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Pauline Mitchell, Fred’s mother,
was devoted to her youngest son and, following his death,
was torn between the
Navajo cultural injunction to never again speak of the dead
and her deep desire to make the circumstances of his murder
widely known in the hope that she might help save lives. She
has emerged as a shy but effective spokesperson for
gay and transgendered rights and the essential human right
of free self-expression. She struggles to find seasonal
work and to help raise her grandchildren who live nearby
and attends to the needs of her elderly mother, who
lives a
traditional Navajo life in Monument Valley, and her father,
who lives with her in Cortez.. She is consulting closely
with the Fred Martinez Project and
is
an important
part of the film.
Rodger McFarlane is the director of the
Denver-based Gill Foundation and an activist and author.
McFarlane was among
the first to join the fight against HIV/AIDS, as a founding
member of the Gay Men's Health Crisis (of which he was later
executive director) and ACT UP. He also ran Broadway Cares/Equity
Fights AIDS, helped build Bailey House and received a special
Tony award for mobilizing the national theater community.
His support of the Fred Martinez Project comes from his belief
that powerfully told stories that move the public at a deeply
emotional level help personalize issues like universal human
rights and freedom from hate-speak and hate-crimes and move
them from abstract concepts to the lives and experiences
with which people can relate more directly and personally.
Wesley K. Thomas is a widely recognized and extensively
published anthropologist who studies, among other subjects, cultural
ideas about gender, and Navajo culture and language. He
is the co-author and co-editor of an anthology titled Two-Spirit
People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality.
He has many years of experience working with the
Native American gay and lesbian community and two-spirit
gatherings, and brings his rich personal history as
a Navajo to his involvement in the Fred Martinez Project
and the documentary film Two Spirits. His wide-ranging
expertise will strengthen the script and outreach
materials, and he will provide a key interview
in the film. His association with this project continues
his work on behalf of Native Americans who have died
as a result of racism and homophobia.
Cathy Renna is the principal partner at
Renna Communications in New York, and she serves on the
advisory
board of the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Live Out Loud!
Renna
is
recognized
as a major force behind the success and growth of the Gayand
Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)—where she
worked for fourteen years. Following the beating death of
Matthew
Shepard in 1998, she helped activists in Laramie, Wyoming
coordinate local, national, and international media and coverage
of the tragedy and subsequent murder trials. She also was
one of the key activists working with Fred Martinez's
family, the media, and the police following Fred's murder
in Cortez, Colorado. She is spear-heading a national media
campaign
for the project, working with nonprofit partners, and will
appear in the film.
Fred
Martinez Project Staff and Volunteers
Travis Goldtooth is an Outreach Coordinator
for the Fred Martinez Project and the film Two Spirits,
and is working with regional and national Native American
and Two Spirit
organizations in that capacity. Travis grew up on the Navajo
reservation near Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, and attended Montezuma-Cortez
High School as a senior the year Fred was a freshman. He
shares a similar life history with Fred in many ways, although
in safely graduating from high school and building a successful
life, he provides a striking contrast to the tragedy that
befell Fred. Travis has been active in grassroots organizing
and community outreach for several years and is often asked
to speak about the nadleeh perspective. He was voted
Miss International Two Spirits Society and continues to travel
widely, dancing and singing at Pride Fest events and Pow
Wows. Travis is providing critically important outreach within
the Navajo Nation, and is creating alliances with a broad
network of organizations, governing bodies, and media outlets
that will ensure the wide distribution and use of the film
within Native American communities nationwide. Travis and
other members of Two Spirit societies around the West appread
in a New
York Times article titled "A Spirit of Belonging" on October
8, 2006.
Tim
Wilson is an Outreach Coordinator for the
Fred Martinez Project and the film Two Spirits.
Over the past 25 years, he has gained extensive experience
as a grassroots
organizer,
facilitator, trainer, team leader, board member, and administrator
while working locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Tim has worked with organizations such as PFLAG (Parents,
Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), AIDS Treatment
News, NABWMT (National Association of Black and White Men
Together), Community Shares of Colorado, the Mayor's Gay
and Lesbian Advisory Committee of Denver, and the Gay and
Lesbian Police Advisory Task Force of Los Angeles. His membership
and active participation in NGLTF Creating Change Conferences
(National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) and ILGA World Conferences
(International Lesbian and Gay Association) have enhanced
his understanding of the interconnectedness of GLBT issues
worldwide. Tim is creating alliances between the Fred Martinez
Project and those who have a stake in its subjects and themes,
and who can maximize the impact of the public education and
grassroots organizing potential it provides. He is also serving
as a liaison with educators, policy makers, law enforcement,
libraries, communities of faith, and nonprofit partners.
John
Peters-Campbell (left) and Alan Cook are
Cortez-area activists who immediately supported Pauline
Mitchell following
her son Fred Martinez, Jr.'s murder. The couple worked tirelessly
to help insure that the killer was brought to justice and
that the horror of the crime was understood by people in
the community and by the media. Peters-Campbell is a retired
art-history professor who moved with Cook to the Cortez area
in 1996. He and Fred's mother ultimately traveled together
to anti-hate gatherings around the country, including the
renowned Southern Comfort Conference held in Atlanta each
September. Cook is a psychotherapist and executive director
of Cortez Addition Recovery Services. Fred spoke at length
to Cook prior to his death, and Cook also got to know Fred's
killer, Shaun Murphy, in a series of meetings with him during
the ten months Murphy served in the Montezuma County jail.
Both Peters-Campbell and Cook remain close friends of the
surviving members of the Fred Martinez family and are providing
field coordination and logistical support for the production
of the film.
Jordan
T. Garcia is an immigrants rights organizer at the
American Friends Service Committee, serves as the chair of
the board of directors at the Colorado Anti-Violence Program,
and sits on the board of the Chinook Fund, distributing financial
support to grassroots organizations working for progressive
social change. He is also the volunteer coordinator for the
Latina Safe House Initiative and often works to represent
the interests of transgender and two-spirit people in shelter
situations. Jordan is coordinating grassroots outreach and
distribution for the Fred Martinez Project and Two Spirits.
Betsy
Stephens was the co-founder and past president of
PFLAG Durango, and was part of the team that provided support
to Pauline Mitchell in the weeks and months following Fred's
murder. As a direct result of those events, Betsy and others
were inspired to improve the school experience for GLBT youth
in Southwest Colorado creating the Four Corners Safe Schools
Coalition. Betsy is currently employed at the Colorado Foundation
for Families and Children as a project assistant in their
Bullying Prevention Initiative. She supports the Fred Martinez
Project and Two Spirits by providing outreach to nonprofit
partner organizations, including national chapters of PFLAG,
and PFLAG Denver, where she currently serves on the board.
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