Friday, March 7, 2008

Victims of Differance

"We've Got To Work Together"

Two gay teens killed in just two weeks


Attacks in Calif., Fla. prove young gays remain vulnerable
MAR. 7, 2008

RYAN LEE







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The defining setting for anti-gay violence for the last decade was a rickety fence in a desolate Wyoming field.

But a string of anti-gay beatings, shootings and killings in recent months shows that homophobic hatred didn’t disappear when Matthew Shepard was killed 10 years ago this October, nor is it confined to rural pockets of America’s heartland.

In the last year alone, young gay people have died at the hands of straight friends in central Florida, been beaten to death after leaving a bar in Greenville, S.C., and assassinated in an eighth grade classroom in California. Last weekend in Athens, Ga., a 17-year old gay man carrying a purse was beaten and verbally gay-bashed by three boys he knew, according to a March 4 report in the Athens Banner-Herald.

“I think if you ask the average American, they think Matthew Shepard was the last person killed in this country for being gay,” said Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, a national group that focuses on gay issues in schools. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case.”

Elke Kennedy knew her son Sean was gay by the time he was six years old, but slight pangs of fear rushed through her when Sean came out to her in 2004 at age 17.

“I was really more worried about him being harassed and people not liking him for who he was,” Kennedy said Tuesday. “It’s a common concern, and I think it’s getting worse now.”

At about 4:30 a.m. on May 16, 2007, Kennedy received a call from a hospital that many mothers of gay children dread. She asked if her son was seriously hurt, and was told only that she needed to arrive at the hospital as soon as she could.

As her 20-year-old son lay brain dead in South Carolina’s Greenville Memorial Hospital, Kennedy learned that Sean was leaving a bar when he was attacked by a young man who called him a “faggot.” The beating caused Sean’s brain to separate from his brain stem and ricochet inside his skull. He was taken off life support later that night.

Although South Carolina police investigated Sean’s death as a hate crime, prosecutors said there was no evidence of “malicious intent” to kill, and charged Stephen Moller, 18 at the time of the murder, with involuntary manslaughter in October. The manslaughter charge carries a maximum of five years in prison.

“It’s bad enough that you have to lose a child and deal with all of that, but then on top of that you have to deal with the fact that they’re saying your son deserved to die, or that [Moller] really didn’t mean to do it, so we’re just going to give him a slap on the wrist,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said she was also stung by her community’s apparent apathetic response.

“People, they’re sorry that I lost my son, but they don’t want to talk about why he was murdered,” she said. “They’d rather ignore that fact and pretend it didn’t happen.”

Gay people in Greenville have also had a muted reaction to Sean’s murder, Kennedy said.

“Most of them, they’re afraid,” Kennedy said. “For them to give up their life, their job, because they could lose their job, give up their safety — why would people want to stand out there and put themselves in that danger?”

But even in cities with booming gay populations like Atlanta, people are often unaware of or ignore anti-gay violence like the recent killings of gay teenagers Lawrence King in a California middle school, and Simmie Williams in Ft. Lauderdale.

“I’m kind of frustrated because I think a lot of people are blind to events and activism,” said Thomas Byrd, a gay teen who attends high school in Cobb County. “This could’ve been me or any of us.”

From Washington, D.C., to Florida to YouTube, gay people have recently paid tribute to Williams, who was found dead while wearing women’s clothes, and King, who was shot in the head at point-blank range by a classmate.

“I think it’s amazing that gay and lesbian centers all over the U.S. have done vigils,” said Jay Smith, executive director of the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance, where King participated in events.

“It’s been a sad three weeks for us,” Smith said. “We tell [youth] to be out, be proud and be safe, and Larry seemed to be doing that and got killed for it.”

Gay people in Ft. Lauderdale are experiencing “a heightened sense of urgency and concern” after Williams’s death, which was followed days later by another local anti-gay attack, said Paul Hyman, executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of South Florida.

Lawrence King’s murder marks the first time in 10 years that an anti-gay killing has come close to becoming a national news story.

“The Matthew Shepard case captured the nation’s attention in a way we have not seen since then,” said Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

“All incidents that involve violence and brutality against LGBT people deserve the same kind of public outcry and community response in order to shift the cultural climate about LGBT issues,” Giuliano added.

News of King’s death took weeks to spread from local coverage, despite it being a “uniquely horrifying” school shooting, said Jennings from GLSEN.

Scott Hall, a heterosexual who was attacked during an anti-gay hate crime in 1984, tracks anti-gay violence for a memorial project known as Gay American Heroes.

“It’s only the ones that are most horrific and most unusual that get national media play,” Hall said.

Media coverage of anti-gay attacks helps galvanize opposition to homophobia, and can transcend ideological lines. During her Feb. 29 show, Ellen DeGeneres delivered an emotional tribute to King and said his death “is not political.”

“A little boy has been killed, and a number of lives have been ruined,” DeGeneres said. “When the message out there is so horrible, that to be gay, you can get killed for it, we need to change the message… We must change our country.”

In Georgia, the statewide gay rights group Georgia Equality created a YouTube tribute to King that urges state lawmakers to adopt a gay-inclusive hate crimes law and stronger anti-bullying measures. The bullying bill has cleared a state senate committee, but must pass the full Senate by March 11 to remain alive for the session, according to the group, which urges supporters to contact legislators.

But Elke Kennedy cautions that the response to crimes like her son’s murder can’t end with enacting gay-friendly laws.

