Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

For Courageous Mothers of LGBT Murder Victims, There is No Closure

Pat and Lynn Mulder at USF, Stephen Coddington photo for the Times

Pat and Lynn Mulder at USF, Stephen Coddington photo for the Times

Families of LGBT hate crimes murder victims are on the front lines of grief and loss when a homophobic attack takes the life of someone they love.  This is especially true of their mothers.  That powerful truth was driven home for me again by learning of Pat and Lynn Mulder’s courageous appearance at the Hate Crimes Awareness Summit held this week at the University of South Florida.  Pat shared the story of how her beloved son, Ryan Keith Skipper, lived and died at the hands of brutal, anti-gay attackers in rural Polk County Florida on March 14, 2007.  The popular 25-year-old Skipper was stabbed over 19 times, and left to bleed out on a lonely dirt road in Wahneta, a rural town in the Winter Haven region. One of his murderers, Joseph “Smiley” Bearden has been sentenced to life without parole earlier this year, and a second alleged killer, William D. “Bill Bill” Brown is to stand trial on October 12.  Reporting on the Summit, Alexandra Zayas of the St. Petersburg Times, relates how Pat had to overcome her reluctance and nervousness about speaking in front of crowds about the worst tragedy in her family’s history.  “The worst thing in the world that can happen to you has already happened. There’s nothing else to be afraid of.”  Speaking with passion and the conviction that no family should ever have to endure what hers has, Pat and her husband Lynn have tirelessly reached out to others bereaved by unreasoning hatred.  Barely a year after her son’s murder, Pat traveled to Fort Lauderdale to see Denise King, mother of African American youth Simmie Williams, Jr., who was shot for being transgender by attackers who have not yet been identified or apprehended.  At at town hall meeting dedicated to the memory of 17-year-old Williams, Pat introduced herself to Mrs. King as Ryan’s mother, and enfolded her in an embrace that King later said was deeply meaningful to her.  Speaking to the Times about that moment, Pat said, “It’s beyond being women. It’s beyond being different races, different backgrounds. It has nothing to do with that. It’s the hearts of two mothers,” Pat said. “For a moment, there’s someone who’s helping you hold up your pain.”  The real unsung heroes of the effort to win passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act are women like Pat Mulder and Denise King who became “accidental activists” for the sake of their children who died so senselessly.  Elke Kennedy, mother of Greenville, SC victim, Sean William Kennedy, Pauline Mitchell, mother of Navajo two-spirit son, F.C. Martinez, Jr. of Cortez, CO, Pat Kuteles, mother of U.S. Army Pvt. Barry Winchell, murdered at Fort Campbell, KY, Kathy Jo Gaither, sister of Sylacauga, AL victim Bill Joe Gaither, and, certainly, Judy Shepard of Casper, WY who is currently touring the nation to promote passage of the LGBT hate crimes bill named for her son Matthew, are but a few outstanding examples of women whose love overcame untold obstacles to add their voices to the chorus of Americans, gay and straight, who want anti-queer violence to come to an end forever.  These courageous women and many other family members around the nation have become the most effective spokespersons for human rights because of their unsought-for mission to stamp out hate from the American vocabulary for all people, especially LGBTQ folk who are so much at risk.  How do mothers do it?  Pat Mulder says that for parents of gay murder victims, there is no closure, only the determination to turn up the volume on what hate crimes do to families.

Sprinkle in FL 08

~ Stephen Sprinkle for the Unfinished Lives Project

September 25, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, Alabama, Anglo Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Colorado, DADT, Florida, gay men, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Kentucky, Latino and Latina Americans, Legislation, Lesbian women, Matthew Shepard Act, military, Native Americans, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Social Justice Advocacy, South Carolina, transgender persons, Wyoming | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Green’s Murderer Gets 25 Years for Transgender Hate Crime

