Hate Crimes
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Steve Russell Hates the Hate Crime Bill
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Obama's Best Gay Week Ever
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After Ten Years, Hate Crimes Legislation Finally Signed Into Law
Hate Crimes Legislation Heads to the President's Desk
Published October 22, 2009 @ 02:38PM PT
It's been more than a decade in the making, but finally expanded hate crimes legislation including protections for sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability will head to the President's desk for signing. With this, as CNN dubbed it earlier today, the first piece of federal civil rights legislation will become law for LGBT Americans. And it passed overwhelmingly, with a vote of 68-29 in the U.S. Senate.
It's hard not to think first and foremost of Judy and Denis Shepard in the wake of this news, given that both Judy and Denis have tirelessly worked for expanded hate crimes laws since their gay son, Matthew, was killed in a hate crime in Wyoming in 1998. According to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, more than 7,000 hate crimes happen each year, many against people who are or are perceived to be LGBT. Finally, these folks have some federal protections that will deter violent crime.
Folks at the Family Equality Council noted that with Congress's blessing, hate crimes laws will make civil rights history in the U.S.
Using the Book of Leviticus to Beat Gay Men Into Comas
Published October 14, 2009 @ 03:43PM PT
As the U.S. Congress prepares to finally pass hate crimes legislation that includes protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, a bloody and gruesome example of why such hate crimes protections are needed is coming out of New York. Over the weekend, two men beat and mauled 49-year-old Jack Price near his home in Queens, New York. They left him for dead, crushing his lungs, breaking his jaw, and lacerating his spleen. His condition was so bad that when he was finally rushed to a hospital, he had to be put into a medically-induced coma so that doctors could treat him.
Disturbing. Brutal. Bigoted. Disgusting. And beyond these terms, what's another scary part? Friends of the perpetrators are saying that the hate crime was justified because of the book of Leviticus.
One of the friends gave an interview to WABC News in New York, and the commentary is repulsive.
"I don't want no man blowing me a kiss either. I mean things happen," said Marcel Gelmi, a friend of one of the attackers. "I've been beat up like that too, but you don't see me on the news and my family crying and this and that. Wounds heal."
Somehow I highly doubt that Gelmi has been beat up to the point where he had to be placed in a medically-induced coma so that doctors could save his life. Gelmi also showed the TV reporters a tattoo he has on his arm, from the book of Leviticus.
"Leviticus. You should not lay with a man as one does with a woman. It's an abomination."
Of course, if Gelmi actually bothered to open his bible instead of just tattooing religious right soundbytes onto his arm, he'd find that the real abomination is interpreting a biblical verse as license to violently assault people because of their sexual orientation. I don't seem to recall anything in the Bible where God blesses the beating, the lacerating of one's spleen, the breaking of one's jaw, or the crushing of one's lungs simply because one is gay.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown summed up this beating pretty damn well: "This is probably the most vicious and brutal incident that I've seen, captured as it was on videotape."
If these two men are guilty -- and all indications, including video that captured the horrific assault, seem to suggest that they will be -- they deserve to be held accountable for their actions. And if there was ever a reason to make sure that expanded hate crimes laws find their way to President Obama IMMEDIATELY, this is it.
The Worst Place for Homosexuals on Earth
Published September 13, 2009 @ 04:14PM PT
So far this year alone, more than 130 gay people have been executed in this place, which is being dubbed by one activist as "the worst place for homosexuals on Earth." Where is it?
Iraq, and the sad part is that the massive violence against LGBT people only started with the U.S. invasion. Over the course of the past six-and-a-half years, upwards of 700 LGBT people have been assaulted, tortured and killed in Iraq, in ways that would shock the conscience of most ordinary folks.
Now, the Guardian is reporting that anti-gay forces in Iraq are finding their victims using a tool that's pretty darn common to all of us: the Internet. Chatrooms, to be specific, and the results are that innocent gay people are being lured to their brutal deaths. As the Guardian portrays one activist:
Sitting on the floor, wearing traditional Islamic clothes and holding an old notebook, Abu Hamizi, 22, spends at least six hours a day searching internet chatrooms linked to gay websites. He is not looking for new friends, but for victims.
