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Community Leaders Speak Out
Against Likely Hate Crime
Yuma, Arizona –
National and state officials representing government and
community organizations joined local organizers and family
members of Amancio Corrales to call for justice in his murder
and raise awareness about the impact of hate crimes on the
community. More than 100 people participated in a vigil
organized by the Amancio Project on Saturday, June 25 at Madison
Street Park by the Colorado River, the same body of water where
Corrales’ body was found last month after what local authorities
say “lends itself” to be a hate crime.
Luis Heredia, a
spokesperson for Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), read a
statement from Grijalva: "There is no room for hate crimes in
any community. We allow for the very worst in society to
continue if we don't address these issues." Grijalva is a
cosponsor of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention
Act of 2005 (H.R. 2662). The federal hate crimes legislation
would provide resources to law enforcement agencies in rural
communities like Yuma.
In addition to
Grijalva’s statement, the crowd heard from state Representative
Kyrsten Sinema (D-15) speaking for herself and carrying a
message from state Representative Amanda Aguirre (D-24), Brenda
Galvan Aguirre of the Arizona Leadership Institute, Donna Rose
of the Human Rights Campaign, Hanna Coy and Michael Baughman of
the Yuma County Gay Rights Meetup group, and Rosemary Ybarra
Hernandez, whose brother, also a gay man, was the victim of a
hate crime in 1992 in Phoenix that has never been solved.
Although
invited, no Yuma city or county officials attended.
According to
vigil organizers, the event was held to draw attention to this
crime and unify the community in an effort to combat hate
violence.
“Our coalition
hopes to inform the community that bias-based crimes have a
broad impact,” said Aguirre. “Targeted violence against anybody
because of their identity, whether they are Latino, Muslim, a
woman, gay, or transgender, is never acceptable. Yuma residents
have proven that they will not let the murder of Amancio silence
them.”
Corrales was a
well known female impersonator in Phoenix, Yuma and in Mexico.
He performed under the name Delila. Corrales was born in Sinaloa,
Mexico, and worked as a cosmetologist in Yuma. His body was
found submerged in the Colorado River June 6 after suffering
“severe trauma.”
The Amancio
Project is a coalition of family and community members, and
includes the Yuma County Gay Rights Meetup group, Yuma High
School Gay-Straight Alliance, United Church of Christ of Yuma,
Arizona Leadership Institute, Arizona Human Rights Fund,
Wingspan, Southern Arizona Gender Alliance and Human Rights
Campaign.
Sam Holdren - Arizona Leadership
Institute
June 28, 2005 |
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Advocacy group
introduces hate-crime bill named after murdered Yuman
BY JAMES GILBERT, SUN STAFF WRITER
2008-02-12
22:25:00
A statewide advocacy organization has introduced a
hate-crime bill to the state Legislature named after a
Yuma gay man and gender performer who was murdered in 2005.
According to spokesman
Sam Holdren, Equality Arizona introduced the Amancio Corrales Act on
Monday during a press conference on the lawn of the state Capitol
building in Phoenix.
"(Corrales) was the likely victim of a bias-motivated crime based on
his gender expression," said Holdren, who has family from
Yuma.
Corrales, who performed as a female impersonator known as Dalila,
was found floating in the Colorado River on May 6, 2005, at about
7:30 p.m., just west of Joe Henry Park, with multiple stab wounds.
A passer-by saw articles of clothing and blood in the river and
called police. Corrales' body was found floating nearby in an area
known as Paradise Cove.
"People who are targeted due to their gender identity or expression
are the target of some of the most violent and brutal crimes,"
Holdren said. "That is why we need a law like this."
According to Sun archives,
Yuma
police believe Corrales had been out the evening of his murder,
dressed in female attire and "bar hopping" with friends. Police also
believe that when Corrales left Ron's Place with the last people to
see him alive, he left with people who believed he was a woman.
Holdren went on to say current hate crime laws don't include gender
expression or identity.
He said getting the law passed is important because it would send a
message that hate violence would not be tolerated, and it would
allow law enforcement the ability to investigate and prosecute cases
as hate crimes.
"It would also allow any crime motivated by bias based on gender
expression or identity to receive an enhanced sentence," Holdren
said.
Although the act has been introduced, Holdren is concerned it may
not ever get a hearing in the Legislature.
"Some legislators don't believe or support equality for transgenders,"
Holdren said. "While the legislators may not support it, the people
of Arizona support equal protection."
In May, as the result of an anonymous tip,
Yuma
police arrested Ruben Solorio at his place of employment for
Corrales' murder.
Although originally charged with one count of second-degree murder,
the Yuma County grand jury later reduced his charges to manslaughter
and abandoning a body.
Solorio, who fled to Mexico for three months on the night of the
killing, reportedly confessed to family members soon after the
murder, allegedly telling them how he had killed Corrales.
Court records said "multiple witnesses provided detailed information
of how the defendant murdered the victim."
Solorio has denied all allegations, and his case is still before
Yuma County Superior Court.
According to court records, Solorio was not under the influence of
alcohol or drugs when the slaying occurred. Also, the Yuma County
Sheriff's Office says there is no evidence to show that the homicide
was a hate crime.
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James Gilbert can be reached at
jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854. |
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Hate Crime: Legal Definition, n.
A crime that violates the victim's civil rights
and that is motivated by hostility to the victim's race, religion,
creed, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender. |
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A hate crime (bias crime),
loosely defined, is a crime committed because of the perpetrator's
prejudices. This is a controversial political issue within the US.
