Breaking News: Puerto Rican Archbishop gives OK to "domestic partnerships" for same sex couples

A lot has happened since March 13th, when Blabbeando and Puerto Rico Para Tod@s exclusively announced that Miss Universe 2001, Denise Quiñonez, would publicly support civil union rights for same-sex couples in the Caribbean island (in light of the revelation that a new draft of Puerto Rico's civil code included language allowing for such partnerships - another Blabbeando and Puerto Rico Para Tod@s exclusive back in January)

A chronology:

March 14th: The press release is sent out to media and sends shock-waves through the island. Puerto Rican media is already entranced by the release of a brand new video, the day before, by Denise's boyfriend René Pérez, also known among reggaetón lovers as Residente of the Grammy winning band Calle 13. The video for the song "El Tango del Pecado" ("The Tango of Sin") pokes fun at the horror that some in the island feel about the beauty queen's involvement with a reggaetón star and plays into those fears by staging his wedding to Denise (yet to take place in real life), proudly calling himself the devil, and making fun of the beauty queen's parents (who reportedly are mad at him for their cartoonish portrayal in the video).

Ms. Quiñonez, who must have known that her statements might have conflicted with the media assault by Calle 13 in the launch of their new video and upcoming album, was in Los Angeles at the time and not available for interviews until later. It is to both their merit that they thought the issue was important enough to draw attention from the album release.

She not only backs civil unions for same-sex couples but also marriage. In addition she also supports language in the same draft that would allow transgender people to change their names in their birth certificates (a fact that has received little attention in media).

March 21: It's not until a week later that Ms. Quiñonez is available for interviews from her home in Los Angeles, where she is trying to break into the acting field. In radio interviews hosts express disbelief that the words in her press release have come directly from her. One radio jockey says "It sounds as if [Puerto Rico Para Tod@s'] Pedro Julio Serrano was speaking through your mouth!"

Denise graciously calls Pedro Julio a close friend and somebody for whom she will support every time that it's required. But she also speaks passionately about the rights of gays and lesbians as well as transgender people and claims the words as her own. Believe me, that's a huge thing in Latin American culture.

March 23: In response to Denise's comments to press, Johanna Rosaly, a Puerto Rican actress who reveals that her son is gay to El Vocero, also comes out in support (world renown singer Chayanne was less forthcoming in an April 13 interview when he told Primera Hora that it was good that people were claiming their rights but stopped short of endorsing the measure while pop sensation Ricky Martin might have backed outed RBD singer Christian Chavez but he has yet to say anything about his home island's legislative proposal to extend partnership rights to same-sex couples.

April 11: Enter a kiss. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, for which Pedro Julio works, has an English translation of his speech from the original Spanish.

April 18: Which leads to today's breaking news: Just minutes ago El Nuevo Dia reported that the San Juan Archbishop, Roberto González Nieves (pictured above), will go before a legislative committee studying the approval of changes to the island's civil code and announce his support for "domestic unions" as long as the committee stays away from language granting "marriage" rights to same-sex couples.

All in all, an astounding victory which probably means that Puerto Rican same-sex couples will have access to civil union rights in the very near future. Just amazing!

Update: Ruby Rodriguez is mourned in San Francisco

Above: San Francisco Chronicle photo by Mike Keane

Happening Here has images from last night's SF vigil in memory of slain trans woman Ruby Rodriguez - including the one on the left. More here.

Good to see the presence of some public officials such as Assemblyman Mark Leno and Police Commissioner Theresa Sparks.

Ruby's murder has drawn a couple of responses that are shocking in their nastiness:

The infamously homophobic Michael Savage called Ruby a "psychopath" and a "freak" in his national syndicated radio show (Media Matters has the details) and an anonymous caller to the San Francisco Chronicle questioned the paper's political correctness in calling Ruby a "she" instead of "he" and chided the paper for not disclosing Ruby's immigration status.

As Don McPherson would say, the comments mostly reflect both men's insecurities. But part of me wonders why they haven't drawn the ire of the mainstream gay community in ways that other homophobic expressions have recently drawn wide condemnation.

Update: SF vigil in memory of Ruby Rodriguez this Friday

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

Contacts:
Tina D’Elia, Hate Violence Survivor Program Director
(415) 777-5500 ext. 304

Alexandra Byerly, EL-LA Program Coordinator
(415) 864-7278

Community Mourns Murder of Latina Transgender Woman
Requests Attendance at Vigil to Demand Change

San Francisco, California (March 22, 2007) – A Nicaraguan transgender woman, Ruby Rodriguez, 24 years old, was murdered on Friday, March 16, 2007. Her body was found on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Indiana Streets in the Mission District of San Francisco. The murder is currently under investigation by the San Francisco Police Department. Community United Against Violence (CUAV), EL-LA, San Francisco LGBT Community Center, TRANS Project, allies, and community members will hold a community vigil in her honor on Friday, March 23, 2007 at 6:00PM, on the corner of 24th Street and Mission Street in the Mission District.

