Supporting Victims of Hate
A Family Member of a Transgender Victim Speaks Out
Q & A with Imelda Guerrero
Editor’s Note: In 2002, Gwen Araujo, a 17-year-old transgender teenager, was brutally beaten to death by a group of young men from Newark, California, when they discovered her transgender identity. Not long after her disappearance, her body was found in a shallow grave in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. As her family grieved the violent death of their loved one, the case captured the attention of the national media. NIOT Producer Kelly Whalen, who told Gwen’s story in “Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here,” spoke with one of Gwen’s aunts, Imelda Guerrero, about the support the family needed and received through the tragic experience.
How One Mother Used the Attack Against her Family to Teach her Children Never to Hide from Hate
Q & A with Tammy Schnitzer
Editor’s Note: In the early 1990s, Tammy Schnitzer, a fourth generation Montanan, began chronicling a series of hate motivated threats and attacks against the small Jewish community in Billings, MT. A recent convert to Judaism and new congregant of Congregation Beth Aaron, Schnitzer was troubled to see how engrained the threat of hate had become in her new house of worship. She wanted to do something about it, but suddenly found her own home and family a direct target of hate. NIOT.org spoke with Schnitzer, whose story was featured in the original Not In Our Town documentary, about her experience and the impact of the community support her family received.
Photo: Tammy Schnitzer looks out the shattered window of her son's bedroom. Courtesy The Billings Gazette.
NIOT.org: What was your goal in chronicling incidents of hate against Congregation Beth Aaron?
An Advocate for Victims and Survivors of Violence Reflects on the Process of Recovery
By Tina D’Elia