Gwen Araujo photo courtesty of Cause + Effect PR
Gwen Araujo would have been 25 years old today. Her mother, Sylvia Guerrero, has spent the last seven years speaking out about her daughter’s senseless murder. Today she says:
Light a candle, release a balloon, or do a good deed for someone less fortunate than yourself. Thank you for keeping her memory alive after 7 years.
Gwen Araujo's mother finds hope in Hate Crimes Prevention Act signing
President Barack Obama’s signing today of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act has special meaning for Sylvia Maria Guerrero.
In 1999, one of Guerrero’s four children told her that despite being born a boy, she had never felt comfortable being male and felt she was and should become a woman. The child would soon become known to the world as Gwen Amber Rose Araujo.
With time Guerrero and her family accepted the child’s transition from male to female. In October 2002, Araujo, who was 17 years old, was brutally murdered in Newark, Calif., by at least four people with whom she was recently acquainted. Several of the assailants have been sentenced and are serving jail time for their part in her senseless death.
In the following months, Guerrero and her family and friends were thrust into the forefront of transgender activism. Learning as she went along, she began to speak out about the pain and injustice that her daughter and her family suffered – and still suffer. A 2006 Lifetime movie, A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story, captured Araujo’s journey to self-acceptance and her mother’s determination to educate others about transgender people.
“Words can not even express how happy I am with the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, although obviously it should have happened a long, long time ago,” Guerrero said after the signing. “Unfortunately it comes long after the murder of my daughter, but it still needed to be done. Hopefully it will give new hope to our transgender community and it will help bring about the legal and social changes that are still so desperately needed. Each small step that brings more equality into this world is important and should be celebrated.”
Through the Gwen Araujo Memorial Fund for Transgender Education, Guerrero speaks at middle and high schools about transgender awareness and understanding.
Read more about the act and the signing on SheWired.
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