Slaying prompts vigil, talk on tolerance

By Katharhynn Heidelberg, Journal Staff Writer

More than 100 community members and guests attended a ceremony Saturday night aimed at spreading a message: Cortez will not tolerate violence against any child.

Music and memories honored Fred "F.C." Martinez Jr. at the candlelight vigil in Cortez's Parque de Vida.

Martinez, who was openly transgendered, died on June 16. His body was discovered south of Cortez on June 21. Shaun Murphy, 18, of Farmington, is being held on first- and second-degree murder charges in Martinez's death.

Mourners lit candles and held flowers in memory of a young life cut short.

"Fred has brought us all together," his mother, Pauline Mitchell, said. "Never again will we allow our children and loved ones to suffer or walk alone."

Mitchell received an outpouring of support and sympathy from crowd members.

"Every child's death is a tragedy. Had Fred been a different person, his death might not have happened so early, or so violently," said John Peters-Campbell of the Four Corners Gay and Lesbian Alliance for Diversity.

While law-enforcement officers are unable to comment on whether Martinez's death was a hate crime, his friends, family and members of the gay and lesbian community believe his murder to have motivated by Martinez's "difference."

Hate crimes are all about "who you are," Peters-Campbell said. Mothers who had lost their children to hate crimes provided poignant agreement.

"I am here as a mother. . . whose life was changed by the loss of a child," Judy Shepard said. Shepard's son, Mathew, who was gay, was beaten to death near Laramie, Wyo., nearly three years ago.

"We cannot remain silent" about hate crimes, she added, citing several crimes that she recognized as hate-motivated.

"These people who have been maimed and killed are not abstract. They are all our children. This is an issue that affects all of us. . . Difference can no longer make openness and honesty dangerous."

"Love of our children" also moved Carolyn Wagner of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and Families United Against Hate, to speak out. Wagner's life was plunged into a nightmare by a phone call the night of Dec. 2, 1996. The caller, one of her 16-year-old son's friends, said, "They're killing him!" When she and her husband arrived, their son William was dying.

She recalled William's last words: "They can only kill me once."

That horrible night prompted Wagner to devote her life to stopping hatred, and is part of what brought her to Cortez. She asked that the community "remember the children. Their lives and futures depend on us to make a better world. We can take the first step forward here in Cortez."

Gabi Clayton, whose bisexual son, Bill, was driven to suicide after a savage attack, also cited the advantages of community support. "Because of that (support) I'm here; because of the love of a community like this." She now "reaches out to help others who have lost a child, especially to hate," she said.

"Fred's death will keep me going until we don't need to do this any more. If I don't let the pain and grief of Fred's death in, I die inside," Clayton said.

Other speakers and attendees reflected these sentiments. "Hate is not a family value," read one woman's T-shirt.

Glenda Tom of Fort Lewis College's XYZ Club "was scared and angry" at learning of Martinez's death. "I just didn't understand why anybody feels they have the right to take another life because it goes against what they have been taught."

Bill Bolden, housing director at Fort Lewis College, said he saw the matter as one of personal freedom cherished by every American. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," he said, quoting from the Preamble to the United States Constitution, "that all ...are created equal..."

Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are what need to be considered, he said. "This should be important to everyone here. . . to our own right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The sort of violence that ended Martinez's life is a daily reality for Dede de Percin of the Colorado Anti-Violence Project. "I deal with this every day, but I still find Fred's death frustrating and tragic. His death is a harsh reminder that not enough is being changed. . . Prisons, jails and laws should be a last resort, not a first step," de Percin said.

Others shared memories of Martinez as a typical teen, and loving family member.

"I saw him grow up," family friend Suzanne Casey said. "He seemed very happy; he was very kind, and had a lot of friends. It's going to be very different" without his presence and laughter, she said. "I just pray some change happens, especially here in this community, so people don't have to be afraid of being different in any way."

Jervis Mitchell spoke through tears while remembering his little brother.

"I felt a lot of anger that I couldn't be there," he said. But Martinez visited him in a dream, he added.

"I grabbed him in a hug, and I asked him, 'We've been worried about you. Where have you been?' He looked at me and said, 'I'm all right. I'm OK.' I still miss him, and I will always think of him," Mitchell said.

"He was always ready to bring a laugh or a smile to my heart when I needed it the most," Pauline Mitchell said. "He was my baby. He was a free spirit and I loved him for his spirit and all of who he was."