Organizers request that the community bring a white candle to the vigil. There will also be an additional altar set up on Cesar Chavez and Indiana Street, and community members are encouraged to bring flowers, photographs, cards and good wishes to this site. Let us not forget Ruby. She was an exceptional woman who was intent on improving her life. Ruby participated in various support groups and language classes, and idolized Chicana singer Selena.

This murder comes at the heels of at least two other violent deaths of transgender women of color in the San Francisco Bay Area over the past six months. Transgender people, particularly low-income transgender women of color, are disproportionately poor, homeless, criminalized and imprisoned as a result of systemic discrimination in our daily attempts to access safe housing, healthcare, employment, and education.

Unfortunately, Ruby’s murder is not an exception, but an everyday fear for many transgender people who are targeted and brutalized by institutions and society at large. Our communities mourn Ruby’s death and ask for a renewed commitment to real safety for transgender communities. It is vital that the Mayor’s Office, the San Francisco Police Department, and the District Attorney’s Office work to end the cycles of criminalization, poverty, and violence in transgender communities and communities of color.

Please direct any questions about the vigil to Tina D’Elia or Alexandra Byerly. If anyone has any information regarding Ruby’s murder, please contact Inspector Karen Lynch at (415) 553-1388 or Inspector Tom Cleary at (415) 553-9569 of the SFPD Homicide Unit.

---
Community United Against Violence works to end violence against and within the LGBTQQ communities, providing free and confidential counseling, advocacy, and education in English and Spanish. CUAV’s crisis line is (415) 333-4357.

EXCLUSIVE: Miss Universe 2001 to back equal rights for gays, transgender individuals in Puerto Rico

( photo courtesy of: www.befoto.com ; make up by www.KarloStar.com )

A Blabbeando AND Puerto Rico Para Tod@s EXCLUSIVE:

--- To read a Spanish version of this statement please go to El Blog de PJ ---

In a press statement that will be sent out tomorrow, March 14 of 2007, Denise Quiñones, Miss Universe 2001, will publicly express her support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Puerto Rico. Her declaration makes her the Puerto Rican celebrity with the most international recognition to support equal rights for all in the island as part of the public debate on the revision of the Puerto Rican Civil Code.

The well-regarded and much-loved actress and singer will make a number of courageous and powerful statements expressing her unconditional support for proposed changes to Puerto Rico’s Civil Code which would grant civil union rights to same-sex couples as well as heterosexual couples.

Furthermore, Ms. Quiñones, who was recently recognized with the ACE award for Outstanding Theatre Actress, will also demonstrate her unconditional support for the entire LGBT community, and not just gays and lesbians, by also backing the right for transgender persons to change their birth certificates to better reflect their current gender.

She will also call on fellow Puerto Rican celebrities and personalities to join her in speaking out in favor of the LGBT community and ask the general public to see the ongoing public debate on the Civil Code as an opportunity to bring together the Puerto Rican family.

Finally, Denise will also urge those who believe in equality for all to visit the Puerto Rico Para Tod@s web portal where they can register and quickly send the legislature messages supporting these much-needed changes to the Civil Code.

The portal can be found here: http://www.prparatodos.org/proyectoley.php

With these courageous and valiant words, Denise Quiñones is a towering example of what every fair-minded Puerto Rican person must do at this crucial moment in the fight for equality: Speak up without reservations in favor of justice for all.

Denise, we have always admired you for your beauty, your career as an artist and your extensive work on behalf of people who live with HIV/AIDS. Now we admire you even more!

Mexico: English language media picks up on a few LGBT stories

Here are links to two recent English-language newspaper articles on issues that we have recently covered:

• Police say gay activist's slaying was fueled by passion, not hate (San Antonio Express News, Jan. 19)
• Gay rights surface in the Mexican desert (The Dallas Morning News, Jan. 25)

...and a link to a story we have yet to cover:

• Mexican lawmaker proposes giving transsexuals constitutional protections (AP, Jan. 25)

ITN: SF death, black-face performer out in Los Angeles

Death in San Francisco: Martha Arredondo from Santa Cruz, California, says that she has hired a private investigator to look into the death of her daughter Daxi (pictured right). Daxi's body was found in a seedy San Francisco motel room back in November of 2006 but police are still determining whether her death was a homicide. Her mother says that she decided to hire an investigator after she was called to identify her daughter's body and saw signs of violence. The investigator, she says, has already found out that Daxi was seen walking into the hotel with a man who later was seen leaving alone. Daxi, who was 35, was a transgender woman.

