Michelle Layne, a first-year community college student, feels a
connection with a San Francisco transgender teen who was assaulted
and killed in San Francisco in 2002.
The victim was 17-year-old Eddie “Gwen” Araujo, who
was confronted and harassed by four men. The men then punched,
choked, hit with a skillet, kneed in the face, tied up and
strangled and buried Araujo near Lake Tahoe. Three of the men are
currently on trial, charged with first-degree murder. The fourth
man pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Layne held up a poster of Araujo, calling on the campus to
remember Araujo’s life and the lives of other members of the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community who have been
abused or killed during the nationwide Day of Silence on
Wednesday.
The celebration of the day started in 1998 at the University of
Virginia and is marked as a time to remember the silencing of many
in the LGBT community that resulted from homophobia. The day was
celebrated throughout campuses around the nation and several
University of California campuses, including UC San Diego and UC
Berkeley.
This is the first year the event is taking place at UCLA. It was
coordinated in association with the Undergraduate Students
Association Council offices of external vice president and
financial supports commissioner.
Taking a break from handing out red bands to passers-by, Layne
recalled her rough past that has prompted her to become an activist
on behalf of the LGBT community. The red bands were used as gags by
some students and armbands by others.
As a male-to-female transgender individual, Layne began hormone
treatment at the age of 17. Afterwards, Layne was sent to a
religious home in Wyoming, from which she ran away, hitchhiked to
California and started a life on her own in Los Angeles.
Taking a few classes at Santa Monica Community College, Layne
said she wanted to transfer to UCLA. She applied to UCLA for the
winter quarter, but the application was not processed due to some
confusion with Layne’s name change.
“I don’t want that name anymore,” Layne said
through a red-heart gag tied around her mouth, referring to the
name on her birth certificate.
This confusion and some continued stereotype that exists with
transgender people prompted Layne to make her voice heard on the
campus.
“Nobody knows about us because we blend in,” Layne
said, but added that it is important the campus recognizes her
community.
There are a lot more transgender students on campus than most
students expect, said Kian Boloori, chairman of the Queer Alliance,
adding that promoting transgender issues on campus was one of the
objectives of the day.
Coordinators of the day’s activities also solicited
signatures for various petitions, including one that would add two
questions to the campus housing application.
The petition would call for university housing applicants to
answer whether they would feel comfortable living with a lesbian,
gay, or bisexual roommate. A second question would ask if students
felt comfortable living with a transgender roommate.
“It is a big problem at UCLA,” Boloori said.
“I know countless people who come to UCLA wanting to be open
… but (who) get a homophobic roommate,” which creates a
hostile living situation, he said.
A second petition pledged support for a state assembly bill that
would protect gender identity in non-discrimination policy.
Coordinators also gathered signatures for another petition calling
for university officials to add hormone therapy to students’
health insurance.
The day was a success, Boloori said, as is indicated by the
amount of fliers, gags and armbands students took.
Other than a few negative comments directed toward the
organizers, the event was positive, Boloori said.
Layne added that she was not discouraged by somebody that had
called her community “diseased.”
Several members of other student organizations also tabling on
Bruin Walk, including the UCLA Clothesline Project and the Bruin
Democrats, could be seen sporting red armbands throughout the
day.
“We are fighting against violence against everybody. …
It’s not just about us,” said Tamar Brandeis, a
third-year women’s studies student and a member of the
Clothesline Project.
Wearing a Denim Day shirt in honor of sexual assault victims,
Brandeis spoke on the importance of different student groups coming
together to fight prejudice.
“It’s a national day of silence and we’re
trying to break the silence,” Brandeis said. “But we
need to support them.”
This support is significant for the LGBT community, Boloori
said.
“It is absolutely crucial for different groups to fight
for each other’s causes. … We are all fighting for the same
thing, fighting for equality,” he said.