#fred martinez

[etakeh]

It's interesting, the article says "attitudes towards the LGBTQ community have improved since the time of Martinez’s murder", but nothing about the attitude of the person who killed them.

[nonbinary-nature-lover-jeri]

Remembering Fred Martinez, Nádleehí

Remembering Fred Martinez, Nádleehí

From http://burymyart.tumblr.com and R.I.S.E.

From BuryMyArt tumblr blogger post, burymyart: Fred Martinez poster :

High resolution poster of punk rock, indigenous radical queer warrior, Fred Martinez. As with all our posters, feel liberated to print out and wheatpaste at will!

Fred Martinez was nádleehí, a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to his ancient Navajo culture. But the place where two discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live, and Fred became one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at sixteen. Between tradition and controversy, sex and spirit, and freedom and fear, lives the truth—the bravest choice you can make is to be yourself.

R.I.S.E.

Radical

Indigenous

Survivance &

Empowerment

Info: http://twospirits.org/ https://www.facebook.com/RISEIndigenous

contact: [email protected]

Continue the post, including information on a documentary film about Fred, here on my WordPress blog.

[burymyart]

High resolution poster of punk rock, indigenous radical queer warrior, Fred Martinez. As with all our posters, feel liberated to print out and wheatpaste at will! Fred Martinez was nádleehí, a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to his ancient Navajo culture. But the place where two discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live, and Fred became one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at sixteen. Between tradition and controversy, sex and spirit, and freedom and fear, lives the truth—the bravest choice you can make is to be yourself.

R.I.S.E.

Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment Info: http://twospirits.org/ https://www.facebook.com/RISEIndigenous contact: [email protected] ____________________________.

[for2spirits]

Fred Martinez is Punk: QUEER NATIVE THEORY, PUNK PRACTICE

[zenaddict-blog]

Two Spirits

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/two-spirits/film.html

This was recently on PBS. I know that I was very much interested in watching this, for one because I am native and two I my lifestyle, and three I have a dear friend who reminds me of this boy. The kindest and very generous person I know.

I thought I would not be so moved but I was completely overwhelmed emotionally. It was so sad that this special person was murdered for not being afraid of who he was, and that because he was a "person of color" he was almost ignored by the media.

Here is a synopsis:

Two Spirits interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a revealing look at the largely unknown history of a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and female and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders.

Fred Martinez was nádleehí, a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to his ancient Navajo culture. He was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at 16. Two Spirits explores the life and death of this boy who was also a girl, and the essentially spiritual nature of gender.

Two Spirits tells compelling stories about traditions that were once widespread among the indigenous cultures of North America. The film explores the contemporary lives and history of Native two-spirit people — who combine the traits of both men and women with qualities that are also unique to individuals who express multiple genders.

The Navajo believe that to maintain harmony, there must be a balanced interrelationship between the feminine and the masculine within the individual, in families, in the culture, and in the natural world. Two Spirits reveals how these beliefs are expressed in a natural range of gender diversity. For the first time on film, it examines the Navajo concept of nádleehí, “one who constantly transforms.”

In Navajo culture, there are four genders; some indigenous cultures recognize more. Native activists working to renew their cultural heritage adopted the English term “two-spirit” as a useful shorthand to describe the entire spectrum of gender and sexual expression that is better and more completely described in their own languages. The film demonstrates how they are revitalizing two-spirit traditions and once again claiming their rightful place within their tribal communities.

Two Spirits mourns the young Fred Martinez and the threatened disappearance of the two-spirit tradition, but it also brims with hope and the belief that we all are enriched by multi-gendered people, and that all of us — regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or cultural heritage — benefit from being free to be our truest selves.

[silasunderwarrior]

I find the various definitions of "two-spirits" amongst different tribes to be so intriguing. This story is heartbreaking, indeed. I have got to remember to record this!

[indielensblog]

Guest Blog: Judy Shepard on Two Spirits and the Murder of Fred Martinez

Judy Shepard lost her son Matthew in 1998 in a horrific hate crime. She is now the president and co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. She sent us this blog post in anticipation of Tuesday's broadcast of Two Spirits. The film premieres at 10 PM on June 14 on most PBS stations (check local listings).

Children, Hate Crimes, and a Community of Grief and Progress

by Judy Shepard

I flew out to Cortez, Colorado some months after Fred Martinez was murdered. Frankly, my hope was that my being there might help shine a little more light on this terrible tragedy and to remind people that these types of hate crimes were continuing to happen in pretty much every corner of this country, whether the media was picking up on them or not.

There was so much coverage of my son Matt’s murder in Laramie a few years before --- so much that it was an incredible burden on the community and our family, even though it raised an amazing amount of awareness. This was a case where there was just so little, and that seemed like a different burden on Fred’s family, the burden of not knowing how much support and concern there was out there for them and for all the other victims of these types of crimes.

There was a memorial event in the park and a number of moms came – Carol Wagner, may she rest in peace, Debbie Clayton, PFLAG people from Durango. Fred’s mom, Paula Mitchell, and I were able to spend some time together just processing her loss and helping her find her strength.

My husband Dennis and I meet a lot of people who are struggling with the impact of losing loved ones to bias and hate. It’s almost more than we can bear, honestly, to know what we went through is happening all over again to another family, and that all the hard work of so many people to stop hatred has still not brought us to our goal. But keeping people aware of the challenge is what we all have to keep doing. And Paula became a part of that movement.

Later Paula and I were able to meet up again at the GLAAD awards in Los Angeles where we presented an award together. It was wonderful that Paula was able to see how very moved people were by her loss and her unconditional deep love for both of her son’s “two spirits.”

 I am so glad Lydia Nibley and her team were able to make Two Spirits and do it so well. It clearly shows what Paula Mitchell suffered when she lost her child to hate violence. Fred was murdered simply because he dared to be himself, and the violence against young people like him must stop. We understanding, compassion, and acceptance. I was honored to have had the chance to meet Paula and try to help.

[pflagmom]

Independent Lens | Two Spirits | Trailer | PBS

Fred Martinez was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at 16. Two Spirits explores the life and death of a boy who was also a girl, and the essentially spiritual nature of gender.

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