Mr. Calef, you state that Jose Merel and Michael Magidson of Newark, Calif., were “raped” at a party by Eddie Araujo, who was posing as a woman. You should rethink how you use the concept “rape.” The Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language that sits on my shelf gives the definitions of rape as “the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.” The key words in there are force and duress. Were Merel and Magidson forced or placed under duress when they voluntarily had sex with Araujo? They both willingly slept with Araujo and only regretted it afterward.

When a man or woman has sex with a stranger and later regrets it, that is not rape. No means no, but these two men never said no.

You ask the reader “if a woman is raped and kills her assailant, would she be charged with murder?” Yes, that situation may be justified. The only thing wrong with that analogy is that Araujo did not rape these two men. Yes, Araujo misled them in thinking he was a female, but lying is not a crime. A more proper analogy would be “if a man lies to a woman and tells her that he loves her, but then he merely uses her for sex and discards her like an object, does that woman deserve the right to kill him?”

No, because the woman never was forced or placed under any duress. Lying to procure sexual favors is definitely wrong, but it is not illegal, and it is not rape. Araujo may have been a bad person, but he wasn’t a rapist.

I personally have zero sympathy for Merel and Magidson. Their murder charge is just and I hope that they go to prison for the remainder of their lives, at the very least. It makes you wonder exactly how inebriated do you have to be in order to mistake a man for a woman while having sex with them?

This case should be a lesson not to transvestites, but to people who decide to get drunk and sleep with people that they have only known for a few hours.

Many people, high school and college students in particular, really need to learn that life has consequences, and if one chooses the kind of lifestyle where this is a possibility, one has to understand that it is probably not the wisest or safest course of action.

Tyler J. Niska

Freshman

History and English