Gwen Araujo Murder 15th Anniversary

Today is sadly the 15th anniversary of the day that trans teen Gwen Araujo was murdered in Newark, California by four men, Jason Cazares, Jose Merel, Michael Magidson and Jaron Nabors in the wake of them discovering after she was trans feminine at a party.

The perpetrators then drove four hours to an area in the Sierra Nevada foothills from the East Bay to bury the body, .and said nothing about the crime committed at the party. 

Nabors, after becoming distraught about his role in Araujo's death, confessed to authorities in exchange for his guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter, his testimony against the other three defendants and leading Alameda County Sheriff's Department investigators to the burial site.

It took two trials to convict Merel, Magidson and Cazares, and in the second trial the odious trans panic defense was invoked by Magidson's attorney.

Magidson and Merel were both convicted of second degree murder without the hate crime enhancements and sentenced to 15 year to life in prison.   Two juries deadlocked on Jason Cazares fate, and mistrials were declared.   In a plea deal with the DA, Cazares pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

In the wake of the trial, the Gwen Araujo Justice For Victims Act was passed and signed into law on September 28, 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that limited the use of the trans and gay panic defense.

On September 27, 2014, Gov Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 2501 into law that banned the trans and gay panic defense outright.

Gwen's story was made into the 2006 Lifetime movie A Girl Like Me :The Gwen Araujo Story, talked about in a 2007 documentary entitled Trained In The Ways Of Men which aimed to debunk the trans panic defense, and on a May 2012 Investigation Discovery episode in the second season entitled 'Murder Among Friends'.

Her mother Sylvia Guerrero posthumously asked a judge legally change Gwen's deadname to Gwen Amber Rose Araujo on June 23, 2004.

Rest in Power and peace Gwen.   Your death wasn't in vain.   Changes were made in california law because it it, and you are still loved and remembered by the local community and all who adored you.

We continue to fight so than no one should die for simply daring to exist.

Jazz Doll To Be Introduced At NY Toy Show

I had the pleasure of meeting Jazz Jennings and much of her wonderful family back in 2012.  I have loved her ever since we trans elders first became aware of her amazing self thanks to a 20/20 Barbara Walters interview when she was just six.

Now Jazz is 16, and the trailblazing firsts for her just keep coming as the first out trans person to have a doll modeled on her.

At the Toy Fair in New York that starts today and runs until February 21, the Tonner Doll Company will unveil a prototype of the doll modeled on our fave trans teen.   The dolls are set to do a limited production run starting in the late spring or the early summer

“Ever since I was little, I always loved playing with dolls,” Jazz said in an New York Times interview. “It was a great way to show my parents that I was a girl, because I could just express myself as I am. So this really resonates with me, because it was something so pivotal in my own journey.”

The company markets collectible dolls to adults, and the Jazz dolls will sell for $89.99.  Another version of the doll in a white party dress will sell for $100    A portion of the proceeds from the sales of the dolls will go toward helping trans kids

With the numbers of trans kids increasing every day, this is a BFD to have a doll that is modeled on a trans person
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Jazz Jennings Named Again To TIME Magazine's 30 Most Influential Teens List

For the second consecutive year, our fave transteen Jazz Jennings has been named to the TIME Magazine 30 Most Influential Teens List.

It's a list that includes such lofty company as Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai,  First Daughter Malia Obama, Jaden Smith, Ahmed Mohamed and actresses Amandla Sternberg, Rowan Blanchard and Zendaya Coleman.

Y'all know I'm ride or die for our now 15 year old high schooler, and have been ever since she entered our consciousness as a 5 year old being interviewed on 20/20 by Barbara Walters.

This summer the I Am Jazz reality show on TLC was a big hit, and was broadcast on Discovery Familia with Spanish subtitles.

I've had the pleasure of meeting and spending some quality time with her and her wonderful family, and Jazz continues to be the amazing advocate and role model she has been for our community and our trans teens.    

Congratulations again to our trailblazing transteen for making the TIME magazine list for the second year, and hope you're having a wonderful first year of high school.
   

Happy 15th Birthday Jazz!

Y'all know here at TransGriot I'm ride or die for all things Jazz Jennings, and today I want to take a moment to wish this amazing teen a happy 15th birthday!

I had the pleasure of meeting her and much of her family in 2014,  and I'm definitely looking forward to the next time I get the opportunity to share the same space with them.  

Ever since Jazz burst onto the scene as a precocious six year old advocate for our community and kids like her, she has gone from being the face and voice for our trans kids to the face of Clean and Clear.   She has done stuff many trans people twice her age have yet to do

And now our fave trans kid is a high school freshman and a teenage girl who has happened to have a reality TV show, published a book and has a future so bright she needs shades.   

And it has been fun to watch it all transpire.

Happy 15th birthday Jazz!     May you have a happy, fun and blessings filled one, and you recive the ultimate blessings of getting to celebrate many more of them in the decades to come. 

Will Chase Culpepper Make History Again?

South Carolina trans teen Chase Culpepper was recently in the news when she finally got the opportunity to take her feminine driver's license photo that was denied her in March 2014 by a transphobic SCDMV employee.

Now comes word that the 17 year old is one of the five finalists for homecoming queen at T L Hanna High School in Anderson S.C.   She was selected as one of the five finalists in a school wide vote of the student body, and at this Friday's 2:30 PM EDT pep rally will be introduced along with the rest of the homecoming court.

The winner will be revealed during halftime of TL Hanna's game with Easley HS on Friday.

Congratulations on being voted onto your school's homecoming court, and hope you are named the queen.

Congrats Nicole Maines!

