In 2009, Maplewood became the first municipality in the state to pass a resolution to support marriage equality.

Town officials have designated each June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month. Recently, the village celebrated national Coming Out Day and was the site of a well-attended walk to promote LGBT equality. There is even a monthly “Gay Night at the Gate”, held at the local pub.

Maplewood is known far and wide for its friendly and welcoming attitude toward the LGBT community – which makes it all the more surprising that the town was recently the site of two murders whose motives are potentially linked to the victims’ sexual or gender identities.

On September 12, Victoria Carmen White, a 28-year-old transgender woman and former Columbia High School student, was shot multiple times in a Jacoby Street apartment. Earlier this year, 27-year-old Arthur Downey, a gay man, was beaten and strangled in his home just blocks away. Suspects in both cases have been apprehended and are awaiting trial, and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is currently investigating both as possible bias crimes.

“If it’s happening here, I shudder to think what’s happening in the rest of the country,” said Steven Goldstein, chair and CEO of Garden State Equality, an LGBT advocacy organization. Goldstein, who noted that Maplewood has the highest percentage of GSE members in the state, said that “every day, our transgender brothers and sisters face discrimination.”

Stephen Mershon, moderator of Rainbow Families of Maplewood and South Orange, thinks the crimes are just a sad coincidence. “It doesn’t mean Maplewood is a bad place, or that there is a bad climate here” for members of the LGBT community. On the contrary, Mershon says that the leaders in both towns have shown “remarkable support” for LGBT issues.

But Mershon noted that there is still a lot of prejudice toward transgendered people, even in this progressive town. “As a gay man, I see parallels with my own life,” he said. “The transgender community is where the gay community was 30 years ago.”

On November 16, Garden State Equality, along with the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey, is sponsoring a Transgender Night of Remembrance. The event is part of an annual worldwide commemoration of transgender victims of violence. It will be held at the Burgdorff Cultural Center at 7:00 p.m. in Maplewood.

Roger Teixeira was a classmate of White’s (then known as James) at Columbia High School. He recalls White as popular and well-liked. “He was a very nice person, cool and fun. Everyone knew who he was, and he got along with everyone,” Teixeira said.

Teixeira was stunned to learn of the killing, which took place a block away from the house where his mother lives. He said that between the two murders and the recent rash of break-ins in the area, his mother is on edge. “She is living in constant fear, always worried about the doors being locked. In all the years I’ve lived here, Maplewood has never been this way,” he said.

Transgender Night of Remembrance, 7:00 p.m., 11/16
Burgdorff Cultural Center
10 Durand Road, Maplewood

Photo courtesy of Garden State Equality.