“California has hate crimes laws, but that’s still not going to prevent this from happening because people are still taught to hate and that it’s OK,” Kennedy said. “I want parents to know that they’re the ones that are responsible for teaching their children to hate. I believe it starts at home.”

Tragic as they are, anti-gay killings have the potential to bring people together, like at a vigil for Simmie Williams last week, Hyman of South Florida said.

“It was a really amazing presence of [the Williams family’s] religious community and the LGBT community, particularly African-American transgender people having a strong presence,” Hyman said.

Violence against LGBT people

Violence against LGBT people, queer identifying and the same-sex attracted are actions which may occur either at the hands of individuals or groups, or as part of governmental enforcement of laws targeting people who are perceived to violate heteronormative rules and who contravene protocols of gender roles. People who are mistakenly perceived to be LGBT may also be targeted.

A hate crime is when individuals become victimized because of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation (Conklin,1992)(CSVR). Hate crimes against homosexuals often occur because the perpetrator is "homophobic". The attacks can also be blamed on society itself. Many people view being homosexual as being weak, feminine, and morally wrong. Religion plays a huge role in perpetuating these views. Some religious followers believe that the bible says that homosexuality is wrong and believe that "GOD hates gays" (New York Times, 1990). Many other religious leaders and people have dismissed the claim as exaggeration and misinterpretation.

Violence targeted at people because of their perceived sexuality may include threats, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, rape, torture, attempted murder and murder. These actions may be caused by cultural, religious, or political mores and biases.

In the United States, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes reported to police in 2004 were founded on perceived sexual orientation. 61% of these attacks were against gay men, 14% against lesbians, 2% against heterosexuals and 1% against bisexuals, while attacks against GLBT people at large made up 20%.[1] Violence based on perceived gender identity was not recorded in the report.

In the United States, the FBI reported that for 2006, hate crimes against gays increased to 16%, from 14% in 2005, as percentages of total documented hate crimes across the US.[2] The 2006 annual report, released on November 19, 2007, also said that hate crimes based on sexual orientation are the third most common type, behind race and religion.[2]

It is true that the number of hate crimes against gays continue to rise, however many of the crimes that occur go unreported, and therefore, unrecorded. This may be due to the fact that many gays feel they can not trust the police and by reporting the crime they will be subjected to further victimization(CSVR). Many homosexuals simply perceive the police as being anti-gay, and these thoughts may be justified. Research findings in the USA show that 20% of all anti-gay hate crimes are committed by police officers

Gay Anthem Song "I am who I am" Listen up World!

Pro-Gay song! First of all thanks to all those ...


Pro-Gay song! First of all thanks to all those who gave me permission to use their pictures in the video.

Here are some of my thoughts here below: "You have to start with fact and then go from there. If any thing tries to refute the fact, the fact is always right."
"The fact is some people are born gay."
"If a Christian fundamentalist comes to me with a scripture claiming that same-sex attraction is wrong, they contradict the already-known fact that there are millions of gay people who do not in no way and never have been attracted to the opposite sex. This is fact and part of creation. But the fundamentalist is trying to deny that fact. So either the Bible is wrong or their interpretation is wrong. Which is it? If they are humble enough and have some wisdom into the matter they will see that their interpretation is in error."
"If anything drives a gay man to such confusion about himself that he dare think about suicide, the cause is other people's false views."
"God would surely not use "His word" to commit murder, and thus be a liar."
"But, religious folk use it to commit murder, always because of misinterpretation."
"Either your Interpretation is wrong or the Bible is wrong, because we have a great conflict here. No human should be so utterly confused they would contemplate suicide as a solution. It should be obvious that the person is right for just being his true and natural self. Something else is wrong and it is not the person. The religious indoctrination of falsehood is to blame or the Bible is wrong. Which is it? Or could it be both?
We must understand the bible has been tampered with and mistranslated, and words added and some taken away etc. There are errors in our modern day bible. For example the word "homosexual" was added in about 1950 and it was a huge error and a misinterpretation of Greek words. See my videos for detailed explanations on various misinterpretations of the bible by fundamentalist Christians who are anti-gay.
We can toss bible verse back and forth all day long but I say put down the bible for a moment and take a long hard look at the world around you, come out of that fundamentalist box and look at some of these faces in this video and tell some of these boys they have to walk down the isle in marriage to the opposite sex. Or tell some of the "Dykes on Bikes" they have to walk down the isle with a man? Can't you see it just is not going to happen? This is fact. They are not cut out of the same mold as a stereotypical heterosexual. God did create diversity and the Christian fundamentalist has not figured it out yet. So put down the Bible for a moment and think! Use your God-given common sense. Unlearn everything you have been brainwashed to believe on the subject of same-sex attraction.
In the days of Galileo he scientifically proved the earth rotated around the sun. The church called him a heretic and pointed to scripture to disprove him and sent him to prison and there he stayed the rest of his life. It took the church 300 years to realize they were wrong and had misinterpreted the bible and that they need to pay more closely to fact and science. They later apologized but it was too late.
Other atrocities resulting from the Church backing up their view with scripture were the crusades, the inquisitions, slavery, the annihilation of the Indian and even the holocaust was fueled by the anti-Jew rhetoric dating back to 500 AD coming from Christians. And for centuries the persons attracted to the same sex have been persecuted, ridiculed, and even killed just for being who they naturally are? What crime is it to be who we are as created by God?
My plea with the world is the same one Jesus said: That we truly love one another and that we treat others the way we would want to be treated. That's it! If we can do that we will have peace among people. This is who I am. I am a peacemaker and a very compassionate man having a big heart for all those oppressed by others. I care.
I am a songwriter/guitarist/musician for over twenty-five years now and I want to use my talents to further this cause. I would love to get involved with some of the various functions and such. If I can be of help please send me a message. Also I have written over 300 pages on this subject at hand and if someone who like to help me get it published I sure could use the help.

