SFGate: Transgender community feels joy, anger at Araujo verdict

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SAN FRANCISCO
Transgender community feels joy, anger at Araujo verdict
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

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Leaders in the community said the jury's rejection of a "transgender panic" defense -- in which Araujo's gender identity absolved the men of some guilt in the crime -- represented significant progress.

"It sends a message that you can no longer blame the victim for what happened," said Cecilia Chung, deputy director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. "You can't blame a transgender person for being who she or he is."

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The Araujo case has prompted public discourse about the transgender community and transgender issues.

Several thousand students in Bay Area schools have heard Araujo's mother speak about her daughter since the 2002 killing, and the case has received coverage in national and Bay Area media outlets, several of which developed policies on the use of pronouns and names in describing transgender people. The Chronicle, for example, now uses pronouns and names that are preferred by transgender individuals who have the physical attributes of the opposite sex.

Major Spanish-language outlets covered the case more than they had any previous crime with an LGBT victim, said Monica Taher, people of color media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

"This was a huge story at the local and national level," Taher said. "Every time there was an update from the court, the (Spanish-language) media was there covering. I didn't see that with the Matthew Shepard case."

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