Shelly Prevost

Opening statement:

Welcome, thank you for coming. Tonight we honoring the life and spirit of Gwen Amber Rose Araujo. Gwen was many things to many people, but most of all she was a loving child, and a beautiful human being.
The Memorial is broken into two parts. The first will be informational in nature, where we will discuss the numerous contributing factor to Gay/Lesbian/Bi and Transgender hate crimes.
The second part will be emotional in nature; a chance to express your heartfelt respects to Gwen. This evening we ask you to have both an open mind and an open heart.

On Oct 3, 2002 a seventeen year old girl attended a party in Newark. While at that party she was brutally attacked and murdered. There are were 6other people at the party. Anyone of those six people could of stopped the murder. None of them did. It wasn't a quick act of violence done in the heat of passion. It took hours to accomplish. It wasn't committed by a single individual, but by four men. How is it possible that there could be so many people involved and yet no one called the police? For two weeks after the murders rumors spread all over Newark and yet still no one called the police. What kind of town is Newark? Why do her residence so readily accept the brutal murder of a 17 year old girl?

Tonight we are going to talk about the seeds of hate and violence. We will talk about how we raise our children. What types of values and messages do we instill in them? Transgender hate crime is not something that just happens in Newark. It is a problem the world over. Our first speaker will be Gwendolyn Smith. In 1998 she developed the remembering our dead project and founded the transgender day of remembrance.

I was looking for some way to honor the passing of a transgender teenager from San Jose, name Alina Barragan. She had recently been murdered in a transgender hate crime. I heard about an event in San Francisco called the transgender day of remembrance. That rain night I met our next speaker standing outside city hall trying to stop the hate. Please welcome Gwen Smith.