Here are some great websites below to visit:
Soulforce.org
Wouldjesusdiscrimate.com www.homosexualeunuchsandthebible.com
www.christiangays.com
http://gaychristiansurvivors.com
Pflag.org
www.faithinamerica.info
http://www.glbtjews.org/

I'm listening

AFA Warns Against Day of Silence

March 07, 2008
AFA Warns Against Day of Silence
The American Family Association is urging parents to keep their children home from school on April 25, the National Day of Silence. The Day of Silence, first organized in 1996, encourages students to remain voiceless for a day to represent the silence faced by LGBT people and their allies. Today, hundreds of schools across the country participate in the event.

"DOS leads the students to believe that every person who identifies as a homosexual, bisexual, or cross-dresser is a victim of ongoing, unrelenting harassment and hate," the AFA said in its mass e-mail. "Students are taught that homosexuality is a worthy lifestyle, homosexuality has few or no risks, and individuals are born homosexual and cannot change. Those who oppose such teaching are characterized as ignorant and hateful bigots."

The AFA is asking parents to inform their school that they will not allow their children to attend that day. They also want parents to explain to their children that "homosexual behavior is not an innate identity; it's a sinful, unnatural, and destructive behavior."

The Day of Silence is coordinated by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. (The Advocate)

Is Homosexuality a Sin?

We love God, and don’t want our lives to be controlled by bad habits and self centered attitudes that can harm our relationship with Him and with others. The plain truth is that sin separates us from God (2 Corinthians 6:14; 1 John 1:5-7) and we don’t want to be separated from God! We want to grow closer to Him and become more like His Son with each passing day!

But what exactly is sin? If we took a poll of every church and denomination out there, we would find a different opinion from every one of them! Everybody seems to have their own idea as to what is right and what is wrong! So if we wanted to rid sin from our lives, where would we start and whose list should we follow?

Perhaps we should take a different approach and forget what everyone else thinks and go right to the source, the Bible itself. What then? Could we find God’s will by cataloging every sin mentioned in the Bible? If so, how do we handle edicts that seem to change over time? If you thumb through the Bible you will find that such things as marriage, personnel hygiene, dietary laws, and diplomatic relationships with neighboring nations all have changed over the years. So what is right for our culture and the day and age in which we live?

More importantly, what would we do with such a list once we had compiled it? Paul told us over and over again that trying to live our lives by a long list of do’s and don’ts was a lost cause. Why? Because no one is good enough to follow such a list day in and day out! Furthermore, Paul said such attempts would only bring heartache and failure for no one except Jesus Christ Himself is capable of living a perfect life (Romans 3:10-23; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22, 1 John 3:5)! Worse yet, if we attempt to earn our righteousness through ‘good deeds,’ we are in fact rejecting the very work that Christ did for us on the cross (Galatians 2:19-3:21, 5:1-6)!

So is trying to do ‘the right thing’ a lost cause? Have we come full circle? Yes and no. First and foremost, we must settle in our hearts and minds that our salvation only comes through Jesus Christ and none other. We cannot earn our way to heaven. However that doesn’t change the fact that we still want to please God and find His will for our lives. So how do we do that?

This question used to perplex me until a friends question and the prompting of the Holy Spirit had me researching everything I could concerning God's love. During that search, I ran across a Scripture that changed my life forever. For in it we find the very heart and soul of God's will. If you study the issue further, you will find that this same “royal” commandment (James 2:8) lies at the heart of both the Old Covenant (old covenant = Matthew 22:37-40) and the New Covenant (new covenant = John 13:34). God has never changed (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; 1 John 4:8, 16), only His instructions on how we should carry out His will have.

Why is this so? Because we have changed over time and the cultures we live in are different from one another. We don’t face the same problems the early Patriarchs faced. Nor were the Apostles encumbered with some of the things we have to deal with today. Each generation and each culture is different. What may be a loving act in one culture may be cause for war in another! In spite of our differences, we are all given the same basic principle to carry out in our lives. That being that we are to...

Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)

"Love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Matthew 22:40 (Amplified)

“These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Simply put, we are to love God first, and then we are to love others, as we love ourselves. If we embrace and follow this belief, we are following God’s will for our lives and we are not living in sin. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

Galatians 5:14 (Amplified)

“For the whole law [concerning human relationships] is complied with in one precept. You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.”



Romans 13:8-10 (NIV)

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Therefore sin is simply this: if I do not love God and put Him first in my life, this is a sin. If I mistreat others or myself spiritually, emotionally or physically, it is a sin. Love is the basis for all of God’s laws, old and new. Sin is the absence or distortion of this love.

So is homosexuality a sin? “It depends” is my answer. The question is no longer ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ but an issue of love in the relationship. First and foremost, is this relationship encouraging both partners’ spiritual growth and relationship with God?” And second, is this a relationship loving and healthy for both parties? God is not concerned with the superficial things that worry us. He does not care what our sexual orientation, gender, skin color, or church affiliation is. These things have no meaning to God. He goes straight to the heart of the matter and simply asks the question, “Is this relationship based on, and operating in, My love or not?”