Dwight DeLee on Trial

Dwight DeLee on Trial

Syracuse, NY – Dwight DeLee, a 20-year-old construction worker from Upstate New York was sentenced Tuesday to the maximum of 25 years in prison for the hate killing of transgender woman, Lateisha Green.  Green, 22, was a Male to Female transgender person, shot to death by DeLee last November as she and her brother sat in a car outside a house party.  Since the age of 16, Green had lived as a woman, wearing women’s clothing, and taking her female name, Lateisha, in preference to her male birth name, Moses.  In determining that DeLee’s crime was manslaughter rather than murder, the court found that he had not intended to kill Green in the attack, but only to terrorize and injure her.  Two aspects of the sentence are of particular note for the LGBT community as it seeks justice for Lateisha and all at-risk transgender persons.  First, the sentence was the maximum amount of time prescribed by New York law for the crime of manslaughter, indicating the seriousness with which the court took the case.  Second, in sentencing DeLee for an anti-transgender hate crime, Judge William Walsh noted the deplorable bias-motivation of the crime.  The jury found that Green was indeed selected for a violent attack based on her perceived gender presentation and gender identity, the hallmark of a transphobic hate crime.  This verdict and sentence are believed to be only the second in the United States explicitly against the perpetrator of an anti-transgender violent crime, the first being the conviction and sentencing earlier this year of Allen Ray Andrade to life without parole for the hate crime murder of 18-year-old Greeley, Colorado transgender Latina, Angie Zapata.

August 18, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Colorado, gun violence, Hate Crimes, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Legislation, New York, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Green’s Murderer Gets 25 Years for Transgender Hate Crime

Transgender Woman Raped, Assaulted with Wooden Coat Hanger in Murder Attempt

trans symbol

Trinidad, CO – The Pueblo Chieftain and the Examiner.com report that on July 15, 2009 a transsexual person was attacked in a hate crime reminiscent of the murder of Angie Zapata, an 18-year-old transgender woman who was bludgeoned to death in Greeley, CO last year.  The victim,  a 25-year-old M to F person in transition was lodging in the Trinidad Motor Inn awaiting consultation on gender reassignment surgery when she was targeted by a suspect identified as Marcus Lee Watlington.  No age or hometown of the suspect has been announced by the Trinidad police.  Police have reported that Watlington denies any part in the crime.  According to reports on the scene, the victim was pushed into her motel room by the attacker after answering her door.  He verbally denigrated her because of her identity, and proceeded to force sex acts on her.  He then raped her, using a wooden coat hanger to assault her sexually.  To finish the job, the attacker then plunged the victim in a full tub of water in the bathroom, and attempted to execute her by tossing an electric hair dryer into tub with her.  The breaker blew, preventing a fatality.  Frustrated in his attempt to murder the victim, the assailant dragged her back to the bed, bound her with a phone cord, slapped her repeatedly, and warned her not to come back to Trinidad because her “kind” were not wanted there.  The victim stayed bound in the bed until she was discovered late the next morning.  Her description of the attacker was detailed, and according to police, fit Watlington “to a T.”  Anti-trans hate crimes are notable for their brutality and for the abject disregard of the humanity of the victim, and transgender persons are particularly vulnerable to anti-gay as well as anti-trans bias, according to the Colorado Anti-Violence Program (CAVP).  If charged with the crime, Watlington would face sexual assault, attempted murder, and “false imprisonment” charges.  The Chieftain noted that Trinidad, which is a center for transsexual reassignment surgery, has a larger than usual population of transgender persons who are drawn to the town because of the famed practice of Dr. Stanley Biber.  The surgical practice, now run by Dr. Marci Bowers, carries out as many as four sexual reassignment surgeries a day, making Trinidad known as “The Sex Change Capital of the World.”  Local police report that crimes against transgender persons are rare in the town of 9,000.  While it is still unclear about whether hate crimes charges will be filed in this case, Colorado does have a hate crime statute that covers anti-transgender crimes.  Allen Ray Andrade, found guilty of the murder of Zapata earlier this year, was sentenced to life in prison by the Colorado hate crimes law, and is believed to be the first person to be successfully prosecuted under such a statute in the United States.  The Unfinished Lives Project awaits further developments in this case.

