PRESS RELEASE
TIME: Sunday, November 22, 3:30pm
LOCATION: Mac Arthur and Grand Ave. at Lake Merritt
CONTACT: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Liz Latty
PHONE: (510) 282-5223
EMAIL: morethanavigil@gmail.com
BAY AREA COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO HOLD VIGIL FOR QUEER AND GENDER NON CONFORMING TEENS MURDERED IN MARYLAND AND PUERTO RICO
OAKLAND, CA - Outraged at the murders of two queer and gender non-conforming teenagers of color last week, Bay Area queers and allies will gather at Lake Merritt this Sunday for a candlelight vigil and open mic to mourn and brainstorm ways to keep their community safer from violence.
Last Friday, 19-year-old Jorge Steven López-Mercado got into a car with Juan Martinez-Matos, 26, who later said he had been "searching for a prostitute." Martinez-Matos murdered, beheaded and dismembered López-Mercado after, he said, he discovered that López-Mercado had male genitalia and was wearing feminine clothing. Martinez-Matos then set fire to Lopez-Mercado's remains and left them on the side of a road. Martinez -Matos is now in custody and has confessed to the murder. His bail is set at $4 million.
The same week, in Baltimore, Maryland, queer fifteen-year-old Jason Mattison, Jr., was raped and stabbed to death in his aunt’s home by an adult male, a family friend with whom, according to a Baltimore police spokesperson, Mattison allegedly had a “forced sexual relationship.”
Queer activists say they worry that López-Mercado's murderer will successfully invoke the defense of “gay or trans-panic” to justify the brutal killing. "The fact that Martinez -Matos is saying that López-Mercado was 'wearing women's clothing' indicates that he might try to say he was 'fooled' and therefore 'forced' to kill López-Mercado for their gender identity," Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, one of the organizers of the Oakland vigil said.
“This is completely inexcusable,” Liz Latty, another organizer of the rally this Sunday, said. “It’s blaming the victim. We unequivocally denounce the way that the lives of queer and transgendered people, sex workers, people of color, women and low-income people are devalued and seen as disposable. We especially denounce the ways in which feminine-presenting sex workers of color are incredibly targetted for violence.”
Referring to López-Mercado's murder, police investigator Ángel Rodríguez Colón told Univisión, “These types of people, when they enter this lifestyle and go out into the streets, know that this could happen.”
“We are outraged at the murders of López-Mercado and Mattison,” Oakland vigil organizer Latty said. “We, queer and transgendered people in Oakland, are mourning these senseless deaths. Yet we are also a resilient community. We wish to stand in solidarity with those in Puerto Rico and Baltimore who are surviving despite this invisibility and injustice.”
Bay Area organizers of the vigil have been in contact with friends of López-Mercado and are hoping to coordinate memorial events and future actions with the Puerto Rican and Baltimore queer communities.
Harry Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the FBI in Puetro Rico, said that the agency will monitor the investigation since federal statutes regarding hate crimes are implicated. Puerto Rican lawmaker, Charlie Hernandez, who authored the Hate Crimes Act of 2002, has been asking officials to consider charging Matos under that law. It would be the first time in Puerto Rico that a murder would be classified as a hate crime. According to the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force, López-Mercado is the tenth murder victim of a hate crime in Puerto Rico in the last seven years.
But Oakland vigil organizers say they want a different kind of justice that doesn't rely on increased policing or punishment. They say that the prison system has not made life safer for victims of violence, especially those who are queer and transgendered people of color. Organizers say that violence against queer youth of color is only exacerbated by increased police enforcement, which disproportionally targets and locks up low-income people, people of color, sex workers, and gender non-conforming people.
“Hate crimes legislation and more police patrols would not make our communities safer. It would not have prevented the murders, and no punishment will bring these two men back,” organizer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha said. “Systemic homophobia and transphobia killed López-Mercado and Mattison, who like other queer or gender non-comforming youth of color, faced barriers like street harassment and discrimination in every facet of life. What could've actually saved the two young people's lives are things like free or affordable public transportation, an end to housing and employment discrimination against people of color, queer and trans folks, and the decriminalization of sex work."
"We don't know how Lopez-Mercado identified, gender-wise, right now," added Piepzna-Samarasinha. " What we do know is that transphobia is a huge part of why they were murdered. As we continue to receive information from Lopez-Mercado's friends and family members about how Lopez-Mercado saw their gender, we will change their pronouns to the ones they preferred. We want to work to create a world where all people are free to live in safety with any gender expression they desire."
Vigils mourning López-Mercado and Mattison will also take place this Sunday in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Amherst, MA, Tara Haute, Abilene, TX, Atlanta, and Durham.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Vigils & Rallies outside of Oakland
for those of you who aren't in oakland, there are vigils in other cities, find yours
in Puerto Rico:
Thursday, Nov. 19, 3pm
A vigil and protest convened by the Committee Against Homophobia and Discrimination/Comité Contra la Homofobia y el Discrimen
in front of the Puerto Rican legislature building (el Capitolio) in San Juan. Incidentally, this was planned before Jorge's murder, and seeks to unite many different issues and organizations in Puerto Rico. These issues include:
- the government’s massive layoffs of public workers & the ongoing issue of job discrimination against LGBT workers.