12th Annual National Day of Silence Honors the Memory of Lawrence King


Students nationwide take part in a Day of Silence

NEW YORK – On the heels of the Oxnard, CA murder of 8th grade student, Lawrence King, middle, high school and college campuses all over the country to be a little quieter. On Friday, April 25, 2008, students nationwide will be commemorating the 12th annual National Day of Silence. They will observe a daylong silence to protest the bullying, harassment and name-calling—in effect, the silencing—faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their allies in schools.

While this silence is often times used metaphorically to symbolize students’ lives, experiences and histories being invisible, the murder of Lawrence King, which occurred at school, represents a literal and absolute definition of this silence. According to friends, Lawrence was killed because of his sexual orientation and gender expression.

The Day of Silence, a project of GLSEN, will be held during school hours. Hundreds of thousands of students are expected to participate on April 25, many of whom will wear stickers and pass out ‘speaking cards’ that read:


"Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in schools. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?"


GLSEN’s 2005 National School Climate Survey found that more than 64% of LGBT students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and 29% report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety. The Day of Silence is one way students and their allies are making anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and name-calling unacceptable in America’s schools.

About the Day of Silence
The Day of Silence, a project of GLSEN, is a nationwide, student-led event during which thousands of high schools and colleges protest the oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. For more information and a complete collection of organizing materials, visit www.dayofsilence.org.

Friends mourn loss of jovial teen killed in shooting

By Nadine Parks (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Wednesday, January 23, 2008







That Adolphus Simmons dressed like a woman was of no consequence to his neighbors at the Bradford Apartments in North Charleston. To them, his shooting death Monday night was a senseless loss of a beloved friend.

The effeminate 18-year-old charmed them with his always jovial and sometimes flamboyant personality, they said.

It was about 8 p.m. when Mary Ivory heard a commotion outside the apartment complex on Bream Road and saw flashing blue lights. A few doors down, Simmons lay on the ground with gunshot wounds, and a man neighbors said was his brother held him in his arms, weeping. A woman cried out for someone to call police, she said.

"It was so cold," said his friend Tiffany Wells. "It seemed like it took forever for EMS to come."

Simmons, a former student at Stall High School, was pronounced dead at Medical University Hospital at 9:08 p.m., Chief Deputy Coroner Judy Koelpin said.

Police were working on leads in the case late Tuesday. There was no indication that his slaying was a hate crime, said Spencer Pryor, police public information officer.

Simmons had moved into the complex about a year earlier and quickly made friends with other tenants. Most notable was his feminine manner of dress. He experimented with creative weave hairstyles and colors, and he became pretty good at it, Wells said.

Soon, he was doing everybody's hair and making money at it, she said.

Wells said Simmons made sure that you didn't just get a nice hairdo but a lift for your spirits as well.

"He was a jokester," she said. "He liked to tell jokes and make you laugh."

About a month ago, Simmons quit his job at Captain D's on Rivers Avenue to focus on the hairstyling. His mother, Felicia Moultrie, had her hair done for free.

Moultrie spoke with her oldest son just three hours before he was shot. He was cooking crabs, and invited her over for dinner.

"He was cuttin' a fool, and laughing and joking," Moultrie said.

She was busy shopping and told him she would call him back later. It was a return call she never got around to making, and that causes her painful regret now, she said.

Witnesses told police Simmons had been eating crab before taking out the trash, according to the incident report. They heard gunfire but told police they didn't think much of it since neighbors often shoot guns. When they noticed that Simmons had not returned, they opened the door to find him unconscious on the steps.

"He was so young," Wells said.

Like his neighbors, Simmons' family looked past the clothes and hair he wore and saw only a loving human being, Moultrie said.

"He chose his lifestyle the way he wanted it," she said. "We all accepted him for who he was."

Simmons' death was the fourth homicide this year in North Charleston. Police are searching for suspects in the Jan. 12 deaths of John Burgess, 48, of Hollywood and Sheila Stannard, 48, of West Ashley. They were shot at Pepperhill Park. The city's other slaying was a murder-suicide Jan. 2 in which Ted Davis, 63, shot his wife 58-year-old Theresa Davis, then himself at their Northwood Estates home.

Reach Nadine Parks at 937-5573 or nparks@postandcourier.com. Reach Noah Haglund at 937-5550 or nhaglund@postandcourier.com.

Gay Hate Crimes Victims (what if it was you?)

“Trans” Teen Gunned Down

Feb 26, 2008



Floridian 17-year old Simmie Williams Jr. found himself dead this weekend after being gunned down in a drive by shooting. Friends and police suspect hate may have been a motivating factor, for Williams often dressed as a girl and, in fact, was dressed to the nines at the time of his death:

Simmie Williams Jr., 17, was attacked on the 1000 block of Sistrunk Boulevard by two young men who wore dark clothing and might live in the neighborhood, police said. Williams, who was wearing a dress and was known in the area by his first name or as “Chris” or “Beyonce,” was shot about 12:45 a.m. Friday and soon afterward died at Broward General Medical Center, police said.It’s unclear what Williams was doing in the area, about four miles from his house, but police are investigating whether he was working as a prostitute, officials said.

Williams’ mother said her son was openly gay, but she didn’t know what he did when he went out at night, and she didn’t know he wore women’s clothes.
Broward County gay rights organizations are angry over Williams’ death, of course but, as Equality Florida’s Nadine Smith says, not surprised: “We can be horrified, but we cannot be surprised. Just 10 days ago, 15 year-old Lawrence King was gunned down in California.” Isn’t America supposed to be “the best” country in the world? Why, then, do we keep hearing stories of dead queer teenagers. This shit’s really depressing!

