Gwen

I didn’t know Gwen Araujo, at least not personally. But I know, and have known, lots of people like her, and I was deeply affected by the news of her death, the same way I was affected by the news of Brandon Teena’s death, or Matthew Shepard’s death, or Tyra Hunter’s, or JR Warren’s.

Gwen was knocked to the floor, her skirt pulled up. Jose was the first to attack her, but Michael and 19-year-old Jaron Nabors quickly joined in. Someone asked for a knife and Jaron offered the knife from his pocket. Gwen was stabbed and gashed in the face. Jose and Michael then dragged semi-conscious Gwen into a garage where Gwen was strangled with a rope. The two boys later put Gwen’s body in the back of Michael’s truck and, together with Jaron, drove 150 miles into the Sierra Nevada foothills, where they dug a hole and buried Gwen’s body, still bound hand and foot and wrapped in a sheet.

I’ve been thinking about outcome in the case of Araujo’s muder since I heard the news, and trying to figure out what to write about it.

Advocates for transgender people, frustrated that the trial of three men accused of killing Gwen Araujo ended Tuesday in a mistrial, found comfort in the jury’s apparent rejection of defense arguments that the young woman, who was biologically male, shared some responsibility for her death.

Jurors agreed that Michael Magidson, 24, of Fremont, Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, both 24 of Newark, were guilty of murder but deadlocked over whether it was first- or second-degree murder, said Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Chris Lamiero.

On one hand, I’m outraged that there is still no conviction in the case against the men who killed Araujo; that no one has paid yet for what happened to her. On the other hand, I can understand seeing this outcome as a defeat for the “panic defense” used in this case and others.

That, advocates for transgender people said, shows the panel didn’t buy defense claims that Araujo’s slaying was not murder but manslaughter, a crime of passion fueled by the defendants’ shock and anger at having been “duped” into having sex with a youth who was born a boy but lived as a girl.

“This jury wasn’t willing to acquit and rejected manslaughter,” said Carolyn Laub, director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. “They agree that it’s murder. That’s important for everyone to hear. It’s not justice yet, but it means the jury understands the value of one life and that the actions of these men was intentional. … We’ve moved on as a society. We’ve rejected the idea that this young woman is responsible for her own death.”

It won’t bring Araujo back to her friends and family, but perhaps that is at least a part of her legacy; that this ludicrious defense that has reared its head in the murders of gays and transgendered persons, and that just maybe we’ve turned enough of a corner that people will no longer blame the victim in situations like this, and sympathize with the killers instead. Still, the case has to drag on for another year, and Araujo’s friends and family will have to live through another public retelling of the details of her death, and relive the pain of discovering her death.

There is still hope for justice in this case, and perhaps we will see it yet.