Jaymes
The cake is a lie
(San Francisco, California) In the early hours of Oct. 4, 2002, 17-year-old Gwen Araujo was punched, gashed, choked, tied up and strangled.
And that, a jury decided, was murder, despite defense claims Araujo provoked the attack by not telling her male companions - and occasional sex partners - that she was born biologically male.
The verdicts, which followed murder convictions in the beating death of gay college student Matthew Shepard as well as those in the murder of Brandon Teena, whose story was told in the movie "Boys Don't Cry," may suggest a shift in societal attitudes.
Getting murder convictions is still tough; defendants continue to use "gay panic" or "trans panic" defenses, and often avoid more serious charges in such killings.
Still, transgender advocates hope the Araujo verdicts mean that Americans are much less likely to believe that people who defy traditional gender definitions were asking for brutal retribution.
. . .
A gay, or trans panic defense is that a defendant killed or hurt someone of the same sex in a rage after they had sex or thought they were on the receiving end of a sexual overture.
While Araujo jurors apparently weren't convinced of that, at least for two of the three men charged with killing Gwen, other decisions have gone differently.
In Central California, a Fresno man recently pleaded guilty to manslaughter and got the minimum sentence, four years, after claiming he panicked when he discovered the woman he'd brought home was biologically male. He had stabbed the victim 20 times. (story)
And in Kentucky, a man charged with murdering a gay man and stuffing his body into a suitcase was convicted of a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter earlier this year after arguing that he'd defended himself against an unwanted sexual advance from the victim. (story)
Probably the best-known panic defense was evoked in the 1998 murder of Shepard, who was tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyo., pistol-whipped, robbed and left for dead in the cold, dying five days later of massive head injuries. Defense attorneys claimed one of the two men charged in the case flew into a rage after Shepard made a pass at him.
The judge disallowed the defense and the men received multiple life sentences.
While I'm glad people are starting to realize that the gay/trans panic defense is not a defense at all, just a sick and poor excuse, it still disgusts me that it even exists. :banghead3
What do you guys think? Is there any excuse to act out so violently at the discovery that someone is gay or trans?
And that, a jury decided, was murder, despite defense claims Araujo provoked the attack by not telling her male companions - and occasional sex partners - that she was born biologically male.
The verdicts, which followed murder convictions in the beating death of gay college student Matthew Shepard as well as those in the murder of Brandon Teena, whose story was told in the movie "Boys Don't Cry," may suggest a shift in societal attitudes.
Getting murder convictions is still tough; defendants continue to use "gay panic" or "trans panic" defenses, and often avoid more serious charges in such killings.
Still, transgender advocates hope the Araujo verdicts mean that Americans are much less likely to believe that people who defy traditional gender definitions were asking for brutal retribution.
. . .
A gay, or trans panic defense is that a defendant killed or hurt someone of the same sex in a rage after they had sex or thought they were on the receiving end of a sexual overture.
While Araujo jurors apparently weren't convinced of that, at least for two of the three men charged with killing Gwen, other decisions have gone differently.
In Central California, a Fresno man recently pleaded guilty to manslaughter and got the minimum sentence, four years, after claiming he panicked when he discovered the woman he'd brought home was biologically male. He had stabbed the victim 20 times. (story)
And in Kentucky, a man charged with murdering a gay man and stuffing his body into a suitcase was convicted of a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter earlier this year after arguing that he'd defended himself against an unwanted sexual advance from the victim. (story)
Probably the best-known panic defense was evoked in the 1998 murder of Shepard, who was tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyo., pistol-whipped, robbed and left for dead in the cold, dying five days later of massive head injuries. Defense attorneys claimed one of the two men charged in the case flew into a rage after Shepard made a pass at him.
The judge disallowed the defense and the men received multiple life sentences.
While I'm glad people are starting to realize that the gay/trans panic defense is not a defense at all, just a sick and poor excuse, it still disgusts me that it even exists. :banghead3
What do you guys think? Is there any excuse to act out so violently at the discovery that someone is gay or trans?
