Days after the anniversary of the beating and subsequent death of Matthew Shepard, another teen was beaten and later found dead because of gender expression.
Eddie Araujo, known by friends as, had been missing since an Oct. 3 party where witnesses say the teen was beaten by high school cohorts after they discovered Gwen was biologically male.
Araujo's body was found last week in a shallow grave about 150 miles from home. Authorities identified the body on Friday. Araujo, a student at Crossroads High School in Newark, Calif., just outside of San Francisco, attended a party Oct. 3 at the home of two of the suspects. Witnesses say a fight ensued and several men at the party beat Araujo after several girls asked to see the teen's genitals.
Four suspects have been arrested in relation to the crime. Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, Michael Magidson, 22, Paul Merel Jr., 25, and Jose Merel, 24, have all been arrested, but the Mercury News reports that Nabors will likely be the only person initially charged with murder.
Chicago gender activist Miranda Stevens-Miller said these types of crimes, along with suicides, are becoming more prevalent in the lives ( and deaths ) of teens not conforming to gender stereotypes.
"We're dying out there! There are trans kids dying left and right, by murder and by suicide, and no one cares," she said.
The similarities with the Shepard murder appear initially to be many, though police still have not officially called this a hate crime.
Araujo was a student at Crossroads High School, an alternative high school the teen attended because of problems at Newark Memorial High School. Araujo would have been a senior this year but had yet to attend classes.
Activists and analysts alike believe this murder will receive considerable press.
"This particular murder may well just get a lot of media coverage because of the circumstances: Young person who was killed by four young men in a small relatively conservative town outside of the bay area, ironically in a town where … The Laramie project is going to be performed at a local high school next week," said Cathy Renna, news media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Renna believes the coverage, thus far, has already been problematic.
"One of the more disturbing aspects of this is that immediately in the coverage, we see the same inaccuracies we see in coverage of [ other ] transgender issues," she said.
Stevens-Miller agrees. "In the midst of her death, all the papers can do is treat it like a freak show. The headlines in the Sun Times scream '17-year-old boy killed for dressing like a girl,' and every paragraph states oven and over again 'a boy dressed as a girl.' 'His body was dressed in women's clothing,' and on and on," she said.
Teachers described Gwen as happy and outgoing. Students told local newspapers the teen was liked by the girls in school but did not get along with the boys. While Araujo's life may have been plagued with misunderstanding, some close to the teen say the misunderstanding ended the day Gwen was murdered. According to reports, Araujo's mother hopes to collect enough money, with the help of Gwen's high school friends, for a burial of the teen. And, yes, she said her child will be buried with painted nails in her favorite dress.