We’ve also included the official EF press release after the jump…

Gay 17 Year-old Murdered in Broward
Community Outraged Over Continuing Epidemic of Hate Violence

(Ft. Lauderdale) Today, Equality Florida and the coalition Transgender Equality Rights Initiatives (TERI) expressed outrage over the murder of Simmie Williams Jr., a gay 17 year-old who was gunned down this past weekend on a street corner in Broward County. Police are investigating the murder as a possible hate crime based on the words witnesses say were exchanged before the shooting.

“We can be horrified, but we cannot be surprised,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida. “Just 10 days ago, 15 year-old Lawrence King was gunned down in California. Nearly a year ago, Ryan Skipper was brutally stabbed and his body dumped on the roadside here in Florida. And a week after Ryan’s murder, 20 year-old Sean Kennedy was killed outside a gay bar in South Carolina. All of these deaths were preventable. We all must have the will to act and compel our schools and our legislature to confront the harassment and violence directed at gay and transgender young people.”

Across the country, studies have shown that perpetrators of hate-crimes are overwhelmingly male, 18 to 24 years-old, and that they often get their start with bullying in schools. With this in mind, Equality Florida has made it their top legislative priority to pass a statewide Safe School bill that would address the epidemic of bullying and violence in Florida schools.

“It is time we demand our government to act and implement policy to decrease the risk factors affecting LGBT youth,” said Michael Emanuel Rajner, co-founder of Transgender Equality Rights Initiatives. “Of the 900 youth in Broward County transitional living facilities, an estimated 25% are LGBT, many have been banished from their homes simply for being LGBT.”

A memorial is being planned for 4:30PM Thursday, February 27th at the 1000 block of Sistrunk Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale where the murder occurred. A town hall meeting will follow at 6:30 at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of South Florida 1717 N. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL to discuss the issue of hate crimes in Florida.

Equality Florida is Florida’s only statewide human rights organization dedicated to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Through education and advocacy, the organization is committed to building a state of equal rights for all Floridians, inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

Friends fear murder may have been hate crime(Patrick "Patricia" Murphy, a drag queen )

Posted: Jan 14, 2008 01:12 PM CST

Updated: Jan 14, 2008 01:19 PM CST




ALBUQUERQUE - Friends are mourning the death of Albuquerque's first murder victim, and fear the murder may have been a hate crime.

Patrick "Patricia" Murphy, a drag queen well known in the community, was a regular performer at Sidewinders Bar.

Friends knew Murphy as Patricia.

"She will be missed," said friend Dan Johnson. "She'll always be a permanent part of Sidewinders. She has a seat here. We're going to put up a permanent plaque, so whoever comes in here will know that's where she was."

Dana Madsen, 33, was arrested in the case. Police said he admitted to killing Murphy at the Brandywood Park Apartments after an argument, but said it was in self-defense.

Bar employees said Madsen had moved to Albuquerque from El Paso, and became friends with Murphy when he went to watch her perform.

Friends and coworkers said they were concerned when Murphy started spending time with Madsen, and believed he allegedly killed her because he was uncomfortable with his sexuality.

Madsen is in jail on a $1 million bond.

Elderly Gay Man First Miami Murder Of 2008

Elderly Gay Man First Miami Murder Of 2008
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: January 18, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET

(Miami, Florida) Miami-Dade police are searching for a 20-year old man in connection with the murder of an elderly gay man who had taken him into his home.

The body of Alexio Bello, 68, was found by his housekeeper. An autopsy showed he had been stabbed to death.

The apartment had been ransacked and a pair of bloody shoes were found near the body.

The housekeeper identified the shoes as belonging to Jorge Espinoza Navarette, a young homeless man who Bello had taken in.

Police as identified Navarette as a "person of interest" in the case but he seemingly has disappeared.

Navarette is a Mexican national who came to South Florida from North Carolina in mid-December.

Bello had been born in Cuba and came to the United States in the mid 70s.

He had been briefly married and fathered a daughter, Joanna who is now 27. Bello and his wife split up when she was a baby and she never knew him. Ironically she found him and they were preparing to meet, the Miami Herald reports, but he was killed before that could happen.

Other members of Bello's family had remained in contact with him. His nice told a news conference this week that he was a kind loving man.

"He didn't deserve to die like that," Perla Borelli told reporters, wiping back tears from her eyes. "I loved him like a father."

Borelli called on anybody who had information about the murder to call police.

Sanesha Stewart, Lawrence King, and why hate crimes legislation won’t help

February 20, 2008

Sanesha Stewart, Lawrence King, and why hate crimes legislation won’t help
Published by Jackat February 20, 2008 in (in)justice system, people of color, prison abolition, queer and racism.
I’ve been out of town and subsequently out of touch for a while now, visiting El Paso with my partner to meet her incomprehensibly adorable two-week-old nephew. But in the midst of the happiness that babies and family and vacation bring, two pieces of tragic news have weighed heavily on my mind. Both of them demonstrate how dangerous and hostile a world this is for people who are trans and gender non-conforming.

On February 10, Sanesha Stewart, a young trans woman of color, was brutally murdered in her apartment in the Bronx. This is tragic and deeply saddening in and of itself, and part of a frightening and enduring pattern of violence against trans people. But because of this woman’s identities - trans, woman, person of color, low income - the tragedy doesn’t end with her death and the grief of those who knew and loved her. Instead, the mainstream media, specifically the Daily News, has managed to add to the tragedy with grossly disrespectful and transphobic journalism - if such garbage can even be called journalism. This, too, is part of a pattern, one that I’ve written about before. And yet, every time I read another disgustingly transphobic article, I’m still shocked and appalled that some media sources will stoop so low. Even in death, even after having been murdered, trans people are given no respect and are treated as less than human.