- government’s plan to contract out public services to so-called “public-private alliances” (mostly corporate contributors to political campaigns) and ‘faith-based organizations” (mostly fundamentalists).
- drastic cuts in services for victims of domestic violence
- stalling of anti-discrimination legislation
Announcement:
Piquete contra el discrimen y los despidos: por una sociedad inclusiva
3:00-5:00 pm
19 de noviembre de 2009
Frente al Capitolio
Mientras un sinnúmero de personas lesbianas, gays, bisexuales y transgéneros (LGBT) son despedidas en Puerto Rico cada año por su orientación sexual y por su identidad de género sin siquiera tener una ley que lo prohíba, miles de trabajadores y trabajadoras LGBT fueron lanzados a la calle por la Ley 7, aprobada de un día para otro, a puerta cerrada, entre el Gobernador, la Legislatura y la clase empresarial.
La Ley 7 convierte al Estado prácticamente en una empresa privada, en la que hay que reducir costos, empleados y servicios sin importar el nefasto e incalculable efecto social que tenga.
La eventual implantación de las alianzas público-privadas busca entregar las funciones del Estado a entidades no gubernamentales, como compañías privadas y organizaciones de base de fe, lo que traerá un drástico encarecimiento de importantes servicios -entre ellos, la educación y la salud- y, en muchas ocasiones, los pondrá en manos de fundamentalistas, vulnerando así la integridad de ciudadanos LGBT.
La homofobia fermentada por décadas en el Capitolio ahora deja sus más recientes estragos: el proyecto antidiscrimen por orientación sexual está estancado en el Senado, no protejerá igualmente a las personas transgéneros y transexuales, fue enmendado para que sólo aplicara al empleo y no a toda gestión pública o privada y, además, incluirá una disposición para que personas y entidades religiosas queden exentas de la prohibición del discrimen.
Tan reciente como el pasado mes, se reafirmó la prohibición a la adopción por parte de parejas no casadas, incluyendo a las parejas del mismo sexo, y se estableció un nuevo trato preferencial a los matrimonios, dificultando aún más para las familias LGBT acoger niños que no cuentan con un hogar.
Los crímenes de odio contra personas LGBT, que ahora no sólo están prohibidos a nivel estatal sino también a nivel federal, siguen quedando impunes por la complicidad del Departamento de Justicia y de la Policía de Puerto Rico. El macabro asesinato del joven Jorge Steven López podría ser catalogado como un homocidio más, gracias a la homofobia institucionalizada en ambas agencias y la ausencia de protocolos y programas educativos que combatan los prejuicios y conciencien sobre la realidad de los crímenes de odio.
La Ley 54, de violencia doméstica, sigue invisibilizando a las parejas del mismo sexo, gracias a reiteradas decisiones retrógradas en las tres ramas de Gobierno.
Ante este opresivo régimen en el País, las personas LGBT levantamos nuestra voz de repudio e indignación y exigimos al Gobierno:
- La aprobación inmediata del Proyecto 1725, que prohíba igulamente los discrímenes por orientación sexual y por identidad de género, en todas las instancias públicas y privadas, no sólo en el empleo, y sin exenciones en la ley para ningún sector, ya sea moralista o fundamentalista.
- La derogación de la Ley 7, la cancelación de las alianzas público-privadas (APP) y la restitución de los miles de empleados públicos despdidos en los pasados meses.
- La inclusión de las parejas del mismo sexo en las protecciones de la Ley 54, de violencia doméstica.
- El fin de los discrímenes por orientación sexual y por estado civil en los procesos de adopción.
- La aplicación de la Ley de Crímenes de Odio, tanto en el Departamento de Justicia como en la Policía, acompañada de campañas educativas que ataquen de raíz la homofobia y la transfobia en ambas agencias, así como en las escuelas del País.
¡Que se escuche nuestra voz en contra de la opresión!
Comité Contra la Homofobia y el Discrimen
News links about Jason Mattison
News links about Jason Mattison, Jr.:
Jason Mattison, a gay 15 year-old sophomore, was murdered in his aunt's Baltimore home last Tuesday, Nov. 10. He was raped, stabbed to death, and stuffed into a closet before his body was found. Family, friends, and classmates gathered the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 20 for a vigil. A funeral was held Wednesday morning at a local church.
ABC Video coverage of Vigil in Baltimore, 11/20
More news coverage
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.ci.mattison18nov18,0,4221135.story
http://nosufferingfools.lefora.com/2009/11/18/jason-mattison-15-gay-teen-boy-raped-and-murdered-/page1/
http://nosufferingfools.lefora.com/2009/11/18/jason-mattison-15-gay-teen-boy-raped-and-murdered-/page1/
News Links about Jorge Steven López Mercado
On November 13th, 2009, 19-year old Gay Youth Jorge López Mercado was found murdered by the side of the road in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Lopez Mercado's body had been burnt and decapitated and partially dismembered. One of the prosecutors in the case later said to Univision that, “This type of person, when he does things like this and go out on the street knows that this can happen to him.”
http://www.towleroad.com/2009/11/killer-of-puerto-rican-teen-says-gay-panic-made-him-murder.html
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/14114/arrest-made-early-this-morning-in-puerto-rico-gay-teen-jorge-steven-lopez-mercado-murder-case
Flyers/Vigil info, Time, Location
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180924392621
Need more info? Have more info?
MoreThanAVigil@gmail.com
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