August 16, 2009 Posted by | Beatings and battery, Colorado, drowning, harassment, Hate Crimes, Law and Order, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets, transgender persons, transphobia, women | , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Syracuse Jury Finds Slayer of Transwoman Guilty of Manslaughter Hate Crime

lateisha green3Syracuse, NY – In a closely watched case, a man charged with shooting an African American transgender woman to death outside a house party in November 2008 has been found guilty of anti-gay bias.  Dwight DeLee will be sentenced shortly for the murder of Lateisha Green, née Moses Cannon, a 22-year-old male-to-female transperson who commenced living as a girl at the age of 16.  Green frequently dressed in women’s clothing, but was dressed in a tee shirt and jeans on the night of her murder.  DeLee’s attorney argued that his client had no animus against LGBT people, but witnesses testified that he referred to Green as a “faggot” the evening he shot her to death with a .22 calibre pistol in her brother’s car.  The Onondaga County jury, charged by the presiding judge to consider possible conviction for murder or manslaughter with or without the hate crime charge delivered their verdict of guilty of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime in six hours of deliberations over two days.  Earlier in the summer, Allen Ray Andrade was also found guilty of the bias-motivated murder of Angie Zapata, an 18-year-old Latina transwoman in Greeley, Colorado.  Now with this second prominent conviction for anti-gay hate crime bias in the nation, the argument marshaled by conservative law enforcement agencies that hate crimes enhancements are impractical because they seldom can be proven in court is increasingly discredited.  These hate crimes convictions not only demonstrate the bankruptcy of entrenched refusals to try defendants for anti-gay bias, but they also show the acknowledgment that hate crime murders differ substantially from other sorts of murders, giving the lie to the argument that all murders are somehow on a par.  LGBT advocates have been largely successful in educating the American populace that hate crimes not only target the specific victim of the murder, but also send a message of terror to a whole class of people in affinity with the victim of the homicide. Thanks to William Kates of the Associated Press for breaking this story.

July 17, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Colorado, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Law and Order, New York, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Syracuse Jury Finds Slayer of Transwoman Guilty of Manslaughter Hate Crime

Serial Hate Crimes Against LGBTs Up 63% in Colorado

Colorado state sealDenver – In a report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs issued Tuesday, the numbers of anti-LGBT hate crimes in the Centennial State jumped 63% in one year.  Among the 2008 murders of queer folk was the notorious beating-death of 18-year-old Angie Zapata, a transgender Latina living in Greeley.  Allen Ray Andrade, a date, repeatedly bashed Zapata with a home fire extinguisher until she succumbed.  Andrade’s conviction for murder under Colorado’s Hate Crime Law was a landmark moment, demonstrating to the nation how significant hate crime enhancements can be in penalizing fatal bias-related attacks against LGBT people.  Though he used a version of the trans-panic defense to excuse his actions, arguing that Zapata had somehow deserved her death because of “deceiving” him as to her biological gender, Andrade was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.  According to the Denver Daily News, the Colorado Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (COAVP) expressed concern over the 24% spike in the number of offenders, meaning that multiple perpetrators attacked a smaller number of victims during the past year.  This indicates that certain victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes are targeted for violence that unfolds in a spectrum from verbal harassment to physical attack by more than one antagonist.  While this disturbing feature of homophobic and transphobic violence had been suspected by gay rights activists, this report in Colorado is the first to confirm their fears.  The percentage of victims also rose significantly during 2008.  While the nationwide average rise in victims of harassment, bashing, and murder was 2%, the Colorado numbers moved up a full 8%.  Added to the increases of reported violent attacks against LGBT people in Minnesota, Michigan, California, and Tennessee, the Colorado hate crimes statistics contribute to a growing sense that a full-scale national trend of increasing harm against members of the sexual minority is in the offing.

