Rights of Passage: Murder in Puerto Rico

Friday, November 20, 2009

Murder in Puerto Rico

Photo of murdered gay teen, George Steven Lopez Mercado

Top Stories

We’ve been getting e-mails, Facebook messages and phone calls telling us of another horrific murder of a young gay man - this time in Puerto Rico. The ever informative Towle Road www.towleroad.com and international news source CNN www.cnn.com reports that the brutalized body of gay teen George Steven Lopez Mercado was found by the side of a road just a few miles away from the town in which he was residing called Caguas. The teen’s decapitated, dismembered body was found on November 14, 2009. The police investigator on the case suggested that he deserved what he got because of the "type of lifestyle" he was leading.

One suspect has been arrested and is claiming a “gay panic” self defense. Puerto Rican news source PrimaHora reports that the suspect was targeted after extensive interviews with Mercado’s friends.

This month, like every month, gay murders have been reported in just about every country on the planet.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What is Rights of Passage?

Rights of Passage is a new play about courage and love. About people all over the world who want to be who they are and why that simple concept is not always so simple to make real. The play is both personal and universal as it illuminates the lives of LGBT people from different cultures and backgrounds. The storytelling style of the play is based on the ageless performance techniques found on the Indonesian island of Bali; these same theatrical techniques, in somewhat different forms, also represent cultures throughout the world. Monologues, scenes, puppetry, masks, and dance will bring the play’s stories to life. Rights of Passage has been developed through extensive research, hundreds of interviews, and the unyielding support of LGBT citizens and activists around the world. Rights of Passage will have its world premiere at The New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, beginning its run on August 17, 2012.

Post your story here or contact us privately at sfwave@comcast.net

Project Background

In the summer of 2007 we began our research for Rights of Passage, a new play project for The New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco http://www.nctcsf.org/. At the same time, The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) http://www.iglhrc.org/ in New York enthusiastically offered their support to the development of the play. Their assistance ignited our relationships with the vast international LGBT human rights network . ILGHRC continues as a primary guiding force for Rights of Passage, as does the work of Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/ and Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/

The themes in Rights of Passage are based upon the Yogyakarta Principles http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/ a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. This document is a universal guide to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which all States must comply. They promise a different future where all people born free and equal in dignity and rights can fulfill that precious birthright.

Thanks to the power of the internet we are able to reach out to LGBT organizations, individuals, and our allies around the globe. We have also traveled traveled througout the US, Europe, Canada, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia conducting research for the play. Our future travel plans will take us to the Middle East, Africa, China, South America and the Ukraine.

Rights of Passage is supported in part by The James Hormel Small Change Foundation and the generosity of individual donors world wide. We welcome new sponsors at http://www.nctcsf.org/donation