Black-face performer kicked out of Los Angeles: Back in 2004, some of us protested an appearance by gay "comedy" performer Charles Knipp at a Chelsea gay bar and his demeaning characterization of black women and black culture. Local protests go back to 2002. But it's 2007 and Jasmyne Cannick has achieved what we were not able to do: To get Knipp's show cancelled.

ITN: Colombian TG woman murdered, Dallas Constable Dupree criticized, asylum in the news

Trans woman stoned to death in the rural plains of eastern Colombia: El Tiempo reports today that a popular personality from the rural town of Puerto Paz in the Venezuela-bordering great plains state of Meta, was stoned to death.

The body of 44 year-old Myreya Sanchez a/k/a Balalá (pictured above), whose birth name was Edgar Enrique Echeverry and was known to adopt the names of many television soap heroines throughout her life (including Laisa), was found on a field near a major interstate road on January 7th. Authorities say that they found the semi-nude body in a fetal position with wounds to her head indicating that she was hit with a large stone.

Myreya was well-known throughout the community since she usually was seen riding on her bike offering to wash dirty laundry, iron shirts or cook for others, which is how she made a living. She also was active political races and volunteered for several local candidates.

Her funeral on Monday drew a multitude or mourners as her body was carried from the town's church to the cemetery. Victor Bravo, a neighbor, asked authorities to do their best to solve the murder.

FOLLOW-UP! Dallas Constable Mike Dupree does some damage control after having his younger male ex-lover deported to Honduras: The Dallas Observer reports that openly gay Dallas Constable Mike Dupree (and his lawyer) met this week with a number of local leaders to defuse outrage from activists following the disclosure that he had one of his officers arrest an ex-lover at his home have him deported soon after their relationship soured.

On Wednesday, members of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, Gay LULAC, the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, Valiente and the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus held a meeting with Dupree at which he and his lawyer questioned the "accuracy" of the Dallas Observer article that exposed the deportation.

Dallas Observer reporter Matt Pulle stands by his original story and the Dallas Observer notes that neither Dupree nor his lawyer have called the paper to question any of the facts in the original article.

"That's just not something we do" says Human Rights Campaign on helping LGBT immigrants seek political asylum in the US: Doug Ireland has the cover story of this week's Gay City News and shines a light on the difficulties facing LGBT immigrants seeking asylum based on sexual orientation.

It's a worthy read.

In the article, Holland & Knight attorney Chris Nugent (an unsung hero to us) says that he is disappointed that there seems to be no institution in the United States that has mobilized on the issue. While that might be true on a national scale (the Human Rights Campaign comes out smelling the worst as quoted above), I'm not sure I am in agreement.

As a staff member of the Latino Commission on AIDS, I know for a fact that our agency has successfully mobilized over 200 political asylum applicants who have been granted asylum based on persecution due to sexual orientation over the last decade, and that local organizations such as the African Services Committee and GMHC have also been engaged in the issue.

Still, Nugent is right to criticize the fact that the two national gay rights organizations are unwilling to take a stand on the issue or devote any resources to helping out. We certainly did our work despite the few resources we had towards assisting immigrants in their asylum claims but, in some ways, it was the most important and rewarding work we have ever done.

ITN: Good news in Mexico, Puerto Rico civil code, Jamaican prison for TG youth

Coahuila says yes to same-sex partners: Yesterday, Coahuila became the second Mexican state to recognize the rights of same-sex partners following Mexico City, which approved a more limited bill back in November.

Mexican organizations react to anti-gay comments by new Health Minister: In the meantime news agency NotieSe reports today that some organizations reacted strongly to comments made by the new Health Minister José Ángel Córdova Villalobos in an interview published yesterday in Exelsior.

Representatives from Catholic Women for the Right to Choose, Group of Information on Elective Reproduction (GIRE), and Integral Health for Women (Sipam) reacted to Villalobo's comments regarding reproductive health while the National Counsel for the Prevention of HIV/AIDS (Conasida) and the National Front of People Affected by HIV/AIDS pointed out that HIV prevention should be based on science and not on "personal, moral or religious beliefs."

Homosexual Group, Action and Information (GHAI) called the declarations "surprising" and "irresponsible."

Friends Against AIDS questioned the Minister's comments that some radio spots "promoted homosexuality" and noted that sexual identity, whether gay or straight, cannot be "promoted" as there is no way to change a person's sexual orientation.

