John,
Pride Month is all about celebrating the LGBTQ+ community — and it’s also an opportunity to learn about the contributions and struggles of the queer community, and recommit to the fight against homophobia and transphobia.
There is so much work to be done to combat prejudice and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, including within the legal system and among law enforcement.
The story of four women in Texas perfectly illustrates how homophobia can lead to wrongful conviction. Take a moment right now to learn about the women who became known as the “San Antonio Four.”
Exonerees Cassie River (left) and Anna Vasquez (right). (Image: Erin G. Wesley/Innocence Project))
In 1995, Anna Vasquez and three of her friends were wrongly accused of sexually abusing two young girls in San Antonio, Texas, after one of the women, Elizabeth Ramirez, rejected the advances of the children’s father Javier Limon. All four of the women identify as lesbians, a fact that colored the investigation into the accusations and case against them from the start.
During their hearings, Anna said the prosecutor emphasized the fact that she and her friends were gay in deeply homophobic comments. “They just kept hammering on it … ‘These are four gay women, this is what gay people do, this is how they live their lives’,” she recalled.
Anna and her friends spent 15 years in prison before being released on bail in 2013, after one of the alleged victims recanted her statement saying that her father had pressured her to lie — they were exonerated with help from the Innocence Project of Texas in 2016.
People who identify as LGBTQ+ are incarcerated at three times the rate of the general U.S. population. “I think people are surprised to learn that wrongful conviction happens as a result of homophobia and prejudice against the LGBTQ community,” Anna told the Innocence Project.
Please read more about the San Antonio Four, and share their story with your friends and family on social media.
It’s critical that every single one of us continues to fight against homophobia, transphobia, and any form of discrimination or hatred against the LGBTQ+ community, not only in June, but all year round.
Thank you for your support,
— The Innocence Project Team |
