Gay activist vows to play a bigger role

By K.W. Harp, Herald Staff Writer

Betsy Stephens said Fred Martinez is dead, in part, because she didn't do enough to prevent the murder.

As president of the Durango chapter of the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Stephens said she is now more resolved to take a proactive role in the community.

"At this point, I'm mad," she said. "I'm not going to go away."

The Durango PFLAG has invited two national advocates to speak at 6:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss gays in public schools. The Martinez murder was the catalyst for the meeting, Stephens said.

The purpose of the meeting is to promote tolerance, acceptance and safety for all children, said Gabi Clayton, co-founder of Families United Against Hate in Olympia, Wash., who will speak Thursday.

"All schools should have policies on harassment that include sexual orientation and gender identity," Clayton said. "That's really just the first step, because that's just words on paper."

Clayton also wants teachers to be trained on what to do when harassment does happen, she said. Also, she wants classes that deal with diversity issues, including sexual orientation and racism, she said.

"They need to be happening so people can talk about their feelings," Clayton said. "Hate is everywhere, and a lot of people don't want to acknowledge that."

Clayton's son killed himself in 1995, about a month after he was assaulted, Clayton said. She will talk about his story and what she has learned, she said.

Stephens agreed that schools need to become more involved but also said there should be support for student clubs that deal with sexual orientation and books about gay issues in the library.

"There are people who say they don't want this stuff discussed in school," Stephens said. "Guess what? It is being discussed in school because students are getting beat up. ... There is anti-gay harassment in school. Why shouldn't there be a little more understanding and knowledge?"

Durango School District 9-R will have representatives at the program, Stephens said, and all school districts are welcome to attend.

District 9-R follows the law to keep schools safe, said Deborah Uroda, a spokeswoman for the district. District 9-R takes all harassment seriously regardless of the victim, she said.

"I think that we, like PFLAG, want to ensure safe schools," Uroda said. "They are members of the public, and we are open to all our constituents."

Stephens said she welcomed any opponents to come to the meeting to open up lines of communication.

"If people are uncomfortable, I'm sorry, but every kid has the right to a safe education," Stephens said. "It doesn't matter if the child is wearing eyeliner and carrying a purse."

From:SARATOGANY@aol.com
Date:Wed, 8 Aug 2001 08:09:57 EDT
Subject:CO:Mother of slain Navajo teen cites torment

Message from:
The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020
Email to:SARATOGANY@aol.com
The Real or Perceived Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Student Protection Project

FYI
MONTEZUMA CORTEZ HIGH SCHOOL
206 W 7th St
Drawer R
Cortez, Colorado 81321
Office:(970) 565-3722
Fax:(970) 565-5118
===================================================================
Denver Post
8/8/01

Mother of slain Navajo teen cites torment

Transgendered boy taunted for being different

By Electa Draper
Denver Post Four Corners Bureau

Wednesday, August 08, 2001 - CORTEZ - The prejudice and hate didn't begin for 16-year-old Fred C. Martinez the night he was beaten to death, and it didn't end that night, his mother told The Denver Post.

The day after Fred's burial, someone desecrated his grave, scattering all the flowers, said his mother, Pauline Mitchell. Potted roses left at the canyon ledge where his body lay for five days after the June 16 attack have been stolen.

Fred had so many friends, but there were always tormentors, too, Mitchell said. Kids said and did cruel things at school because he was a boy with a feminine nature - "Nadleeh," as the Navajo say, or Two-Spirit - and he could walk both paths.

"He wasn't upset about it," Mitchell says. "He'd say:"I like the way I am. If they don't like it, I don't know what to say or do about it.'"

His mother told him:"Be yourself."

But he became "the youngest person we know of to die in a hate crime," said Carolyn Wagner, an Arkansas grandmother and vice president of the national group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG.

Wagner defines a hate crime as violence motivated by a person's gender identity, race or any other generic trait that engenders bigotry or fear. Colorado's 13-year-old hate-crime law, however, doesn't cover violence committed because of gender identity, sexuality, age or physical disabilities. It provides stiffer sentences only when race or ethnicity is the motive.

Authorities arrested 18-year-old Shaun Murphy of Farmington, N.M., on July 4 on suspicion of second-degree murder in Fred's death after a tipster said he heard Murphy brag that he had beaten up a homosexual.

Outpouring of support

Wagner and members of half-a-dozen groups have rallied around Mitchell and made Fred a cause celebre. More than 4,000 members of PFLAG have requested Mitchell's address. Hundreds already have written.

Wagner visits Cortez often to spend time with Mitchell. Judy Shepard - the mother of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student killed in Laramie in 1998 - is expected to attend a vigil for Fred at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Cortez's Parque de Vida.

Mitchell said that such support has been hard to come by in her life. She is a single parent who raised six sons. She works at a motel and makes jewelry to make ends meet.

Many times, she said, she received calls from Montezuma-Cortez High School to come get Fred. She would have to leave work to pick him up because he was wearing nail polish or makeup, such as eyebrow pencil. Once, she said, the principal didn't like the flimsy sandals he was wearing.

Fred switched to adult education classes last spring, where he was, by all accounts, much happier and a favorite of teachers and students.

Asked few questions

Schools Superintendent Bill Thompson said he cannot comment on any student's disciplinary record, but he knows that the principal, assistant principal, counselor, nurse, teachers and others "spent a great deal of time supporting Fred" while he was at the high school. The administration enforces some dress standards to keep students safe, Thompson said.

Mitchell said she tried to defend her son's right to be himself to school officials, but "the school does not really listen to Native Americans." Law enforcement officers are like that, too, she said.

"You really feel like they don't want to talk to Indians," she said. Aside from a request for his dental records, detectives asked her few questions about Fred, she said, and she is angry that neither the district attorney's office nor any of the investigators informed her of Murphy's first court appearance.

Mitchell had to find the spot where her son died on her own, and when she last visited it, garbage was still strewn around where Fred's body had been, she said. She discovered some of her son's blood-matted hair and said that investigators haven't exactly scoured the area for evidence.

Learned details in paper

Mitchell read about Fred's autopsy - his skull fracture, the slashed abdomen, the bleeding - in the newspaper. She is left to wonder how long he lay dying in a trash-filled canyon where young people party all the time.

The Montezuma County Sheriff's Office did not return a call for this story, but Detective Lt. Kalvin Boggs has said repeatedly that it is an extremely important investigation for the community. He also has said that the department has respect for Mitchell's feelings.

Since her son's death, Mitchell has looked for young people like Fred. She offers rides to one young man she often sees walking by her home. He is an 18-year-old who has a long way to walk to his restaurant job each day, a long time to endure taunts from passing cars.

"He so much reminded me of Fred, the way he was acting," Mitchell said.

She warned him to be careful and is fixing up one of her son's old bicycles for him to ride.

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