By Eric Johnston
Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network, October 3, 2003
SUMMARY: To mark the one-year anniversary of Gwen Araujo's death, family and friends will hold a memorial service, and a new fund has been set up to fight anti-transgender bias.
To mark the one-year anniversary of Gwen Araujo's death, family and friends will hold a memorial service in her hometown of Newark, Calif., on Saturday, and a new fund has been established to fight anti-transgender bias.
Araujo's violent death one year ago caused a national stir and shined a spotlight on the bias and danger often facing transgender people.
Araujo, 17, was beaten and strangled to death at a party in Newark on the night of Oct. 3, 2002, after it was discovered that she was biologically male. Her body was found two weeks later in a shallow grave in the Sierra foothills. Four men were arrested and charged in her death.
"Emotionally we're just dealing with the pain," one of Araujo's aunts, Lupe Downing, told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network from her home in Hollister, Calif., on Friday. "It's still fresh in our hearts and we're struggling."
Downing wants people to remember Araujo as a funny and loving person with "a magnetic personality." She also said she's focusing on the positive things that have come about since the tragedy.
"All the positive initiatives have been helpful. We find comfort knowing she's not forgotten and people like her have a better chance," said Downing.
"The death of Gwen Araujo has had a strong impact on activism work in the transgender community, from renewing efforts to get transgender protections in the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act at the national level, to efforts to get local laws in the areas that Gwen lived," said Gwen Smith, founder of the Remembering Our Dead project.
The Horizons Foundation, which serves the GLBT community in the San Francisco Bay Area, announced a fund in Araujo's honor on Thursday.
"What happened to Gwen Araujo, her suffering and that of her family, must never happen again," said Roger Doughty, Horizons' executive director. "The LGBT movement has a history of fighting back, and this fund is a new resource in the continuing struggle against transphobia and hate crimes."
Three men are scheduled to go on trial next March, facing murder charges with a hate-crime enhancement. A fourth man pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, and is expected to testify against the others. Prosecutors say Araujo had previously engaged in sexual acts with at least two of the defendants.
"In a second we would take her life back," said Downing, "but (we're happy) if good things come out of it."
The service at Newark Memorial High School begins at 7 p.m. and is open to the public. Afterward, a candlelight vigil will be held at a location that will not be disclosed until Saturday night, according to another of Araujo's aunts, Imelda Guerrero.
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