But her son faced many difficulties, she added. Not only was he "Navajo living in a world that does not honor and respect different ways, he was nadleeh -- two-spirit -- and poor."

Sage Remington, who in 1992 founded the Two-Spirit Society, agreed. "It's difficult enough to be an Indian; it's even more difficult to be an Indian and to be gay," he said. "Indifference to such brutality only assures that it will happen again," he added, reading from a prepared statement.

"It is not easy to grow up as Navajo, two-spirit and poor," Mitchell said of her son, "but these are facts of life. He was not ashamed of who he was and neither was I."

Forgiveness and healing were also the focus of the vigil.

"Forgiveness takes strength," Tom said, "but we can never forget. From Freddie's death, and all the other deaths, are a cry for help. We need to forgive Shaun (Murphy, Martinez's alleged killer), because this was a cry for help."

The consensus at the memorial was clear: A life was cut short, a community was robbed of the contributions of a young man, and that young man himself was robbed of the opportunity to experience life.

Martinez's mother put it simply: "F.C. left this world much too soon because of those who hate and fear anyone who is different."

Cortez Journal, August 14, 2001
37 E. Main St., P.O. Box J, Cortez, CO 81321
( http://www.cortezjournal.com )(E-mail: editor@cortezjournal.com )
http://www.cortezjournal.com/1news1601.htm

Forum brings opposite sides together

by Aspen C. Emmett, Journal Staff Writer

Anti-gay protesters and anti-bias activists opened the lines of communication Sunday afternoon during a community forum entitled "Hurt, Hope and Healing: Our Community Responds to Fred Martinez's Murder."

Since the June death of the openly transgendered Cortez teen, and subsequent media coverage addressing his sexuality as a possible motive for the murder, much attention has focused on the community's mixed feelings towards gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

The diverse crowd of more than 80 gathered at the forum to express their feelings about hate-crime legislation, religious beliefs pertaining to homosexuality, sexual discrimination in the schools, and individuals' rights to their own beliefs.

State Rep. Mark Larson (R-Colo.) spoke about a need to expand Colorado hate-crime law. Currently, people convicted of committing a criminal act against someone because of religion or ethnicity face a harsher jail sentence.

For the past five years, bills to extend protection to include sexual orientation, age and disability have been introduced in the state Legislature but have failed to pass.

"It's not a benefit or a privilege -- it's a protection," Larson stated in response to a comment that there are already laws against murder and assault, and that the new law would give special privileges to certain classes.

Alan Cook of the Four Corners Gay and Lesbian Alliance for Diversity spoke about what it's like to be an openly gay man in the community and responded to comments from the audience about homosexuality being sinful.

"I have my own personal relationship with my Lord," Cook told one man who made anti-gay biblical references. "I respect yours (beliefs) and I want you to respect mine."

The Rev. Dennis Garrou told the crowd that he believed "choice" and "acting on desires" were important focal points in the discussion of homosexuality as it pertains to Christianity. He gave the analogy of someone wanting something that didn't belong to them and their "choice" to act on whether to steal it.

Cook, though, told the crowd there was never a point in his life that he "chose" to be gay.

"I don't recall ever making a choice," he said. "I've never encountered anyone who has actively chosen either to be heterosexual or homosexual."

Gail Binkly, managing editor of the Journal, commented that the group's tendency to focus on the issue of "choice" regarding homosexuality was straying from a more important issue.

"Whether homosexuality is or is not a choice -- we can disagree on that," she said. "But one thing that is clear is that it was a choice for the person who killed Fred Martinez to go after him and beat him, and I think that is the choice we should focus upon. Those are the kinds of choices we don't want people making -- to attack people, physically harm or kill people, because they disagree about their religion or gender identity."

Following the two-hour forum, several people mingled with members of the opposition, exchanging business cards and further discussing their beliefs.

Martinez's mother, Pauline Mitchell, told the Journal Monday that she felt the forum was a positive step for the community and hoped open discussions would continue in an effort for more tolerance and acceptance for people like her son.

"I'm just going to wait and see how the community responds," Mitchell said.

Mitchell's friend Carolyn Wagner, vice president of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, echoed her skepticism yet voiced hope for change in the community.

"The proof is in the pudding," Wagner said.

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