In tragic news, we have lost two more lives to hatred
BY NIC CROSARA, IMAGE VIA FACEBOOK
Trigger warning: homophobia, hate crime, sexual assault, torture and death mentioned throughout
On 16 January, 28-year-old Texan lesbian couple Nohemi Medina Martinez and Yulizsa Ramirez were found dead after visiting family in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
The couple were reported last seen by their family on Saturday 15 January, the day before their bodies were found. The women’s bodies were found dismembered in rubbish bags on the Juárez-Porvenir highway.
The governor of Chihuahua, Maru Campos, said to the Daily Mail: “The concern is that authorities will absolutely do nothing.”
Karen Arvizo, director of the Chihuahua Committee for Sexual Diversity, has reported that Martinez and Ramirez were also sexually assaulted. She told Presentes, a news outlet focusing on LGBTQI rights in Latina America: “It was an exaggeratedly violent crime, and due to the circumstances it seems that it was a hate crime because there were sexual assaults.”
“That is why we are considering it as not only two femicides, but a hate crime based on sexual orientation.”
On Thursday 20 January feminist and LGBTQI protesters took to the streets to call for an end to hate crime. They stood together outside the office of Chihuahua state attorney general Eje Vial Juan Gabriel, chanting: “No nos maten por ser diferentes (Don’t kill us for being different).”
Martinez and Ramirez married in July 2021 (according to social media) and their tragic loss leaves behind three children.
These murders mark the 11th and 12th of women murdered in the region this month. On 17 January, two more women’s bodies were discovered, also in bags, in the same region. Both are yet to be identified.
Resource:
Galop LGBT+ Hate Crime Helpline: 020 7704 2040
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