Pretending to be Gwen can be fatal

[Gwennie!]

Born, Edidie, Araujo took her first name from No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Araujo

Gwen Amber Rose Araujo (February 24, 1985 — October 4, 2002) was a
teenager who was killed at a party by a group of transphobic men
angered by the discovery that she was a transwoman. ...

In their trial, the men did not contest that they had killed her, but
used a variant of the gay panic defence and claimed that it was not
unreasonable, pleading for manslaughter rather than murder. The jury
however, deadlocked, and a mistrial recorded. The jury appears to have
rejected this defence, but was unable to decide whether the murders
were premeditated...

Five Facts Missing from Coverage of the Murder of Gwen Araujo

1. Gwen Araujo was not deceiving people by telling them she was a woman.
Transgender people are not deceiving others by expressing their gender identity. When Gwen began living as a woman, it was not an act of deceit. She was expressing her true self to the world and deserved to be recognized for the bravery of that. Thousands of transgender people throughout California go through this transition every year.

2. Gwen was in no way responsible for her murder.
Except for self-defense, the actions of a murder victim are never relevant to the motivations of their attacker. Gwen was a victim of a violent murder. Nothing she did justifies what was done to her. As a society, we have moved beyond the point of blaming women for the violence that men commit against them. No justifiable reason exists to treat this crime any differently.

3. "Transgender Panic" is not a valid defense.
Murdering someone because you discover that they are transgender is never a justifiable or understandable response. The "heat of passion" defense is only valid if the actions of the defendant are ones that the "average" person would have taken. The average person would not murder a young woman simply because she is transgender. The men who killed Gwen had a number of legitimate options open to them (including telling Gwen to leave their house and never speak to them again). Instead, Gwen's attackers chose to beat, strangle, and murder a young woman simply for being her true self.

4. Gwen did not steal Michael Magidson and Jose Merril's "right" to be heterosexual.
Any sexual conduct in which Magidson or Merril engaged with Gwen was completely consensual. If these young men had sex with Gwen, they did so because they found her attractive. Being attracted to a transgender woman does not mean that a heterosexual man is bisexual or gay. To conclude that it does demonstrates a misunderstanding of Gwen's identity and sexual orientation.

5. Exposure to school based education about transgender people could have prevented Gwen's murder.
Effective school-based curriculum about transgender people and gender identity might have prevented this tragedy. Age-appropriate education about transgender people and gender identity would have introduced Gwen's attackers to information that could have helped them to act more responsibly. Little is known about transgender people, and much of what is known is innaccurate. Correct and accessbile information about what it means to be transgender should be made available to all school age youth in California.