In the meantime an opinion columnist in the paper where the outrageous comments were published, Exelsior, also reacted angrily. Yuriria Sierra says:

...the state oversees the area of public health and that is your responsibility, Minister. To decide how each and every Mexican should express their sexuality is not under your perview. And society should not care whether you think that other people's love or pleasures are dangerous: What is dangerous is that the Ministry under your charge might not comply with what is truly your responsibility. We will take care of our beds: You should take care of our health.

Puerto Rico exclusive not so exclusive anymore: In the meantime, the exclusive we gave you on Wednesday (in collaboration with PRparaTODOS), is not so exclusive anymore as the major Puerto Rican papers revealed today what we already knew:

A draft of family regulations within a new Puerto Rican civil code not only would create civil union regulations in the Caribbean island but extend civil union rights to same-sex partners in a version that was shown to legislators this morning.

We have it on good authority that there will be surprises ahead that might increase the chances of the code being adopted by the legislature and that might benefit more than just same-sex couples.

Trans youth in Jamaican prison: Jamaican prison authorities say that they mistakenly placed a juvenile trans woman in a woman's prison after the arresting officer failed to realize that the person was transgender, according to the Jamaica Observer. Perhaps it might have been a safer choice for the teen, unfortunately she has been moved to "another correctional institution."

In the news: LGBT political asylum news, homophobic violence in Peru

Not sure if this will be a recurring feature here at Blabbeando but here's some news stories that caught my attention recently:

Deportation woes: Today, The Washington Post reports on immigrants in deportation proceedings who reach immigration court without access to legal representation which, some advocates claim, leads to hundreds of unfair deportations on an annual basis.

No political asylum for Jamaican lesbian: In this week's Gay City News, Arthur Leonard continues his exemplary ongoing look at LGBT asylum cases and discusses a decision by the federal appeals court in Philadelphia upholding a lower court's decision not to grant political asylum to a Jamaican lesbian woman. Mr. Leonard's blog can be found in my personal links column.

Transgender Mexican woman might get political asylum: In the meantime, on Thursday, Metropolitan News reported that the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider an asylum claim filed by a Mexican-born transgender woman deeming that the Board of Immigration Appeals failed to take into consideration key testimony in their decision not to grant the woman asylum.

Police in Peru accused of systematic attacks on the LGBT community: Finally, the UK's Pink News picks up on an EFE newswire article on a report released by the Lima Homosexual Movement (MOHL) over the weekend in which the organization claims to have documented over 600 homophobic attacks throughout the South American nation during 2006 and in which they accuse police officers of "carrying out systematic attacks on gay people in the country."

More information on the report can be found in this Spanish-language article distributed by the Andina newswire.

Argentina: 20,000 at gay pride

Buenos Aires saw their 15th annual gay pride march on Saturday and it drew a record 20,000 people (twice as many as in 2005, according to some observers).

In an interview with Todo Noticias available through Clarin, Cesar Cigliutti, President of Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA), reminisces that fifteen years ago "we were 200 and a half wore masks" to cover their face and talks about the significant advances that have taken place in Argentina since then.

Unlike the last couple of years, the march went without a hitch and was not the scene of the type of confrontations that threatened to overshadow it in 2003 and 2005.

Behind the scenes, some tensions remained as some tried to pit organizers of a women's rights march that took also took place Saturday against the gay pride organizers arguing that holding a gay pride march on the same date was an affront to women. But those attempts seemed to fall on deaf ears, even amongst the organizers of the women's rights march.

As in recent years, a few people, including trans activist Lohana Berkins, chose to participate in a "Counter-March" to protest against the capitalist system and the increasingly apolitical and assimilationist nature of the annual pride event.

But even Lohana had reason to smile on Saturday: On Tuesday, November 21st, Argentina's Supreme Court ruled that that the Argentinean government must grant ALITT, the organization she represents, official recognition as a non-profit organization. The ruling was applauded by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission as a first for a transgender rights organization in Argentina in this press release.

Additional photos of Saturday's march can be found here and here.

UPDATE: Gabriel from mundogay.com has even more photos here.