In an eloquent and resonating post on Feministe, Holly posits a world in which Sanesha Stewart’s murder would be treated with respect for the victim and a cold eye for the killer, then contrasts that with the lurid reality:

There was no respect and no cold eye, none at all. I must be imagining some completely different universe where young trans women of color aren’t automatically treated like human trash. Where we all live, business as usual is to make a lot of comments about what the murder victim dressed like and looked like, reveal what her name was before she changed it, automatically assume she’s getting paid for sex, and to make excuses for the alleged killer.

Only days after Sanesha was murdered, Lawrence King, a 15-year-old, openly gay, gender non-conforming junior high schooler was shot in the head and killed by Brandon McInerney, a fellow classmate, a 14-year-old boy. McInerney has been charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime, for which he could face a sentence of 24 years to life with an additional three years because of the hate crime status.

It’s mind-boggling. Mind-boggling that someone so young could be so severely punished for simply being himself; mind-boggling that someone so young could have so much hatred or anger inside of him that he could kill another kid. Or, as Holly suggests in another post, that perhaps McInerney was not acting out of simple hatred:

I fear the worst — and the worst would not just be that some homophobic asshole killed a child. There’s an even worse worst: that a child is dead, and the other child who pulled the trigger did so because he couldn’t deal with his own feelings. And now that second child will be tried as an adult, and another life destroyed.

When crimes like the murders of Lawrence King and Sanesha Stewart occur, I often hear queer and trans advocates call for strong hate crimes legislation. In a statement from the Human Rights Campaign about King’s murder (mind you, I doubt the HRC would ever release any statement about Stewart’s murder), Joe Solomnese reiterated this demand:

While California’s residents are fortunate to have state laws that provide some protection against hate crimes and school bullying, this pattern of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students is repeated too often in schools and communities across America each day. This tragedy illustrates the need to pass a federal hate crimes law to ensure everyone is protected against violent, bias-motivated crimes, wherever they reside.

I disagree with this response. I cannot see how hate crimes legislation can do anything to protect anyone - queer and trans people, people of color, women, and other victims of hate crimes. Hate crimes legislation only works after the fact, after someone has been victimized, hurt, or killed. Hate crimes legislation cannot undo what has been done. Nor can it undo what has been done to our society and to the individuals within it: the inscription of hatred, of intolerance, of prejudice upon our psyches. Hate crimes don’t occur because there aren’t enough laws against them, and hate crimes won’t stop when those laws are in place. Hate crimes occur because, time and time again, our society demonstrates that certain people are worth less than others; that certain people are wrong, are perverse, are immoral in their very being; that certain people deserve discrimination, derision, and disrespect.

Perhaps advocates of hate crimes legislation believe that such laws would send a message to people that homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of prejudice and hatred are wrong. I don’t think it will. How could such laws counteract the prejudices that permeate our society? I seriously doubt that hate crimes legislation that is only brought up after someone is hurt or killed can make a dent in the ubiquitous flood of messages that we receive from politicians, religious leaders, the media and pop culture that queers and trans people are less deserving of respect and rights than straight and non-trans people. In this country, all signs point to queer people being second-class citizens, and trans and gender non-conforming people being maybe third or fourth-class citizens. That is what sets up a situation where someone is targeted because of their sexuality or their gender identity, just as such dehumanization is what has fueled racist and sexist violence for centuries. And that’s simply not going to be undone by hate crimes legislation. Attacking a few of the symptoms of hatred while leaving others unhindered and the root causes untouched is never going to change much of anything.

Moreover, hate crimes legislation is far too tied up with our unjust judicial system and prison industry. How can we rely on systems that continuously target and abuse people of color, queer folks, and trans folks to protect us from targeting and abuse? Can we really trust the police, the courts, and prisons to protect us when much of the time they’re violating our rights, tearing apart our families, and ravaging our communities? Is it likely that hate crimes legislation will be applied fairly across the board in a system that consistently fails to treat all people equally? I think not. For communities that often find themselves being victimized by the judicial and prison systems, there can be little to gain in bolstering those systems and giving them more power to imprison, possibly unjustly. For my part, I’m invested in prison abolition, so “protections” that serve primarily to send more people to jail for longer periods of time are counterintuitive.

In fact, because hate crimes legislation involves no analysis of power - it’s not legislation against homophobic or transphobic or racist acts, but rather against general hatred in any direction - such laws can even be applied against oppressed people. Now, I’m not defending or condoning acts of violence or hatred perpetuated by oppressed people, nor am I saying that one form of violence is better than the other. But the lack of a power analysis built into such legislation reminds me of accusations of “reverse racism” in that they both completely miss the point. Queer folks, trans folks, people of color aren’t disproportionately victimized simply because some individuals hate them; that hatred is backed up, reinforced, and executed by an entire system of institutionalized power that allows and in fact encourages such acts of violence. The lack of acknowledgment of these systems of power in hate crimes legislation only reinforces my belief that such legislation is relatively useless in doing anything to stop homophobia, transphobia, racism and other forms of oppression, and therefore won’t do much to stop the violence that stems from said oppression.

Hate crimes legislation won’t bring Sanesha Stewart or Lawrence King back, nor will it protect other trans and gender non-conforming folks and people of color from violence fueled by hate. Instead of reacting to hatred with disapproval after the fact, we need to instill a proactive condemnation of hatred, prejudice and discrimination into our society. Sure, that’s a much more difficult job to do, but it can be done, slowly but surely, and it’s the only way we’re truly going to protect those who need protection most.

