KAREL'S KOMMENTS

A DEATH IN NEWARK
By Charles Karel Bouley II

Gwen Araujo is dead at seventeen. It's tragic - yet another case plucked
from the headlines, a story forged in bigotry and hatred nurtured in the
small town of Newark, Calif. Gwen, by all accounts, was sweet, kind,
gentle and well-liked. Not the kind of person that should end up beaten
nearly to death, then strangled and buried in a shallow grave.

How did seventeen-year-old Gwen end up with such a fate? Through ignorant
acts of violence, a comic series of cataclysmic events that were destined
to end poorly - events that shouldn't happen in a perfect world, but do -
events that have happened before and yet we have chosen to ignore.

We've seen this scenario lead to a horrible end in real life with Brandon
Teena and in countless bad TV movies and films: the girl's really a guy
and other guys freak out. I can't help but think someone should have seen
this coming, a disaster waiting to happen.

Now three men have been charged with murder with a hate crime attachment.
A hate crime attachment? I suppose Gwen would be less dead if they had
killed her because she said something they didn't like, or cheated on one
of them or one of a million reasons used by killers to justify their
actions. I assume the parents of another 17-year-old merely killed for
wearing gang colors by accident in the wrong neighborhood don't want the
same punishment for the killers of their child that the Araujos do for
theirs. Somehow, these boys killing Gwen for being a transvestite is more
horrific and carries more of a sentence than if they had beaten and
strangled him for some other reason.

Poppycock.

Michael Magidson, Jaron Nabors and Jose Merel should be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law if they are guilty because they beat, strangled
and killed another human, regardless of whether they called him "fag" or
"Jew" or "nigger" before they did it, regardless of whether they beat him
for hiding his gender or for taking their car keys. Murder is murder,
dead is dead and the words "hate crime" form an oxymoron. Actions, not
motivations, are what's important to the person being attacked. Hate
crime laws are just another way to create a class of victims, people who
need special care and protection under the law because existing laws just
don't seem good enough.

There's plenty of guilt to go around in the death of Gwen Araujo. Most
parents and schools refuse to teach diversity. I don't mean these
stop-gap bully programs some schools have set up where a few students and
teachers try and persuade kids to be tolerant or report name calling. I
mean by incorporating, in a very matter-of-fact way, different
lifestyles, different people, different ideals and ways of thinking. How
many schools would employ known transvestites or transsexuals, even if
qualified? Parents would scream, the same parents that say they're all
for equal rights: not in my back yard. Gay teachers are fine, just not
for my kid (well, excluding P.E.).

And what about this veil of politically - correct - Kumbaya - we - are -
the - world - let's - join - hands - and - sing notion that we pass on to
our minority children? Someone should have told Gwen until they were blue
in the face that there are those out there that would kill her for no
other reason than the fact that she is different. Someone should have
prevented him, physically, if need be, from getting into "normal"
situations with "normal" students because she was not normal; she was
different.

I am not a parent, so I can't speak for the Araujos. But I know if my
child dressed like a woman, I would have him or her out of any rural town
as soon as the first dress went on. I would find a big city with a
special school program for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth
and at least hedge my child's chances of survival through the teen years.
It can be hostile being different in the mainstream. Ghettos serve a
purpose. As much as they segregate, they also protect. And while I am a
firm advocate of integration, 17-year-olds that cross dress aren't ready
to be introduced into senior year high school USA.

The world isn't very accepting of much these days when it comes to
different lifestyles. The puritanical winds are again sweeping through
the land, empowering bigots and zealots to verbally or physically
disparage that which doesn't conform to what they feel is right and
proper. In an effort to believe that the world can be a better place we
often forget that we sometimes need to give harsh, real world advice to
those we love - even if that advice is that you don't always fit in and
it could be dangerous to simply be you in some situations, that any
situation could be a risk and you must learn to assess those before
entering them and know very well how to safely get out of them once you
see trouble coming.

Gwen Araujo is dead. She's not coming back and we live in a world where
some would say that's what she gets for living like that. Well, that's
what he got for living like that. How do we reconcile that viewpoint with
that fact so that no one like Gwen has to die? The answer is illusive,
but we'd better find it quickly, and honestly. These kinds of deaths are
happening too often, from Matthew Shephard to Brandon Teena, Billy Ray
Gather to Gwen Araujo. Those that would kill don't seem to be getting any
less frequent and obvious victims don't seem to be getting any smarter.
That's a dangerous equation and the by-product has been one too many
funerals.