Colorado transgender teen murdered because she was an “it”

Police have arrested the alleged killer of an 18-year-old transgender Colorado woman. Angie Zapata, who was born Justin Zapata, was found beaten to death in her apartment last week. According to report in the Greeley Tribune, police arrested Zapata’s boyfriend, Allen Ray Andrade, 32.

According to the report in the 9 News in Colorado, which cited court records:

The following day, the affidavit explains, Andrade started to look at photos in the apartment and questioned Zapata’s sex. That night, Andrade questioned Zapata directly, according to the affidavit, and Andrade says Zapata responded, “I’m all woman.”

Andrade told police he grabbed Zapata in her genital area and felt a penis. He became angry and hit Zapata with his fist before grabbing a fire extinguisher and hitting her in the head twice, according to the affidavit.

Andrade explained to police that he thought he “killed it,” referring to Zapata but when she made gurgling noises and started to sit up, he hit her with the extinguisher again.

He also admitted to police he stole Zapata’s car and drove away.

Remember last week where I talked about a Newsweek “blame the victim” piece on the murder of Larry King? What you see here is the beginning of a gay panic/transgender panic defense. But what you also might note is this man who dated Zapata referred to her as “it.” In order to murder someone, you have to first dehumanize them. And clearly from these court statements, Andrade did that.

Continued – It is important to note that our sister site, Colorado Independent, did a piece last week about the murder, showing how even the mainstream media were dehumanizing Zapata in her death.

Bush signs HIV/AIDS funding bill, removal of ban on travel to the U.S. for persons with HIV

President George W. Bush signed into law Wednesday a bill that would provide $48 billion over the next five years to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB around the world. Attached to the bill was an amendment. It lifted a 1987 law that barred persons with HIV from entering the United States without a special waiver. Bush called for $30 billion over the next five years to fight the global epidemic, but Congress gave him an additional $18 billion. Funding for the Ryan White Care Act, which provides money for HIV services in the United States, was increased by about $1 million.

Of course those countries receiving the funding have to make sure 50 percent of it goes toward abstinence-only prevention programs.

PageOneQ quoted Gay Men’s Health Crisis CEO Majorie Hill as condemning the abstinence-only programming.

“Abstinence-only-until-marriage has been an abject failure in the U.S. and it is undercutting the local, effective prevention efforts in Africa and elsewhere.”

Joe Solomnese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, praised the lifting of the ban, however.

“We appreciate the President signing the repeal of this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV-positive individuals inadmissible to the United States. The HIV travel and immigration ban performs no public health service, is unnecessary and ineffective. We thank our allies on the Hill who fought to end this injustice and now call on Secretary of Health and Human Services (Michael) Leavitt to remove the remaining regulatory barriers to HIV-positive visitors and immigrants.”

CNN story causes stir in the African-American community

As part of an ongoing series about being black in America, CNN presented a piece about the HIV epidemic and the black community. Some on gay listserv sites have questioned the piece because it focuses on HIV as a disease spread by the “Downlow.” The “Downlow” is a term used to described men of color who secretly have sex with men, but publicly identify as heterosexual. The “Downlow” has been fingered as the trigger point for the continued upward trend of HIV infections in the African-American (hyphen) community, but recent studies show it is mostly a myth. (period)

The story is online and worth taking the time to watch. But importantly, is this quote:

“AIDS in America today is a black disease,” says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the institute and himself HIV-positive for 20 years. “2006 CDC data tell us that about half of the just over 1 million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black.”

Although black people represent only about one in eight Americans, one in every two people living with HIV in the United States is black, the report notes.

The Advocate, a national news magazine for the Lesbian, Gay. Bisexual, and Transgender (spell out first reference?) community, has also published a story on this issue.

Gay marriage is a huge legal headache

A new report on Law.com has done a good job in laying out the issues that the approval of gay marriage in California will raise across the country. You can read the report (a href=”http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202423360533&pos=ataglance”>here.

An interesting point to be made from the review:

Phil Horowitz, the chair of the State Bar of California’s labor and employment law section. Horowitz, a San Francisco-based attorney, urges lawyers at companies that do business in California to go over their employee handbooks and benefits plans. The point of the review: to make sure that they “do not use antiquated language, [such as] assuming that spouses are always opposite genders.” Horowitz adds that human resources personnel may need some sensitivity training to make sure that all employees are treated equally