Spanish-language anti-homophobia ad #1

SOMOS... One of a series of ads that ran in Spanish language media back in 2003 and 2004 which comes to mind as the New York State Black Gay Men's Network launches a brand new campaign targeting homophobia in the African-American community tomorrow. Ad design: Pablo Caro. Photo credit: Javier Soriano

You might have noticed, but we inadvertently jumped the gun on a new initiative to combat homophobia in African-American communities here in New York. After writing about a poster I noticed last week in a subway station, Mark Jason McLaurin of the New York State Black Gay Network said:

Hello Andres-

Thanks for posting our campaign- This is actually a campaign of the New York State Black Gay Network and it will be running all over the city - We have a launch press conference scheduled for Tuesday morning [August 22nd] with Congressman Charlie Rangel and Borough President Scott Springer- if anyone wants any more info on the campaign or materials- feel free to contact me at mmclaurin@nysbgn.org

Thanks for getting the word out (although we were hoping to keep it under wraps a bit until Tuesday but they started the subway stuff early) LOL!

Oops! Aplogies to Mark and the NYS Black gay Men's Network! Rod2.0 picked up on the post on Friday and Keith Boykin gives the down-low on the campaign on his blog today. The campaign, as Mark and Keith say, will be officially launched tomorrow. We wish them great luck and success with the campaign and on-going efforts to tackle homophobia in the African-American community.

In the meantime, these ads have brought to mind an initiative conducted back in 2003 and 2004 to combat homophobia in Latino communities in New York. In the post immediately below and in this post, I wanted to share a couple of the ads that we ran in some of the local Spanish-language newspapers Hoy and El Diario La Prensa. For a high resolution version of the ad above go here.

The text of this particular ad reads:

Jose Sanchez, Graduate Student, Peruvian, Gay
How long have you known that you were gay?
"The truth is that being gay has always been part of my identity. What was difficult was to accept myself and to be able to be sincere with my family and my friends. Nowdays I am the pride of my parents and brothers. I don't have to keep anything from them."

And you, what do you think?

Spanish-language anti-homophobia ad #2

Ad design: Pablo Caro; Photo credit: Javier Soriano

This one in a series of Spanish-language ads that ran in New York City dailies El Diario La Prensa and Hoy as part of an anti-homophobia campaign developed by Francisco Lazala, Bolivar Nieto and I through the SOMOS... Project at the Latino Commission on AIDS back in 2003 and 2004. For a high resolution version click here.

The text reads:

Nina Rosado, Executive Assistant, Puerto Rican, Lesbian
How did you feel when you realized that you were a lesbian?
"Confused and scared, I didn't know who to talk to about my feelings, I was afraid of being rejected by my friends and my family. I decided to participate in this campaign so that no one else would have to go through what I experienced. So that other Latina lesbians know that we are part of the community."

SOMOS... [We are...] part of our community...

The Latino community in New York is pretty diverse. We are of different ethnicities, nationalities and ages. We are from different social classes and professions and - many of us - are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender persons.

Nevertheless there is HOMOPHOBIA

There are many erroneous perceptions about homosexuality and people who ask themselves: Is a person born or made gay? can we chose a sexual identity?

And you... What do you think?

Yey! Updates: Wilson Cruz, Laisa Reyes, No Love, La Trevi

When Rod 2.0 alerted us to stunningly low job approval ratings for President Bush in the aftermath of the hurricaine (Oct. 13, 2005), we were afraid to ask what the margin of error was. Not necessarily on the same topic, and a definitely happier alert, Rod says that he has interviewed gay Latino hottie Wilson Cruz for the next issue of Clik. We'll be looking for it in the newstands. Kudos ro Rod for landing the interview.

Regarding Colombia: Transgender Diva (Jan. 13, 2006), perhaps the most visited post in this blog, last week I actually had the opportunity to talk to Endry Cardeño (pictured above), the transgender woman who plays Laisa Reyes in the popular Colombian soap opera "Los Reyes." I had been asked to participate in a morning radio show broadcasting from Bogota on how coming out might be different in the United States than in my home country of Colombia. I knew that a good friend of mine, German Rincon - an amazing gay rights advocate and attorney - would be amongst the guests but, to my huge surprise, Endry was also invited. I took the oportunity to congratulate her on the soap and the work she was doing to bring down stereotypes about transgender people in Colombia. Yes, I can get a bit star-struck sometimes. Then again, I know people who are making their families tape "Los Reyes" so they can see it here.

Regarding A Year Without Love (Feb. 7, 2006), I have yet to see the film since it opened in New York but Gary Kramer at Gay City News gives it a rave review.

Regarding La Trevi en New York at Splash on March 7, both Syed and Elena Mary have taken me to task for daring to say that I am not a big fan of Gloria Trevi's music. She is, after all, the "Mexican Madonna!" I guess I'll have to atone for my sins at Splash when I go see her live. The night closes a mini-tour of gay bars throughout the United States. The Miami Herald filed this story on the eve of her Feb. 14th performance in Miami Beach. In the article, the tour promoter says: "The gay community has always believed in her, a lot of them understand when you're wrongly accused because of sexual behavior. When she came out of it all triumphantly it helped her."

