An ordinary day in Bluefields. It’s the weekend and Jalen Jaleel Hooker, 18, went out to have fun, however, this young man from the LGBTIQ+ community did not expect that upon returning to his neighborhood he would be the victim of a brutal beating at the hands of a neighbor.
Jalen is an 18-year-old trans girl, belonging to the Creole ethnic group, who lives with her mother, Raquel Hooker, in Punta Fría, one of the traditional neighborhoods of Bluefields.
Jalen is charismatic, cheerful, and tries to avoid issues involving his sexual identity, because violence can be the result, as it was in this case. At about two in the morning, Jalen returned to his house. His attacker was identified as Samuel Bennet, nicknamed “chamuca.” He brutally beat him, loosening part of his teeth.
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According to the victim’s account, while Bennett beat him, he also threatened to kill him and confessed the reason for the attack: “I don’t like homosexuals.”
The consequences
Hooker has blows to the face, his teeth were damaged, he was punched in the abdomen and right leg, so he cannot express himself fluently. However, his mother Raquel Hooker filed a complaint with the Police for justice to be done in this case of violence against sexual diversity.
«It is not fair, if I, who am his mother, accept him like this, I do not see fair that others have to be offending and abusing him, if he feels happy like that, being the way he is, that is his life, because everything The world has the right to be what it wants to be,” says Jalen’s mother.
LGBTIQ+ community speaks out
Tayron Aburto, coordinator of the “Alexis Montiel Movement for Sexual Diversity”, assures that they are taking the necessary steps so that this case does not go unpunished and that mediation is not an escape from violence.
“We want justice to be done, if the (aggressor) has to pay for what he did, the law condemns him, they cannot continue these types of acts because if we go to mediation, consequences will come tomorrow,” he said. bored.
“The consequences are noticeable in the revenge that the aggressors seek after with the victims until they take their lives, before they follow them, they cause anxiety and fear to their victim,” he said.
Violence against LGBTIQ+ people occurs frequently, however, they are not publicly denounced, much less to the Police, causing the aggressors to enjoy freedom.
They cry out for justice
This violence increases every month, which is why Aburto requests that the police authorities carry out equal work, both for the heterosexual community and for the LGBTIQ+ community. “When a boy from the LGBT community shows up, they are given equal treatment as a heterosexual person is given, we do not demand special treatment because we are not special, but equal treatment to how a heterosexual person is going to file a complaint,” says Aburto.
This case of violence due to sexual orientation is already in the judicial system, and Jalen’s relatives are waiting for the process to end fairly, since it is not the first time that Samuel Bennet has harassed and attacked Jalen .
“I am only asking for justice, because, just as it happened to my son, it can happen to someone else, because just as he attacked him, he could kill him,” says Raquel Hooker.
By United Voices