Sanesha Stewart is dead and I have only tears and frustration for her

Februar12,2008

A man named Steve McMillian apparently stabbed Sanesha Stewart to death on Saturday morning. Who was she? She lived in the Bronx. She was tall and femme and well-liked by her neighbors. She was a client at the law project where I volunteer, but I never met her myself. Some of my colleagues helped her get her name legally changed more than a year ago. None of the above mattered at all to the news media, which handled this tragedy with the appropriate combination of sensitivity, respect for the victim, and a very cold eye for the man who the police dragged from her apartment, covered in her blood.

Oh no… wait one second and back up. There was no respect and no cold eye, none at all. I must be imagining some completely different universe where young trans women of color aren’t automatically treated like human trash. Where we all live, business as usual is to make a lot of comments about what the murder victim dressed like and looked like, reveal what her name was before she changed it, automatically assume she’s getting paid for sex, and to make excuses for the alleged killer.

And please note: “Cops: Ex-con slays Bronx transsexual ‘hooker’” is not the original headline of this NY Daily News article. The original one was “Fooled john stabbed Bronx tranny,” until pressure from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation got them to change it. They are still suggesting that people take action by writing to the editors–follow that link for more details.

The Daily News also published a follow-up story in which Sanesha’s downstairs neighbor insists that she wasn’t getting paid for sex; the Daily News doesn’t offer any proof for their earlier assertion that Sanesha Stewart was a “hooker,” other than “police sources.” And as many trans people in New York City will tell you, the NYPD assumes that almost any young, Black or Latina trans woman walking around on the street, or going into an apartment building with a guy, is getting paid for sex work. Profiling is constant; women have been arrested around here simply for having a gathering in someone’s apartment, apparently it’s too suspicious. I mean why would any normal person want to hang out with one of THEM, right?

I don’t know if Sanesha Stewart was doing sex work or not, and I don’t think it really matters, other than the fact that the usual assumptions are being made. I don’t know what else to say. This kind of thing always leaves me at a loss for words, there’s not much to do but sit, and cry, and wonder how long it will be until the next murder. Until the next young, poor or working class, Black or Latina trans woman is murdered just for being trans, and then mocked by so-called journalists before her body cools.

Worst of all is the fact that even the newer article ends with a hint of what will undoubtedly be part of the next chapter of this story: the “tranny panic” defense.

Ramel C., 37, said McMillan had a girlfriend. He said his life-long friend must have been shocked to discover he was with a man.

“I’m not saying that’s a reason to kill anyone,” he said. “But I’m sure he was in some type of turmoil or shock.”

(Right, because no guy with a girlfriend has ever slept with or dated a trans woman.)

Read this, and then go look at some of the comments on those stories and the other news sources that megan_julca rounded up. The “trans panic” defense was used in the trials following the murder of Gwen Araujo, and those murderers got reduced sentences. We still live in a place and time where people think it’s “perfectly understandable” that someone would flip out and want to kill a trans woman just because they find out she’s trans. And those are the people who claim not to condone violent criminal reactions! Others are happy to step right up and say (at least on the anonymous Internet) that they’d react the same way and do the same thing. Trans people take the blame; trans people should be the ones walking around with prominent badges of shame, so all the “normal” people don’t make the wrong assumption. The question nobody ever seems to ask is, why would you automatically assume that the person you’re on a date with isn’t trans?

I mean, would you want someone to make that kind of assumption about you and your body — and have that kind of failed expectation when it turns out you’re not trans? Let’s say, for the non-trans folks in the audience, that you go on a date, and your date for some reason makes an assumption about your body, or the gender category you were assigned to at birth. Later on they find out they’re wrong: you’re not a trans person! What the hell?! So misleading. Are they justified in feeling like they want to beat the crap out of you? Should they get a lesser sentence if they kill you? Or how about if they just threw up everywhere like in The Crying Game. Of course, “common sense” would never say yes to any of these questions — and the only excuse that can be given is that non-trans people are “normal” but trans people are “weird.” The freaks pay the price and are the ones who must make sure nobody’s interacting with them who doesn’t absolutely want to.

I’ve got nothing else but tears and disgust. But I’ll quote from what some other people had to say.

Lisa Harney talks about the different treatment of trans women and I have to quote a lot of this because it’s good:

Imagine the response if a cis woman’s murder were filled with detailed discussion of her appearance and how it obviously contributed to her murder, as if her murderer’s reactions were instinctive and perhaps understandable? Imagine if a cis woman’s murder was presented as she deceived a man into thinking she was more attractive than she really was, and upon discovering that it was all makeup, plastic surgery, and a corset, he savagely stabbed her to death? What if she’d legally changed her name - would the press be sure to dig up her birthname for added sensationalism? Referred to her legal name as a “nickname?” What would be the response if news stories so thoroughly delegitimized and sensationalized a white cis woman’s identity while reporting her murder?

belledame seethes about the inherent homophobia+transphobia of the “panic” excuse, and a bunch of other stuff besides:

Because there’s nothing worse than finding out you are sexually attracted to, hell, even had fond feelings about, is there? a person whose gender and/or sex is not the gender and/or sex you are SUPPOSED to be attracted to, according to God or your parents or the lads or the Sisterhood or the feverish little rabbit running your brain. Who doesn’t understand -that-? the raw revulsion, the terror, the PANIC leading even unto VIOLENCE that such momentary existential cage-rattlings provides. It’s only human.