La Trevi says: "I'm so grateful and proud [to have gay fans]. When I was in trouble, the gays didn't abandon me."

Let's see how the night at Splash goes.

Guatemalan police implicated in murder of trans woman

Today, the Latin American bureau of the AP is reporting that the country's Human Rights Ombudsman, Sergio Morales, released a statement charging that police were involved in the clandestine shooting of a transgender woman who was a member of the gay rights and HIV prevention organization OASIS. As usual, the AP publishes the victim's name of birth and categorizes the victim as a homosexual man but ads "[Juan Pablo] Mendez Cartagena, known as 'Paulina' in the homosexual world, died in a nearby hospital from bullet shot wounds" and that the shooting occurred "in a street known as travesti and transsexual prostitution area."

Pray tell, what does 'the homosexual world' mean to the AP? And while we are at it, why not dignify the woman who was killed by giving her the name with which she chose to live her life? (at least the English language Reuters story gets it right)

Of course, that is an issue of semantics and reporting. Much more serious is that OASIS members continue to be victims of such horrible violence: The agency tells the AP that eight of their members have been murdered in what is a young year and the sad thing is that it's not something new. Check out this profile of OASIS from the online webzine, The Gully, from 2000.

The Ombudsman did not release additional information such as the names of the officers saying that the investigation was still in process.

Jorge Lopez (pictured above), the Director of OASIS, told the AP "we hope that the investigation is followed to the end."

Photo credit: E. Sologaistoa, taken from The Gully.

Gwen Araujo, Rest in Peace

Back in September I reported that a California jury had reached a partial verdict in the killing of Gwen Araujo, a young transgender woman who was beaten to death when her companions found that she was not a born a woman. Update: All three men were found guilty and sentences were handed down yesterday - Two of the men face fifteen years to life in prison and a third was sentenced to six years.

On Thursday, a day before the sentencing, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a moving OpEd piece by Gwen's mother. Sylvia Guerrero. I am reprinting it here in its entirety. I hope that I don't get tagged for copyright infringement.

Life after Gwen
- Sylvia Guerrero
Thursday, January 26, 2006

I am not sure how I expected to feel at this point. When my daughter Gwen, a transgender teenager, was brutally murdered on Oct. 4, 2002, I was sure that I would never feel whole again. Looking back, I didn't yet know exactly what "transgender" meant or how to fully embrace my child's identity. But I knew one thing: I wanted justice for my child.

I thought that maybe I'd feel better on the day when the four suspects in her murder were brought to justice. More than three years and three months since Gwen's murder that day is finally here. On Friday, these men are being sentenced to prison terms for their actions, two of them convicted of second-degree murder and two taking plea bargains for voluntary manslaughter. I guess I hoped that once we got to the sentencing date, the pain would end and I could get back to my life. But it hasn't and I can't.

No amount of justice can return the part of me that these men took when they killed Gwen. The closure that people keep talking about hasn't come. It would be so much easier to write that it had. After all, that is what most people want to read: The system worked; my family is whole; the story is over. It would be comforting and allow us to get on with our lives. Of the many things I'm feeling, closure isn't one of them.

I'm angry. Angry that Gwen's brothers and her nieces and nephews won't get to grow up knowing her the way her aunts, uncles, older sister and I did. Angry that instead of celebrating her birthday, we get together each year to commemorate her death. Angry that, in both trials, the defendants tried to blame Gwen for her own murder. Angry that other young lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender kids continue to face the discrimination she did in our public schools and our workforce.

I'm also grateful. Grateful that my family and our friends rose to the challenge and sat through two gruesome and explicit criminal trials to make sure that everyone knew that Gwen was loved for who she was. I'm grateful for the support we've all received from perfect strangers who have told us in-person and through e-mail that we are in their thoughts and prayers. I'm grateful for the remorse that two of the defendants and some of their family members have expressed to me and my family.

And I'm sad. Sad that I'll never get to see Gwen grow into the beautiful woman she would have become. Sad that four men chose to end my daughter's life, and throw away their own simply because they thought they were acting like "real men." And sad that other transgender women have been killed since Gwen's murder and that we don't have a realistic end in sight to that violence.

Within this mix of emotions, though, the one that I hold onto most dearly is hope. Since that tragic night, my own family has grown by two beautiful grandchildren. More and more parents are supporting their transgender children. California has become the country's most protective state for transgender people. And just this month, a new law has been proposed in Sacramento, the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, authored by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, and sponsored by Equality California, an LGBT civil-rights lobbying group, to protect people from being blamed for their own murder.