June 18, 2009 Posted by | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Beatings and battery, Blame the victim, Bludgeoning, California, Colorado, harassment, Hate Crime Statistics, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Michigan, Minnesota, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Social Justice Advocacy, Tennessee, trans-panic defense, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Serial Hate Crimes Against LGBTs Up 63% in Colorado

What the Matthew Shepard Act Does: Rachel Maddow Comments

Attacks against LGBT people in the U.S. are increasing alarmingly

Attacks against LGBT people in the U.S. are increasing alarmingly

Violent crimes against LGBT people have increased in the U.S. population in the last two years at an alarming rate, especially among Latino and Black racial/ethnic groups.  The California Department of Justice, for example, noted 263 hate crimes based on sexual orientation in 2007.  Commenting on these statistics, Jason Bartlett, a California-based spokesman for the National Black Justice Coalition, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocacy group, said, “We have a disproportionate amount of African-Americans being targeted that are LGBT, and we have a huge disparity where transgender people are attacked due to gender expression. Within the Black or Latino community there is more stigma attached to being gay or lesbian or transgender. It’s not talked about as much and within our religious institutions.  We have ministers that speak homophobia from the pulpit. Those kind of messages filter down.”  The same is true throughout the country, as the brutal murders of Angie Zapata, Latina transgender woman from Greeley, CO, and Lateishia Green, African American transgender woman from Syracuse, NY, show.

Latiesha Green, transwoman murdered in Syracuse, NY

Latiesha Green, transwoman murdered in Syracuse, NY

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act, would expand current hate-crimes laws and authorize the Attorney General “to provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or other assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution” of any crime “motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or is a violation of the state, local, or tribal hate crime laws.”

Misleading anti-Shepard Act flyer, aimed at U.S. Congress

Misleading anti-Shepard Act flyer, aimed at U.S. Congress

Against critics, supporters of the Act note that this is not a “hate speech act,” or a “hate thought act,” as detractors have charged.  This Act specifically preserves all First Amendment rights of speech and assembly.  Instead, this Act targets crimes perpetrated against LGBT people because of bias motivation against their sexual orientation or gender expression and identity.

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC News Commentator

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC News Commentator

Nobody seems to have gotten the rationale for the Matthew Shepard Act more clearly than MSMBC’s commentator, Rachel Maddow.  In her discussion of the controversy surrounding the Act since its passage in the U.S. House of Representatives, she put it this way on The Rachel Maddow Show of 4/30/09:

MADDOW: “The concept behind this kind of legislation is often misconstrued but here’s the deal as I understand it. The idea is that the federal Justice Department can get involved in a case to help local authorities or even to take the lead on a case if need be, in prosecuting individual serious violet crimes and murders in which the victim was selected on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability – the idea that crimes like that are intended not only to hurt or murder an individual, but to terrorize an entire community, and so there is a national interest in ensuring that those crimes are solved and prosecuted, particularly if local law enforcement doesn’t want to because they are blinkered by the same prejudice that led to the crime in the first place.”

May 1, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, Bisexual persons, California, Colorado, gay men, Hate Crime Statistics, Hate Crimes, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Legislation, Lesbian women, Media Issues, New York, Politics, religious intolerance, transgender persons | 5 Comments

Angie Zapata Verdict in: Andrade Guilty of 1st Degree Murder, Hate Crime Charges; Sentenced to Life

Allen Andrade and attorney hear guilty verdict for the hate crime murder of Angie Zapata

Allen Andrade and attorney hear guilty verdict for the hate crime murder of Angie Zapata (Eric Bellamy photo, Colorado Independent)

Greeley, CO: Allen Ray Andrade was found guilty this afternoon on all four counts against him in the murder of Angie Zapata, a transgender teen woman.  The jury deliberated less than three hours before arriving at its verdict.  Andrade crushed Angie Zapata’s skull with repeated blows from a metal fire extinguisher on July 17, 2008 after spending 36 hours with her in a 400 square foot apartment.  The jury rejected the “trans-panic” defense mounted by Andrade’s attorneys and invoked the penalties in Colorado’s comprehensive hate crime law in what is being called by LGBT rights advocates a “landmark ruling” that demonstrates to Coloradans the need for their bias-motivated crime statute in the prosecution of homophobic killers.