"It is the easiest way to find those people who are destroying Islam and who want to dirty the reputation we took centuries to build up," he said. When he finds them, Hamizi arranges for them to be attacked and sometimes killed.
Yup, just another tragic consequence of the U.S.-led War in Iraq. Although this carnage feels particularly disturbing. One mother tells the Guardian that her gay son went missing. Three days later she received a bloody note on her door, telling her that her son had been murdered and giving her directions on where to find the body.
"We found his body with signs of torture, his anus filled with glue and without his genitals," she said. "I will carry this image with me until my dying day."
Perhaps we all ought to carry this image with us, as a sign that the work for LGBT rights exists beyond our own borders. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, has pledged U.S. support for investigating acts of violence committed toward LGBT people in Iraq.
"We are committed to combating violence targeting all minority and at risk groups in Iraq, including LGBT individuals," said Ambassador Hill in a July letter. "To this end, we are working with our Government of Iraq interlocutors, Council of Representatives members, local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as the United Nations Assistance Mission for lraq and our diplomatic partners."
That's a great statement.
But how many more LGBT deaths have to happen in Iraq -- we're currently hovering around 700 -- before this work truly intensifies? And how can U.S. authorities help in monitoring Internet chatrooms where violent tactics toward LGBT people get their start?
Should LGBT People Be Losing Patience With Obama?
Published September 08, 2009 @ 04:26PM PT
There's that leftover line from the 2008 Presidential campaign that "you campaign in poetry, but govern in prose." Lately for President Obama, it seems that his administration might have hit a streak of writer's block when it comes to the art of governing. And that's leaving some people -- including the openly gay man who ran candidate Obama's field operations - a bit frustrated. Especially when it comes to LGBT rights.
Steve Hildebrand, who by many respects helped launch Obama thru Iowa and into the heart of the primaries last year, said in an interview with Politico today that he's losing patience with the 44th president, and with Democratic leaders in Congress. "I am one of the millions of frustrated Americans who want to see Washington do more than it's doing right now," said Hildebrand. "I gave up a lot to elect Democrats, and I expect them to give it up for me. I'm going to speak loudly."
For many, Hildebrand is speaking truth to power here. There are countless people who think that Obama and Congress are taking too long to affect the type of change they were elected to make. They're seeing that on the issue of health care. They're seeing that on the issue of labor. And certainly they're seeing that on the issue of LGBT rights.
To his credit, Obama has made some changes. Under Obama's watch, the U.S. has signed onto a UN statement in support of the global decriminalization of homosexuality. His Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said that protecting the human rights of LGBT people worldwide would be a priority for this administration. Earlier this summer, Obama commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots with a reception at the White House for scores of LGBT leaders and allies. And most recently, Obama awarded Presidential Medals of Freedom to two LGBT icons -- Billie Jean King and (posthumously) Harvey Milk.
But while these steps have been welcomed, many LGBT folks are seeing nothing but delays and Congressional hold-ups when it comes to some of the campaign promises Obama made last year. That includes passing a hate crimes bill, passing an Employment Non-Discrimination Act, repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and integrating the U.S. military, and overturning the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA). To make matters worse, Obama's administration has tripped up a few times, most notably with the Justice Department's bizarre brief defending DOMA in U.S. courts.
Hildebrand allows the slow progress on LGBT rights -- as well as issues like health care -- to be shared all around. Yes, it's partly Obama, Hildebrand says. But it's also the Blue Dogs in Congress who try to compromise too much on the issues that Democrats were resoundingly elected over this past year.
"There's basically three different parties, and one of those parties tends to be the barrier to getting anything done — and that's the Blue Dogs in the House and the moderates in the Senate," said Hildebrand. "Change is not going to come by people in the Beltway deciding we should have change. It’s going to come because they’re feeling pressure from all over the country."
So who's to blame for the slow progress? Congress? Obama? Both?