Maybe the reason I don't have closure around Gwen's death is that there is still work to do. If I've learned anything since Gwen's murder, it is that hope alone is not enough. Each of us who hopes to live in a state where our families are protected needs to work toward making California that place. For instance, boys and girls in schools throughout the Bay Area need to hear, firsthand, how important it is to be themselves and to respect each other's differences.

None of us can change the way the world was on Oct. 4, 2002. But each of us now has an important role to play in creating a state where we can celebrate more birthdays and commemorate fewer murders.

Sylvia Guerrero is the mother of Gwen Araujo and an activist for LGBT civil rights. She speaks at schools around the Bay Area through the Gwen Araujo Transgender Education Fund administered by the Horizons Foundation.

Colombia: Transgender TV Diva

I had read about it but until I saw it with my own eyes, I didn`t truly get it. Endry! Diva! Reina!

Something amazing is happening on Colombian television and her name is Endry Cardeño (who interprets the irrepresible Laisa Reyes in the most popular soap opera in Colombia, Los Reyes). The soap, a dramedy which follows the trials and tribulations of the Reyes family as they are miraculously rescued from povery by an eccentric millionaire, sometimes is a bit too broad to qualify as a true classic in the vein of, say, Betty La Fea, which subverted Latino soap operas by creating a story line around a bookishly smart nerdy woman who stole everyone`s hearts (even if at the end of the series the producers gave in to the temptation of falling for the ugly duckling turns into a beautiful swan storyline).

In the soap, Laisa is part of the Reyes clan, who returns from Europe having changed gender and is still warmly embraced by her family. It`s clear, in the episodes that I have seen while here in Colombia, that the character was written as a broad and somewhat offensive caricature of what it means to be a transgender woman. But it`s also clear that Endry, a transgender woman in her first acting role, has taken the character of Laisa to a whole other level and that, to some degree, she has hijacked the show. Her role seems to have expanded to include a storyline in which she becomes the host of a television talk show and, though she plays the role of Laisa for laughs and a little bit over the top, the humor rarely comes at her expense which humanizes the character. In fact, in the episodes I have seen, there`s a subplot in which a man romances Laisa not knowing she is transgender and, what could be played as a set up where the pay off might be the laughter elicited by the shock of the man realizing that Laisa used to be a man, instead has focused on Laisa`s hope that she can have a real relationship where her gender does not complicate things.

Now, I hear Los Reyes is a remake of a soap from Argentina called Los Roldan so I`m not sure how closely it follows the original script. I was about to say that for a transgender woman to play the role of a transgender woman on a Spanish language soap opera was a first but then I saw this synopsis of Los Roldan and realized that they were first at it. Consider that in the United States you still have producers who won`t hire a transgender actor to play the role of a transgender woman in a movie such as Transamerica (despite how great Felicity Huffman is as an actor) or HBO`s Normal (despite how great Tom Wilkinson is as an actor).

On New Year`s Day, I caught excerpts of a "Personalities of the Year" television interview with Endry, who has become a media sensation and a soap fan favorite (and that`s nearly everyone in Colombia, women, men and children included). She spoke of hearing about a RCN television casting announcement for a transgender woman to play the role while trying her luck as a model and theatre actor in Europe. Of having worked for a non-profit agency in Bogota promoting safe sex amomg street workers and drug addicts (and how ultimately she did not think her work as a peer educator would secure an economic future for herself even if she loved the work). The talk show host was incredibly offensive asking Endry if, romantically, she liked to be involved with other locas (fags) and whether she had cut it off. Endry was gracious and direct in her responses, making the interviewer look like an ass, but also challenging a lot of his assumptions. She explained the difference between a gay man and a `travesti,`as she refers to herself. She spoke of being thrown out from several schools as a kid because, even at 9 or 10, she already had femenine traits and of her decision to get breast implants. She also spoke of her personal decision not to undergo gender reassignment surgery and of fully enjoying all the aspects of her sexuality just as she is.

Yes, the character os Laisa continues the recent tradition in Latino soaps of including queer characters as the `funny`neighbor, work mate or family member (see Betty La Fea`s Hugo, the hair stylist). But in this case, the role of the clown, as played by Endry, is what is so subversive about Los Reyes and the way that she has made Colombia fall in love with a real transgender woman.

LGBT Youth in Foster Care: Amazing Article and Slide-Show

Yesterday the Journal News from Westchester, N.Y., published an in-depth article about the Green Chimneys agency in New York and the queer foster kids that it serves. It is an amazing article and I hope you take some time to click on the hyperlink above to read it.

