I thought it was a lame hoax from the very start. Anonymous in New York (http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2009/06/im-getting-really-fed-up-of-things-like.html?showComment=1245458993298#c9214094396151728052) expressed it well; far too elaborate and implausible a tale, and far too sensational to be 'kept quiet' if it were true.
I know quite a few people who have been abused and assaulted, and who have had terrible car wrecks, etc. in the family. It's not tactful to say so, but alcohol/drug abuse is frequently the common factor.
Another untactful truth is that, tragic and horrifying as her death was, Gwen Araujo put herself in harm's way through her own bad choices, and might have gotten killed even if she hadn't been 'biologically male'. How many straight women get choked or beaten to death every year because they got wasted and had kinky sex with drunken violence-prone guys they barely knew?
There's a huge difference between "person gets killed after being caught in shocking lie at kinky sex party" and "person gets killed while innocently riding bike to store". Not to get on a rant about it, but Safe, Sane and Consensual presupposes telling your sex partners beforehand about anything they might have a problem with, even if (hell, especially if!) they probably won't want to have sex with you after you tell them.
Anyway, fortunately nobody got killed at all this time, and maybe some people will take a lesson from this about honesty and trust. Because I'll bet there are a lot of folk feeling angry now about having been 'played', having had their emotions manipulated by someone lying to them for no reason but ego-gratification, even though it's someone they never even met, but only read about online.
Is it not also 'hate speech' to deliberately foster the notion within a community, that "other people hate us, and will attack us with no provocation"?
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-06-20 08:39 pm (UTC)I know quite a few people who have been abused and assaulted, and who have had terrible car wrecks, etc. in the family. It's not tactful to say so, but alcohol/drug abuse is frequently the common factor.
Another untactful truth is that, tragic and horrifying as her death was, Gwen Araujo put herself in harm's way through her own bad choices, and might have gotten killed even if she hadn't been 'biologically male'. How many straight women get choked or beaten to death every year because they got wasted and had kinky sex with drunken violence-prone guys they barely knew?
There's a huge difference between "person gets killed after being caught in shocking lie at kinky sex party" and "person gets killed while innocently riding bike to store". Not to get on a rant about it, but Safe, Sane and Consensual presupposes telling your sex partners beforehand about anything they might have a problem with, even if (hell, especially if!) they probably won't want to have sex with you after you tell them.
Anyway, fortunately nobody got killed at all this time, and maybe some people will take a lesson from this about honesty and trust. Because I'll bet there are a lot of folk feeling angry now about having been 'played', having had their emotions manipulated by someone lying to them for no reason but ego-gratification, even though it's someone they never even met, but only read about online.
Is it not also 'hate speech' to deliberately foster the notion within a community, that "other people hate us, and will attack us with no provocation"?