San Jose
Mercury News (CA)
October 24, 2002
Section: Local
Edition: Morning Final
Page: 1B
SEE NEWARK TEEN FOR WHAT HE WAS: STILL JUST A KID
JOE RODRIGUEZ column
At age 14, a Latino boy from a traditional culture and macho town starts
dressing like a woman. After years of teasing, fights and an attempted
suicide, he's strangled to death recently at a drunken party, thrown in the
back of a truck and buried in the
Then his sad story takes off. His pretty face appears on national TV and,
against his family's wishes, he becomes a martyr
to the gay community. He
was 17.
The recent slaying of Eddie Araujo has got me squirming and asking
questions I cannot answer right now. The few answers I have make me feel
like a sanctimonious outsider. I wasn't even sure what to call him.
His given name was Eddie. That's what his mother called him even after he
started calling himself Gwen, Lida and Wendy. Now she'll bury him as Gwen.
I was going to call him a transvestite, but that's become pejorative. The
new, culturally acceptable word is ''transgender,'' though he never
underwent sex-change surgery.
I think I'll call him Eddie because he was still a boy. And I'll describe
him as transgender because he surely felt more woman than man.
Fatal discovery
The police blotter says Eddie was killed at a party
in
working-class town in the
-- discovered he wasn't female. They've been booked on murder charges with
hate-crime enhancements.
Starting this weekend, there will be at least five gay-sponsored events in
Eddie's memory and more to come later. Who knows, maybe some day we'll see
a play like ''The Laramie Project,'' a stage interpretation of the murder
of Matthew Shepard a few years ago in
Eddie's mother, Sylvia Guerrero, wants nothing of the sort.
''This is not a gay issue,'' she told reporters. ''This is a human issue.''
From what little we know of the family, Guerrero had accepted her son's
sexual orientation, but many in their extended, Mexican-American family had
not.
I belong to that ethnic group. We are politically liberal but socially
conservative. A lot us know where the line is, Eddie's family included. A
Latino son's sexual orientation is strictly family business.
But this is where I feel more like a wretched observer than a Latino-values
guy. As much as I understand the family's wish to let Eddie rest in peace,
I think gay-rights groups are entitled and even obligated to demand justice
for him. In the end, Eddie belonged to two minority groups or, if you will,
to two cultural families with conflicting views on sexuality. Both have
claim to Eddie's life and death.
Delicate questions
Now for the questions I'd like to ask without blaming
the victims or
parents or sounding like a religious right-winger.
When is it OK for a gay kid to cross-dress? At age 17? At
14? At 12?
I'm not challenging the transgender lifestyle. Gay boys and girls
discovering their true nature is a fact of life. Get used to it. But is it
a good idea for the transgender ones to cross-dress in public while they're
so young, trusting and vulnerable?
Shouldn't we tell them society can't protect them every minute of every day
from hate-filled thugs?
For those who will cross-dress anyway, shouldn't there be a line of dress
they shouldn't cross, parties they shouldn't attend? Would that be any
different from telling a teenage daughter she can't wear a skimpy halter to
a fraternity beer blast?
I know this sounds like telling a rape victim that
she asked for it, but
we're talking about naive children who haven't figured out how to navigate
a mean, nasty world. Some places and times, you just don't call attention
to yourself.
I'd like to hear real-world advice from the transgender community. I'd also
like to hear it from prosecutors, politicians and community leaders.
As much as he was anything else, Eddie Araujo was just a kid.
Copyright (c) 2002 San Jose Mercury News