November 24, 2009
Jorge Steven López Mercado laid to rest
Michael K. Lavers READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Jorge Steven L�pez Mercado's friends and family laid him to rest yesterday in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico.
"The support we have received from the public and Steven's friends has given us the strength to bear this moment of such horrible pain," Lopez's aunt Rubi Mercado told el Nuevo Dia between tears (as translated from Spanish into English.) "I asked Steven with his wings from heaven to help us carry on without having him by our side."
El Nuevo Dia further reported L�pez's aunt and his ex-boyfriend, Luis Rivera, opened the urn that contained the murdered teen's ashes and placed a necklace and a white rose inside it at the end of the funeral Mass. The newspaper further reported L�pez's parents hugged their son's friends and cried.
"We definitely hope people and society wake up and demand justice," L�pez's friend Jos� Alicea told el Nuevo Dia (as translated from Spanish into English.)
L�pez's friends carried balloons and white roses as they walked to the cemetery. Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" played during the procession.
This article originally appeared at Boy in Bushwick.
Based in Washington, D.C., Michael K. Lavers has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, WNYC, Huffington Post, Village Voice, Advocate and other mainstream and LGBT media outlets. He is an unapologetic political junkie who thoroughly enjoys living inside the Beltway.
