A Hate Crime on a Child

      Netflix has recently released the documentary about Gabriel Fernandez, a 8-year old boy who was tortured and murdered by his mother and mothers boyfriend. This documentary shows how law enforcement and social workers failed to protect Gabriel from his parents that lead to his death. There are many disturbing details about this case but one that I want to talk about is the fact that there was discussions about this being a hate crime.
At the scene when 911 was called her boyfriend stated to Matthew Bistline (a EMT at the scene) that Gabriel was gay. He wasn't concerned about Gabriel and the only thing that came out his mouth was that he was gay. His mom and her boyfriend would both call him gay and made him wear dresses, they would but Gabriel's clothes in a bag under the sink. There was no evidence that Gabriel was actually gay but his parents believed he was and when they were beating him they would call him gay.
I wanted to talk about how this was a hate crime because even though they did mention it in the documentary, they weren't charged with it. I believe this is a huge problem that a lot of people have to go through and should be taken more seriously. Two weeks later there was another murder with a similar situation. Anthony Avalos who was tortured and murdered by his mother and her boyfriend. It was said that Anthony had come out to his parents and was soon after that murdered. The fact that these were children being tortured for being or not being gay is outrageous and disgusting that is why I wanted to talk about this as my first post. There has to be a change in not only in the homes and minds of parents but in the way social workers and law enforcement deal with children and abusive parents.