Gwen Araujo: Comparisons Made in the Caster Semenya Case

by Amy Judd | October 3, 2009 at 02:49 pm

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The murder of Gwen Araujo has begun to be compared to the Caster Semenya Case, who was ruled last month to perhaps be a hermaphrodite with both male and female characteristics. Caster Semenya has no womb or ovaries but does have internal testes.

The murder of Gwen Araujo is what some are saying may happen to Caster Semenya if her case continues to be conducted so much in the public eye.

Photos of Gwen Araujo

Gwen Araujo was killed in October 2002 by four men, one of whom she had been having a relationship with, but after discovering she was a transsexual, the four men beat and strangled her to death. Her death was a rallying cause for the LGBT communities, but campaigners for equal rights are concerned that the Semenya case may cause too much negative publicity for her. Most say that the media can have a very damaging effect on cases such as this one.

Does society have too much of a fixation on gender and the roles that each gender is supposed to play?

One blogger speaks from experience:

Take me, for example. To say I am not “feminine” or “girly” is an understatement. I can’t tell you how many times some convenience store clerk or server in a restaurant looks me in the face and calls me “sir.” And I rarely go to the restroom in a public space like a restaurant or mall because of the looks I get from people who think I am a guy going into the women’s restrooms. It is embarrassing both for me and for those who have looked at me askance, or perhaps even made some comment to me, and then realized their mistake.

Gwen Araujo only died in 2002 and hundreds of other people are living with what Caster Semenya has had to go through publically. Could this be too much for them to bear?