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/TRANS TEENS MURDERED IN MARYLAND AND PUERTO RICO
Though it happened a week ago, I just caught up with this story, so here's what happened.
A queer and/or trans teenager in Puerto Rico, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, was killed after she was picked up by a man for sex and he discovered her "male genitalia". She has also been reported predominantly to be a "gay male", though as Helen G notes in the link provided that she was dressed as a woman and that her killer seemingly believed her to be one when he picked her up.
Links and more information found here.
Also of note in this case is the way the local police have been commenting on the victim. The former officer in charge of the case had this to say:
“When these type of people get into this and go out into the streets like this, they know this can happen to them.”Thankfully THAT asshole was taken off the case. We'll see if it gets better on that front from here on.
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.”
(From the press release of this vigil) More information on this case can be found here.
There are other events and vigils that have been popping up all over the country. Events for Jorge can be found here For Jason, here.