The US Congress (HR 4797 - 1992) defined a hate crime as: "[a crime
in which] the defendant's conduct was motivated by hatred, bias, or
prejudice, based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion,
national origin, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or gender
identity of another individual or group of individuals." In 1994,
the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act added disabilities
to the above list.
In the last decade of the 20th century, U.S. legislation in many
states has established harsher penalties for a number of crimes when
they are also considered hate crimes; interestingly, however, very
few of these statutes make it more likely for a murder to trigger
the death penalty when it is found to have also been a hate crime.
While some claim that these hate crimes laws exist because women and
certain minorities have been victims and require special protection,
others say that they exist because crimes motivated by hate deserve
a harsher punishment. The State of California's Hate Crime statute,
Penal Code Section 422.6, offers a wider interpretation of hate
crime, as those acts "committed because of the victim's actual or
perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin,
disability, gender, or sexual orientation. The actions considered
criminal are using force or threat of force to willfully injure,
intimidate, interfere with, oppress, or threaten any other person in
the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to
him or her by the Constitution or laws of the State or country."
A Pennsylvania legislator active in creating the classification of
hate crime in Pennsylvania, and then expanding that classification
to crimes against homosexuals, Rep. Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia,
said:
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Hate
crimes deserve to be taken even more seriously than ordinary crimes
because they victimize all they threaten as well as all they
directly harm. |
Hate Crime
Victims: Case Solved
 Matthew
Shepard: On October 6, 1998, 21-year-old college
student Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyoming,
pistol-whipped, then left for dead in the freezing night. He died
six days later.
|
 Brandon
Teena: Born Teena Brandon and raised as a girl,
he was living as a man
known as Brandon Teena in Falls City, Nebraska, when he was murdered
at age 21. In December of 1993, two men who discovered his gender
raped him. His attackers later shot and killed him after learning
Brandon had reported the rape and was to help police in the
investigation. |
 Danny
Overstreet: On September 22, 2000, a man
looking to "waste some faggots" entered a gay bar in Roanoke,
Virginia and opened fire, killing Danny Overstreet, and injuring 6
others.
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 J.R.
Warren: On the fourth of July, 2000, JR Warren, 26,
who was black and gay, was beaten to death by three men in West
Virginia, then run over by a car to make it look like a hit and run.
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Pfc. Barry Winchell,
21, was beaten to death by fellow service-members while sleeping in
his cot on July 5, 1999 at Fort Campbell, Ky. His Army colleagues
thought (correctly) that he was gay, so they killed him. |
 Billy
Jack Gaither, 39, of Sylacauga, Alabama was
bludgeoned to death by two men on Feb. 19, 1999, then set on fire
with automobile tires because he was gay.
|
 Bill
Clayton: On May 8, 1995, Bill Clayton, 17, committed
suicide after having been brutally assaulted for being bisexual.
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Amancio Corrales
May 6, 2005
A Suspect
was arrested on May 23, 2007, and is in Custody. The long path through the Court
System Begins.
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 Tyra
Hunter: On August 7, 1995, Tyra Hunter died after DC
fire department emergency medical technicians called her epithets,
backed away, and refused to render treatment on discovering that she
was a transgender woman. |
ENDA Passes
Today witnessed something that just a year ago seemed
nearly impossible. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
We are one step closer to our ultimate goal of ensuring that all
GLBT Americans no longer live in fear of losing their jobs.
The progress made today is historic - it is the first time either
house of Congress has passed employment protections of this kind. It
took over 30 years of lobbying and grassroots political work to get to
this point, and while the bill that finally passed was not the fully
inclusive version sought, this represents a major advance - and the
best way to move towards long-term goal of protecting our entire
community.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) first helped introduce ENDA 13 years
ago, to prevent workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.
This year, gender identity was added to the bill. Unfortunately,
gender identity was not covered in the version passed today, but this
vote was a first and absolutely necessary step towards equality for
GLBT people in the workplace.
That's why HRC joined with a coalition of major civil rights groups
who declared support for the bill before the final vote, including the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR includes more than 192
national civil rights organizations), National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the National Employment
Lawyers Association (NELA), and the National Education Association (NEA).
On the local front, our group helped out along with
The Amancio Project and
Equality Arizona.
Supporting this version of the bill was a difficult and painful
decision. But, without a doubt, the only path to achieving a bill
protecting our whole community was by achieving the successful House
vote today. A defeat of ENDA would have set back the possibility of an
inclusive bill for many, many years.
HRC,
Equality Arizona and
The Amancio Project remains 100% committed to doing the
hard work necessary to pass legislation that protects our entire
community, including transgender workers who remain especially
vulnerable to workplace discrimination.
Today, we continue our determined march towards progress. And we
recommit ourselves to educating our leaders and our neighbors, to
speed the day when our community will be protected, as one.
Your support has enabled us to lead the way in this struggle. We have
formed strategic alliances in Congress, activated an unprecedented
number of grassroots supporters, met with editorial boards, brought
clergy to Washington to lobby their elected officials, and worked with
the corporate community to expand GLBT workplace protections.
We spent years defending ourselves from anti-GLBT attacks from the
radical right. Now we are on the offense. But make no mistake: the
extremists who work against us every day will be working overtime to
hold back our progress.
Our fight will not be won overnight - it will be won one step at a
time. This has been a grueling few weeks for our community, but we
have never once given up on achieving our ultimate goal of workplace
equality for GLBT Americans.
Along this road, there will be challenges, but we must not allow them
to divide us. We know we are working towards the same goal: equal
rights for all.
We can get there, together, and we will.
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