Perhaps the biggest concern, one could argue, is that if these historic pieces of legislation can't make it through the 111th Congress - ending DOMA, repealing "Don't Ask," enacting hate crimes legislation and passing an employment non-discrimination bill - could they possibly be even more delayed in the 112th Congress? Especially, as experts ranging from Charlie Cook to Nate Silver point out, Democrats lose seats in 2010?
Now that's something that gets the blood pressure going. With control of the White House, U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House, there's a feeling that everybody is governing as if they're stuck in a big bowl of Cream of Wheat.
But moreover, how is it that the Bush administration, with a bare majority of Congress, was able to shove so much down our throats, but the Obama administration, with majorities not seen by any party in decades, is seemingly stuck?
Perhaps that's the source of the frustration. Both for those passionate about LGBT rights, as well as those working for better labor practices, a national health care system, and a whole host of progressive causes that have been largely dormat for more than eight years.
Judy Shepard, on the Night She Learned Her Son Matthew Was Killed
Published September 03, 2009 @ 09:17AM PT
Judy Shepard, the mother of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard who was murdered more than ten years ago in a hate crime, has a new memoir coming out. In it, she talks about the tragedy of losing a son simply because he was gay, and the tireless work she's done over the past decade to get the U.S. Congress and the White House to pass hate crimes legislation that includes protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The book is called The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed. Judy has an excerpt of it in Newsweek's current issue, and when we say it's powerful, we mean it's powerful. Check out these few sentences:
As Dennis and I rushed around in a daze—packing our bags and preparing paperwork rather than staring at the slow-moving clock—I did everything I could to stay hopeful. Dennis and I had only limited information about the extent of Matt's injuries, and absolutely no information about the circumstances surrounding his attack. We knew he was critically injured and that his hold on life was tenuous, at best. Still, our highest hope at that point was for Matt's complete recovery. Our most basic, and perhaps most realistic, hope was that he would hold on to life until we could be with him, by his side.
Shepard died on October 12, 1998. But Judy's memoir is done in part to share with readers the life that Matthew lived before he was killed. As she told Newsweek, "There are still some things that as a family that we’ve chosen to keep to ourselves. We’ve loosened up a little bit, but there just doesn’t seem to be a need for the world to know everything about us or Matt. The reason I wrote the book was because I wanted to reconcile the public Matthew with our Matt. As I said in the book, he had a life before he was killed."
The Terrorism of Homophobia
Published September 03, 2009 @ 06:25AM PT
Despite years of advances toward LGBT rights, a number of incidents in the past few months certainly seem to suggest that on a global level, acts of terrorism are becoming increasingly fueled by homophobia. And the results are catastrophic, proving that hate is not just a four-letter word, but a global phenomenon that needs to be addressed.
Earlier this summer we saw a horrific scene in Tel Aviv, Israel, where a gunman walked into an LGBT youth center, opened fire, and killed two people while injuring 15 others. The attack ripped the band-aid off of a simmering type of homophobia rooted within Israel (and many other countries). In response, tens of thousands of people gathered to mourn, and work to fight the type of hatred that fuels this type of violence. Israeli President Shimon Peres put things even more starkly: the type of hate that walks into a center for youth, pulls a trigger, and kills or wounds more than a dozen people is the type of hate that affets us all.
"The shots which struck this proud community affected us all as human beings, as Jews and as Israelis. The man who targeted the two victims targeted all of us...Everyone has the right to be different and proud," said Peres. "Noone has the right to interfere in other people's lives so long as everyone respects law and order. I came to share your tears after the death of two young innocents. Be strong and courageous."
Fast forward a month later, and we're seeing signs of homophobic terror at play in Italy, where attacks toward the LGBT population have become increasingly more regular - and increasingly more violent - in recent weeks. Three gay people were attacked in Italy in the past 30 days - one stabbed at an LGBT festival - and earlier this week, someone threw firecrackers into a crowd of LGBT people in Rome, injuring at least one person who had shrapnel hit him in the ear.