Angie Zapata was 18 at the time of her murder

Angie Zapata was 18 at the time of her murder

Judge Marcelo Kopcow read the verdict that found him guilty of first-degree murder, bias-motivated crime, aggravated motor vehicle theft in the first degree and identity theft.  Less than an hour later, Judge Kopcow sentenced 32-year-old Andrade to life without the possibility of parole.  Looking at Andrade, the judge then said, “I will say, Mr. Andrade, I hope as you’re spending the remaining part of your natural life in the department of corrections… that you every day think about the violence and the brutality that you caused on this fellow human being. And the pain you have caused not only your family, but the family of Angie Zapata.”

Zapata Family at a vigil for Angie in 2008

Zapata Family at a vigil for Angie in 2008

Gonzalo Zapata, Angie’s brother, spoke to the press following the verdict on behalf of his sisters and his mother, who were also present:

“Angie was my sister. She was a member of our family. We loved her very much and we will miss her every day. Every day and every night, my mom has to deal with the great pain that she saw one of her babies being buried.

“Angie was brave. She had guts, had courage and was beautiful, was fun and was loving. Life was sometimes difficult for her. We learned along with her, to learn she was born a girl with a body that was wrong for her.

“This week, we are deeply saddened and angry as we witness graphic details about the last few minutes of my sister’s life. A big brother is supposed to protect … ” [he breaks down momentarily, and then regains his composure].

“I got it,” he said. “A big brother’s supposed to protect his little sister. It breaks my heart to think there was nothing I could do to protect my little sister.

“Only a monster can look at a beautiful 18-year-old and beat her to death. This monster not only hit my sister but continued to beat her head in over and over and over and over again until her head was crushed in and then left her there to die. He’ll never understand how angry we are at him and how much he has hurt us.

“We will always love you, Angie. And we will always miss you, hija. Thank you.”

April 22, 2009 Posted by | Blame the victim, Bludgeoning, Colorado, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Legislation, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, transgender persons | 4 Comments

Fate of Angie Zapata’s Confessed Murderer Goes to Jury

andrade-zapata1

Allen Ray Andrade, on trial for the Murder of transgender woman Angie Zapata, awaits his verdict in Greeley, CO today. Prosecution goes for first degree murder. Andrade, already confessed to the murder, was deeply homophobic, according to statements from the jail to girlfriends, such as “Gay things must die.”

April 22, 2009 Posted by | Bludgeoning, Colorado, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets, transgender persons | , , , , | Comments Off on Fate of Angie Zapata’s Confessed Murderer Goes to Jury

Justice Coming for Angie Zapata

 

Angie Zapata, 18, and alleged murderer, Allen Andrade, courtesy of ABC News

Angie Zapata, 18, and alleged murderer, Allen Andrade, courtesy of ABC News

 

Denver, CO: Allen Andrade, 32, told investigators that he bashed Angie Zapata in the head twice with a fire extinguisher.  He confessed that he thought he had “killed it” when Zapata roused, and then he clobbered her again, delivering the coup de grace.  That was last July.  Now he is slated to go on trial for bias-motivated murder in Greeley, CO where he carried out the crime because he found out Zapata, an 18-year-old male-to-female transwoman, was biologically male.

 

Angie Zapata

Angie Zapata

 

Born Justin Zapata, Angie had been living as a woman since the age of 16.  She had striking beauty, attracting many admirers, though according to her sister, Monica, her loves ended by her boyfriends going back to biological women.  Angie was a gentle, graceful, loving sister, who suspended her life in Fort Lupton, where she was raised, to come to Greeley to help her sister take care of her children.  Monica found Angie’s battered corpse in her apartment, covered in a blanket.  