Jazz Jennings wasn't the only amazing trans teen I got the opportunity to meet during last year's Philly Trans Health Conference.  I also got to meet Nicole Maines and her amazing father Wayne. 

Nicole is the trans teen who was transphobically discriminated against by the Orono, ME school district as a fifth grader when they tried to ban her from using the girls restroom.  Her precedent setting case eventually made it to the Maine Supreme Court when she won in early 2014 and the Orono schools had to pay the trans young lady.

She also helped kill one of the first anti-trans bathroom bills in LD 1046 back in 2011, has been on Maine public radio and in other venues doing education about trans issues, been an Equality Maine volunteer and is a role model for other trans teens/

The now 17 year old high school senior has been getting numerous deserved awards lately.  Glamour magazine last year named her  one of their 50 Amazing Women Who Are Making A Difference.

She has also won the Hardy Girls Healthy Women’s Community Organizing Award and the Maine Women's Fund honored her earlier this month with the Samantha Smith Award

And she's even appearing on an episode of USA Network's Royal Pains   

Nicole will be attending the University of Maine in the fall, and megacongrats to the well deserved accolades.

Another Cali Trans Teen Becomes A Prom Queen

California has led the way in crowing trans feminine prom and homecoming queens, and I'm happy to report that another trans teen has been selected by her high school as their prom queen.

Meet 17 year old Angie Esteban, who not only has persevered through a transition that has been bumpy at times, but on April 18 became Salinas High's first trans feminine prom queen.

The road to it started several months ago during homecoming when she was a volunteer on the senior class homecoming dance committee.  

She saw the homecoming court girls during a pep rally and thought, "I'd like to do that."  

Several friends got together, got her nominated, and the campaign to get her elected started earnest with the enthusiastic support of her classmates.

Angie's post graduation plans are to attend college and become a contestant on America's Next Top Model.

South Carolina Transteen Dissed By DMV Reaches Settlement

TransGriot Note:  At the time Chase was discriminated against and I wrote about it last September, Chase identified as gender nonconforming.  Now she identifies as trans.

South Carolina trans teen Chase Culpepper took and passed her driving test at a DMV location in Anderson, SC in March 2014.

Instead of allowing the now 17 year old trans feminine teen to take her picture in the makeup she wore on a regular basis, she was told by the DMV employee to 'look male' and remove her makeup because of an alleged policy that bans license photos when someone is purposefully altering his or her appearance and refused to take her photo and provide her the license she'd earned until she did so.

After several attempts, Culpepper's makeup was removed to the DMV employees satisfaction in a process that was called degrading and humiliating.

In September 2014 Culpepper filed a federal lawsuit with the help of the New York based Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF).   The suit asked the court to rule that denying Chase the freedom to wear her everyday makeup in her license photo constituted sex discrimination and violated her right to free speech and expression under the United States Constitution. It also sought a ruling under the U.S. and South Carolina Constitutions that the DMV’s former photo policy was unconstitutionally vague, too broad, and allowed DMV employees to arbitrarily decide how a driver's license applicant should look, including based on unconstitutional gender stereotypes. 


Under the terms of the settlement announced today, the South Carolina DMV will (1) change its photo policy to allow license applicants to be photographed the way they appear regularly, even when their hair, makeup or clothing doesn’t match the DMV’s expectations of how a man or a woman should look; (2) implement training for DMV employees that addresses the new policy and the professional treatment of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals; (3) allow Chase to return to the DMV to get her license photograph taken wearing makeup; and (4) apologize to Chase for how she was treated at the DMV.

“I am thrilled with the outcome of my lawsuit,” said Culpepper. “My clothing and makeup reflect who I am. From day one, all I wanted was to get a driver’s license that looks like me. Now I will be able to do that. It was hurtful to be singled out for being transgender and made to feel that somehow I wasn’t good enough. With this settlement, the DMV can no longer force transgender people to look like someone they’re not. I’m so glad that I stood up for what’s right and helped make positive change for transgender and gender nonconforming people.”

“This settlement agreement sends a strong message about equal rights,” said TLDEF Staff Attorney Ethan Rice. “Transgender and gender nonconforming people are entitled to be themselves without interference from the DMV. It is not the role of the DMV or its employees to decide how men and women should look. People should be able to get a driver’s license without being subjected to sex discrimination. The policy changes and training that the DMV will implement in response to Chase’s lawsuit will help all transgender and gender nonconforming South Carolina residents in the future.”

Rev. Richardson's Thoughts On The Alcorn Suicide

Rev. Lawrence T. Richardson wrote an essay for his The Salt Collective Blog entitled 'Transgender and Christian..and Crying For Leelah Alcorn'

In it Rev Richardson has this to say about the tragic events.

In response to her parents’ rejection, her own depression, and the feelings of hopelessness, Leelah ended her pain by walking in front of a tractor trailer on the highway. I cry for Leelah. I cry for Leelah because the hatred and the rejection she experienced at the hands of the very people who gave her life is what ultimately contributed to her death. I cry for Leelah because she didn’t know another way. I cry for Leelah because she represents the nearly 50% of all transgender people who attempt suicide. I cry for Leelah because her parents used their Christian faith to justify not loving and affirming their child for who she was and, like many trans folks, this hits too close to home for me… - See more at: http://thesaltcollective.org/leelahalcorn/#sthash.wLgMTtRW.dpufOn

"In response to her parents' rejection, her own depression, and the feelings of hopelessness, Leelah ended her pain by walking in front of a tractor trailer on the highway.  I cry for Leelah.  I cry for Leelah because the hatred and rejection she experienced at the hands of the very people who gave her life is what ultimately contributed to her death."
Rev. Lawrence T. Richardson

You can click on this link to read the rest of Rev. Richardson's essay.