As the President of Gaynet, an LGBT journalists group in Italy said, "These are acts of terrorism from people who want us to live in hiding." There's two points not worth arguing there. One, these are acts of terrorism. And two, they are being perpetrated by people who want LGBT folks to go running back into the closet.
And think this is only happening abroad? Not so. Hate crimes happen in the U.S. based on sexual orientation on an ever-increasing basis. And as we watch certain preachers like "Rev." Steven Anderson willingly tell people that he prays for violence toward LGBT people, and that if a gunman opened up fire on a crowd of gay people, he wouldn't call that person a murderer. Instead, he'd call them a martyr for Christian causes.
Hatred, homophobia and terror are inextricably linked. And they are fueled by the type of commentary that says that LGBT people are less than others simply because of their sexual orientation. In Israel that thought process bred catastrophic results. In Italy, it's terrorizing a population. And in the U.S.? Well, given the rise in crazy, effed up crimes these past few months - from reproductive health doctors being gunned down in their Church to a 19-year-old unloading a round on police officers to a pastor who thinks it's OK to say that murdering gays and lesbians is doing God's work - it could only be a matter of time where, if left unchecked, we're witnessing similar acts of brutal violence steeped in homophobia.
Sen. Edward Kennedy Leaves a Lasting Legacy of Fighting for LGBT Rights
Published August 26, 2009 @ 04:36AM PT
Sen. Edward Kennedy, the lion of the U.S. Senate and the man who President Barack Obama called 'the greatest Senator of our time,' has died after more than a year's struggle with brain cancer. While Sen. Kennedy leaves behind a legacy on a number of issues, from education to health care, his contributions to making the world better for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender folks cannot go unnoticed. His legacy of fighting for LGBT rights made him one of the best straight allies ever to serve in the halls of Congress.
Sen. Kennedy was one of only fourteen votes in 1996 to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), proving that Kennedy was not only willing to put himself out there on a limb for LGBT rights, but be the type of politician who was ahead of his time. Efforts to repeal DOMA have never been stronger. They started with that 'No' vote that Kennedy and thirteen other Senators cast.
Subsequently, Kennedy fought to block a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, championed by a number of conservative Senators. As early as June 2002 Sen. Kennedy supported adding sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate crimes laws.
And in the wake of Massachusetts becoming the first state in the country to legalizing same-sex marriage, Sen. Kennedy didn't back away from commenting on the historical impact for civil rights that this decision had.
"The nation’s eyes were on Massachusetts today, and they saw a triumph for civil rights and fundamental fairness. Today’s historic vote will have a national impact on civil rights for years to come. Massachusetts has led the nation in education, in health care and in biotechnology, and today Massachusetts renewed its commitment as a proud leader in civil rights."
And those words certainly rang true, as Massachusetts has been cited as a leader as neighboring states (and Iowa) have moved toward marriage equality.
Sen. Kennedy earlier this year also became one of the leading co-sponsors of a Senate 'Employment Non-Discrimination Act' (ENDA). Joining Sens. Jeff Merkley, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe, Kennedy said: "Ensuring equality for all Americans is the least we can do in living up to the standards of inclusion that this nation is built upon. There is no place for discriminating against any of our citizens for whatever reason and I commend my colleagues for their willingness to champion equal rights for every American."
Today the world will remember the legacy of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Part of that meme must include his tireless work to fight for equal rights for LGBT Americans.
UPDATE: Chris Geidner over at Law Dork adds that in addition to Kennedy's opposition to DOMA and his support for same-sex marriage, the good Senator was championing a federal gay rights bill as early as 1993.
And for more great coverage of Ted Kennedy's legacy here at change.org, check out our Women's Rights, Immigration, and End Homelessness bloggers. They've all got memorial pieces running that show just how much of a champion this Senator was for the causes that so many of us believe in.
UPDATE TWO: What better way to commemorate the legacy of Sen. Edward Kennedy than by taking action for one of his most cherished causes - universal health care. This petition right here will go to your U.S. Senator, urging them to make sure that quality health care is a fundamental right in this country, and not a privilege. Please sign.
