embarrassed or douped. Seems like the killer was very insecure and a coward.

  20. #20
    imadeathhag Guest
    Gwen:



    So sad what happened. She was very pretty.

  21. #21
    beatlebaby4 Guest
    She was very pretty

  22. #22
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    Gwen was beautiful. She deserved so much better.

  23. #23
    KarmaKat Guest
    Wow such an attractive girl. Such a shame people are not more tollerant in this world. Lying is a dangerous game though. But there is no excuse for what these so called men have done.

  24. #24
    vandal Guest
    Man some of the transgendered on this thread are very convincing. Im in no way saying their murders were just but dont you think if you are a man living as a woman you should maybe be a little upfront about your situation rather than wait for the guy to find out?

  25. #25
    RubySlippers Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by beatlebaby4 View Post
    I'm sure the guy was surprise by his "discovery" and perhaps somewhat embarrassed but to murder someone, come on, where are peoples morals these days? You don't kill someone because you were embarrassed or douped. Seems like the killer was very insecure and a coward.
    he beat her about the face with a fire extinguisher.

  26. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by beatlebaby4 View Post
    I'm sure the guy was surprise by his "discovery" and perhaps somewhat embarrassed but to murder someone, come on, where are peoples morals these days? You don't kill someone because you were embarrassed or douped. Seems like the killer was very insecure and a coward.
    Ironic he killed someone because he was embarrassed about having sex with a dude and now the only sex action he can possibly get is sex with dudes. Hopefully someone will bash his face in with a fire extinguisher somewhat along the lines of the movie "Irreversible".
    A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

  27. #27
    beatlebaby4 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by RubySlippers View Post
    he beat her about the face with a fire extinguisher.


    Quote Originally Posted by ichabodius View Post
    Ironic he killed someone because he was embarrassed about having sex with a dude and now the only sex action he can possibly get is sex with dudes. Hopefully someone will bash his face in with a fire extinguisher somewhat along the lines of the movie "Irreversible".
    Exactly. Karma.

  28. #28
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    I watched a movie not too long ago about Gwen called a girl like me...a very good movie, so very sad what happened to her.

  29. #29
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    It makes me crazy when people say "Well they can choose to go back."

    Look at all the crap these poor people have had to go through. Do you really think that if they could "Choose" that they would pick changing genders knowing that their life will be very difficult.

    These are people. Someone's child, brother, sister, lover. It doesn't matter what is down there.. it is about who they are.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    "I will be buried in a spring loaded casket filled with confetti, and a future archaeologist will have one awesome day at work."

  30. #30
    RubySlippers Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by RubySlippers View Post
    here is an update on a local incident of a young lady who was beat to death after the guy she took home figured her out...so so tragic. she was 18. this a picture of her and her murder.

    http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...1645&catid=339
    An update...they want to take this national.
    http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...3636&catid=339

  31. #31
    mogirldotnet Guest
    I saw this in my sexual identities class last year. Cried my eyes out. Very, very sad.

  32. #32
    Northern Lights Guest
    It is very sad that these kind of things still happens. I'm very proud of my country now. We have a male priest in Finland who wants to be woman. Actually I should call him she because she lives as a woman now and is going through treatments and later surgery. And she can keep her job if she wants to and the whole thing is no big deal here.

  33. #33
    Long Gone Day Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by imadeathhag View Post
    Gwen:



    So sad what happened. She was very pretty.
    Very beautiful girl. Reminds me of Tula. Tula is incredible.

    Last edited by Long Gone Day; 04-13-2009 at 02:33 PM.

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