Fred Martinez was nadleeh—someone who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits—a special gift according to his traditional Navajo culture. But his determination to express his truest identity tragically cost him his life. At age sixteen, he was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was murdered in Cortez, Colorado.

A Life Destroyed

On a warm summer evening, Fred Martinez—ignoring his culture's warning to avoid going out in the dark of night—hugged his mother, said he would return soon, and left the trailer house in which they lived to attend a rodeo carnival. Dressed as he usually did with a touch of mascara, wearing a small bra stuffed with socks beneath his sweatshirt, and carrying his favorite purse, he spent several hours with friends, then he disappeared. His savagely beaten body was found five days later in a shallow canyon near his home. His murder attracted limited media attention, and the residents of the small off-reservation town in which he lived struggled to comprehend how someone so gentle—and so determined to experience a big and meaningful life—could have his life so senselessly destroyed.

Deepening Understanding

The Two Spirits documentary film and the education and outreach efforts of the Fred Martinez Project will play a role in deepening and expanding the ongoing national dialogue about self-identity, gender, freedom of expression, and human rights. Enough time has passed since his death that its lasting impact on his family, friends, classmates, teachers, and the law enforcement officers who investigated his murder can also be weighed as the voices and personal stories of those most intimately involved reflect the ways his death changed a community.

Changing Lives

Why are people harassed, attacked, and killed simply for being who they are? How do these crimes affect society as a whole? And what do we do to end these tragedies? This powerful documentary—together with the project’s interconnected outreach components—place what occurred in Colorado in a universal context, illuminating one of the most complex issues of our day through the story of Fred Martinez.

The number of anti-LGBT incidents reported to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs has risen in the past two years, which signals a retrograde environment where violent incidents that range from threats, harassment, and vandalism, to physical assault with weapons and vehicles, and escalate even to torture and murder are on the increase.

Fatal assaults against gender non-conforming people continue to rise, and many teens have been murdered in attacks motivated by their gender identity or gender expression--most of color, disadvantaged, and gay, lesbian, or transgender. Chillingly, offenders who were 18 years of age or under represent fully twenty percent of all offenders. There has also been a disturbing increase in gang-style violence, in which a group of perpetrators "hunt" someone they identify as LGBT, targeting them for harassment or violence.

One of the most important ways to change this dynamic within the culture is by telling the stories that humanize the issues and transform fear and bigotry into insight and compassion.