Most impressive, though, is a 4 minute slide-show and interview with some of the people interviewd for the piece which you can watch here. Kudos to reporter Marcela Rojas and the editors of the Journal News for this amazing piece.

Epitafios on HBO Signature and HBO on Demand

A while back, HBO launched HBO Latino for cable and satellite subscribers with the ability to get multiple HBO channels on their television systems. They have done a pretty good job in highlighting some great films coming from Latin America and Spain but Epitafios, filmed in Buenos Aires in 2003 for HBO Latin America (and shown in South America last year), became their first foray into developing multi-series programming specifically in Spanish.

The stand alone 13-episode run already premiered States-wide on the HBO Latino in Spanish. Now, for the fisrt time, it runs with English subtitles on HBO Signature (starting tonight) and HBO on demand. It is getting some good reviews including this one in todays' Washington Post.

Unconventional in its bleakness and sometimes gruesome cruelty, the show is a mix of the film "Seven" and the US TV show "CSI: Miami." A serial killer goes on a killing rampage through the city of Buenos Aires (beautifully captured by the cinematographers) to avenge the police bungling of a kidnapping case in which four high-school students ended up burned to death years earlier. The series takes its time to reveal the true reasons for the vengeful murders but manages to keep suspense even after the killer's face is revealed. Ultimately, for a first try at a Spanish language series, HBO has done OK. Unfortunately...

SPOILER ALERT (DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE SERIES):

... if you tune in to see Almodovar star Celia Roth, you will be in for a surprise since she doe not appear until the later episodes. She plays a tough-as-nails policewoman who seems to have the strength and smarts to capture the killer and, in fact, she is the first one to identify him. Unfortunately, a side-story about her willing participation in a series of deadly games of Russian-roulette and a failure in logic as the killer hands her a gun and she choses to shoot someone else fully knowing that she might be the next victim, fails to convince. Then again, most of the policemen in the film are so inept it's no wonder more than 50 people die by the series' end.

Continuity problems abound, specially during the later episodes, as night becomes day becomes night in what seems to be mere minutes. Most laughable is a scene in which a police officer calls a man to warn him that he will be the next victim. The man has already been abducted but his cell-phone has been left behind on a park bench. When a jogger picks up the phone and answers the policeman's call with a "Hello?" the policeman cuts off the call in anger without saying a thing and tells his partners "Damn! The killer already has him! A park jogger picked up the phone!" (hm, not having spoken to the jogger at all, how exactly would he know this?).

Most dissapointingly, at least for me, was the identity of the serial killer. The moment I saw him walk into his first scene, I had a feeling that it would be her. Renzo, the policeman who telepathically guessed that the cell-phone had been left in a park, is seen at the begining of the series driving a cab for a living (he retires from the police after bungling the kidnapping rescue mentioned earlier). One of his regular passengers is a transgender woman who supplies him with black-market anti-depressants. As the story develops, it turns out that the transgender woman is actually a gay man whose former lover was one of the students who was burned to death. He wants to avenge his lover's death and make everyone who was involved in the botched kidnapping rescue suffer as much as he did. Antonio Birabent plays the character with some abandon but never truly convinces. Ultimately I was extremely dissapointed that once again, the freak serial killer turned out to be a gay man who might also seem gender-confused.

News trends: Transgender issues

For some reason there are several stories in today's papers about transgender issues. Some of it has to do with the launch of "Transgeneration" - a new Sundance channel reality series - and some of it with the aftermath of the Gwen Araujo trial verdicts but the Houston Chronicle also has a wrenching story about transgendered persons and their tribulations after Katrina hit New Orleans.

Read all below:

Katrina's aftermath: Transgender evacuee survives all obstacles (Houston Chronicle, Sept. 15, 2005)

Transgender killings an investigative quagmire (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 15, 2005)

They didn't wait until middle age to question their birth sex. They are the 'Transgeneration' (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 15, 2005)

Gwen Araujo Trial Verdicts In: 2 men guilty, jury deadlocks on 3rd

In a previous posting titled "Days of mouring - Part 8: Epilogue" I mentioned that a jury had reached a partial verdict in the second trial for three men accused of killing Gwen Araujo last Friday (the first one ended with a deadlocked jury) but that the court had sealed jury papers until a full verdict was in. Well, here it is: Michael Magidson and Jose Merel were declared guilty of second-degree murder and face 15 years to life in prison. The jury was deadlocked on Jason Cazares' involvement.

[UPDATE: Aparently while the court did convict these two men, they failed to convict on hate crime charges. There was a vigil in San Francisco tonight in which members of the transgender community celebrated the verdicts but also expressed dissapointment at the jury's failure to see this as a hate crime]