And last but certainly never least, little light memorializes as only a true poet can. I almost don’t want to quote her — like all of her posts, it’s an elegant and spiritual work of art that needs to be appreciated in full. But this part haunts me into repeating it:

We all might die alone. But some of us have to be ground and ground and ground down into the ground so the rest of us can feel a little better about our own chances at avoiding it. We have to make them more alone, even in death. We have to take away their names and their dignity. We have to take away even the chance that they might be mourned as real human beings who are gone and never coming back, who are missed by loved ones somewhere, who meant something. A murder is incomplete, and we cannot stand ending on an unresolved chord. We all have to join together and finish it, so the eyes of the murdered cannot accuse us in our sleep.

In the past, I have been known to complain that far too little attention has been paid to the fact that there are multiple oppressions at work here. We talk about these as murders of trans people, recall them again on the Trans Day of Remembrance. But it’s not just any transgender people who are being murdered: over and over, the most vulnerable members of the population are the ones who are extinguished. People who are living on the margins, women who have had to do what they can to get by, women targeted by racism and poverty on top of transphobia. That’s who’s getting killed at nearly ten times the average rate of the American population, according to one estimate.

But little light’s words remind me that this is also about all of us. Even without a guiding intent behind the wave of blood, the repeated and constant murders of young trans women, year in and year out, wreaks psychological terror on innumerable trans people. Why? Because they are murdered for being trans. For not fulfilling the “correct” expectations. And that’s something we should all care about. When you are undressed — by your lover or an X-ray machine, in front of a customer or a doctor, on a stage or in a bedroom or a police precinct — do you meet the expectations of those who gaze at you? Should it matter so much if you do, if you don’t? What would happen if you didn’t?

Does anyone ever deserve her fate?

Hate Crimes in 2008- Fight OUT Loud

True Hate Crimes

Ellen DeGeneres Discusses The Recent Tragic Death

The Trevor Project Teen PSA

Memorial to honor gay victims of hate






Scott Hall didn't think much about gay rights, even after a stranger cracked him across the head with a baseball bat 25 years ago outside a gay bar in Melbourne.

''When I was attacked, I felt there was nothing I could do about it,'' said Hall, now 43. ``The concept of people thinking that I was gay was more frightening than me having my head smashed in.''

A year ago, Hall had an awakening. ''I was home watching TV one night and saw this little blip on the TV about a young man being brutally murdered in Polk County,'' he said. ``It caught me off guard. I sat there and thought about it.''

The March 2007 death of 25-year-old Ryan Keith Skipper -- stabbed 20 times and dumped on a roadside in Winter Haven -- spurred Hall to action. The Cocoa Beach auctioneer began the Gay American Heroes Foundation, which honors gay hate-crime victims with a traveling memorial. It will be previewed during this week's Winter Party Festival in South Beach.

''Scott's memorial speaks to our society as a whole,'' said Skipper's stepfather, Lynn Mulder, 49, of Auburndale. ``It will help awareness all across the nation. . . . Ever since Ryan's murder, I've been acutely aware of all the horrible things happening across the nation.''

Hall says he already has the names of nearly 600 gay hate-crime victims for the monument. The latest addition: Lawrence King, a gay 15-year-old shot to death two weeks ago at a school in Oxnard, Calif., about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Lawrence was targeted by a younger boy because he came to school dressed in girl's clothing, authorities said. Prosecutors have charged 14-year-old Brandon David McInerney with premeditated murder, say he committed a hate crime and want him tried as an adult.

MAKING EXCUSES

Hall believes the speed with which McInerney was charged is unusual. Typically, police believe gay hate-crime victims ''got what they deserved,'' he said.

' `He hit on me' is the defense they use a lot of times,'' Hall said, recalling the 1995 murder of Scott Amedure hours after he revealed on The Jenny Jones Show his secret crush on another man.

Hall envisions a monument composed of 10-foot-wide, 7-foot-high vinyl-and-aluminum panels emblazoned with the names and pictures of gay hate-crime victims.

The monument would travel from city to city and be displayed outdoors.

''If we go into a civic center, we'll have to encourage people to come in,'' he said. ``And we'll be preaching to a choir.''

The project isn't cheap. Each panel would cost about $5,000. So far, Gay American Heroes Foundation has raised $25,000 and has been offered a $100,000 matching grant by Palm Beach philanthropist Bruce Presley.

JOINING FORCES

Many Florida gay activists have signed on to the project, including Chip Arndt, a one-time Amazing Race champ; Carole Benowitz, a founder of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida; and Waymon Hudson, a founder of Broward's Fight OUT Loud. National honorary board members include U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts; singer Cyndi Lauper; actress Jill Clayburgh; Matt Foreman, executive director the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; and Broadway star Alan Cumming.

A lesser-known woman supporting the memorial is Elke Kennedy, whose son Sean, 20, in May 2007 took a fatal punch to the face in Greenville, S.C.

''I get up each day knowing that this is what I need to do for the rest of my life,'' said Kennedy, 46, of South Carolina, now an activist lobbying for a national hate-crimes law.

''I did not want any mother to have to go through this again,'' she said.

Ryan Skipper's family will be in South Florida for a Heroes reception Friday night at Miami Beach Botanical Gardens, where the model will be displayed later this week.

''Scott Hall and the people working with Gay American Heroes have done a phenomenal job,'' Kennedy said. ``I hope we can see this memorial in every town and every city in the United States.''