For two weeks, investigators sought the killer, and finally arrested Andrade on July 30.  He made an initial confession which a judge ruled inadmissible on a technicality.  He has been held in jail without bond since his arrest for the murder.  While behind bars Andrade made recorded phone calls to girlfriend claiming that when he discovered Zapata’s biological status, he “snapped.”  In another conversation, he told his girlfriend that “gay things need to die.”  The phone call transcripts and recordings will be admitted in evidence in the trial.

us-house-seal

According to the Associated Press, Andrade is going to be the first person prosecuted for a hate crime under the sexual orientation section of Colorado’s hate crimes law.  Colorado is one of 11 states to have hate crimes enhancements in their statutes.  The comprehensive Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 2, 2009, would allow the FBI and other Federal Agencies to investigate such crimes, and to support the local authorities in carrying out their investigations, as well.  Passage of the LLEHCPA remains a critical element of deterring and punishing hate crimes offenders for violence related to sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

While nothing can bring Angie Zapata back to her family, friends and loved ones, justice for her and for all transgender victims of hate crime violence, which has been so long in coming, may finally be on the horizon.  Stay in touch for further developments.

April 17, 2009 Posted by | Beatings and battery, Bludgeoning, Colorado, Hate Crimes, Latino and Latina Americans, Legislation, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets, transgender persons | , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Justice Coming for Angie Zapata

Fight Hate Crimes Campaign Launches Effort to Pass Matthew Shepard Act

hrccapitol-hill

The Human Rights Campaign has launched its big federal legislative push to enact the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also called the Matthew Shepard Act, named in memory of the most widely recognized LGBT hate crimes victim in American history.  Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by two Laramie, Wyoming men in October 1998.  Both pled guilty, and are serving life sentences for their crime.  Visit the HRC site for more information: www.hrc.org/sites/hatecrimes/index.asp.

Martinez casket header for Denver Post article on F.C.'s murder

Martinez casket header for Denver Post article on F.C.'s murder

Fred C. Martinez, Jr. (1985-2001), a sixteen-year-old Navajo, is featured in the HRC campaign.  He was one of the first subjects of research for the Unfinished Lives Project, and will figure prominently in Dr. Sprinkle’s forthcoming book, Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memory of LGBT Hate Crimes Murder Victims. The book is still in the writing stage at this point, with a projected completion date of September 2009.

"Dance to the Berdache," George Catlin, ca. 1830

"Dance to the Berdache," George Catlin, ca. 1830

Martinez was a Two-Spirit person, also called a berdache. F.C., as his friends called him, suffered harassment in the Cortez, CO public schools for his transgender identity.  In June 2001, on the night of the Ute Mountain Carnival and Rodeo, Shaun Murphy, a resident of Farmington, NM, lured F.C. into a narrow, deep canyon cut diagonally through the south part of Cortez, and cracked open his skull with a 25 pound rock.  Murphy left him to die of exposure and blood loss, bragging the night of the murder that he had “bug-smashed a joto,” slang for “fag.”  At the time F.C.’s body was discovered by small boys playing on the canyon floor five days after the homicide, his remains were so decomposed that his mother could identify him only by the blue bandana he wore when he left her home.

fredmartinezjr

Shaun Murphy, F.C.'s killer

Shaun Murphy, F.C.'s killer

Murphy, 18, was sentenced to 40 years for F.C.’s murder.  There is little to indicate that F.C., the most famous person ever to live in Cortez, had ever existed.  Neither Colorado nor the United States has enacted anti-hate crime legislation.  His mother, Pauline Mitchell, still works as an advocate for LGBT people and for the memory of her son.  She visits his grave often, kneeling on the grass, talking to him in Navajo and English, thanking him for understanding that things are taking so long to change.

F.C. and his mom, Pauline Mitchell

F.C. and his mom, Pauline Mitchell

There is strong medicine in the F.C. Martinez, Jr. story.  As a nadleeh, as Navajo people refer to their Two-Spirits, he was a sign of the balance between the feminine and the masculine in us all.  He walked the Way of Beauty.  As the Navajo Blessingway Chant says:

Earth’s body has become my body

by means of this I shall live on.

Earth’s mind has become my mind

by means of this I shall live on.

Earth’s voice has become my voice

by means of this I shall live on.

navajo

April 2, 2009 Posted by | Bludgeoning, Colorado, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Legislation, Native Americans, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets, transgender persons, Uncategorized, Washington, D.C., Wyoming | 2 Comments