transgender murderers convicted/cleared

From WaPo: "HAYWARD, Calif. -- Two men who had sex with a transgender teenager and then discovered she was biologically male were convicted of her murder but cleared of hate-crime charges. Michael Magidson and Jose Merel, both 25, face mandatory prison sentences of 15 years to life for killing Gwen Araujo, 17, who was beaten, tied up and strangled. The jury was deadlocked in the case of a third man, Jason Cazares, 25."

Isn't this what hate crimes laws were invented for? They murdered her because she was trans. The media insists on using Gwen's birth name, which was legally changed, further sensationalizing her murder and attempting to muddle the issue.

Remembering Our Dead has a great site that maintains statistics and information about the murders of trans folks. There is at least anti-trans murder a month in the U.S. They also have statistics about anti-transgender murders from 1970-2004

These crimes are often unreported, even more so the defendants often get lighter sentences and use the fact of their victims transgender status as a justification. As some of the most targeted and victimized members of our communities, we all must start expressing outrage over these crimes whenever they occur. You can read more about Gwen here

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addendum: ewwww. I was just reading more accounts and realized how dirty the WaPo coverage that I first quoted was. It indicated, although somewhat vaguely, that Gwen had sex with the two men the night of her murder. In fact, she was friends with the men, not a stranger. They had become friends over the course of a few months and she had sex with one of them (maybe not both) on a previous occasion.