Gays Most Targeted for Hate Crimes

Southern Poverty Law Center Report:
Gays Remain the Minority Most Targeted by Hate Crimes

The reality is that homosexuals or perceived homosexuals are by far the group most targeted in America for violent hate crimes, according to an Intelligence Reportanalysis of 14 years of federal hate crime data. The bottom line: Gay people are more than twice as likely to be attacked in a violent hate crime as Jews or blacks; more than four times as likely as Muslims; and 14 times as likely as Latinos.

TN Lesbian Couple Victim of Hate Crime

Lesbian couple in Vonore says house fire is hate crime

Carol Ann and Laura Stutte, long-time life partners who have been together for 15 years and are raising a daughter in the small town of Vonore, Tennessee, just south of Knoxville, reported that they received numerous threats from a neighbor–including a threat to “kill them and burn down their house”–over the span of the five years they lived in the town. On September 4th, their house was burned down to the ground and their garage was spray painted with the word “queers.

Gratefully Carol and Laura Stutte were away when the house burned. But they lost everything.

Police have confirmed that this was a case of arson. Investigators are currently conducting interviews about the crime. Tennessee has a hate crime penalty enhancement law that includes property hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation – the federal hate crime statute does not include property crimes.

PLAG Maryville is Taking Donations to Help the Couple

Another Gay Teen Murdered

Black Gay Teen Murdered in Baltimore
Jason Mattison Jr., 15, an openly gay high schooler, was found dead last week in his aunt’s home; the suspect charged, Dante Parrish, 35, was a family friend. Mattison was raped, gagged with a pillowcase, stabbed repeatedly in the head and throat and shoved in a closet.

Vigils will be held on Sunday across the country to honor the lives of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado of Puerto Rico and Jason “Jaysen” Mattison Jr.

Both teens were brutally slain in separate instances last week.

Queer Anarchists Defend Destruction of Memphis Gay Solider Billboard

"Bash Back," a group of Queer Anarchists, Takes Credit for Destruction of Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center Billboard

The group mocks the MGLCC and Memphis gay community rallies against the vandalism as a "hate crime," and claim that the billboard was destroyed for promoting militarism. The Billboard featured a gay soldier saying "I am Gay and I Defended Your Freedom."

Bash Back: Memphis Anti-Gay Hate or Call Out Against Gay Militarism

On MySpace, Bash Back Memphis states:

We'll tear your heteronormative wet dream of corporate pride, gender roles, state militarism and marriage to shreds, and sew a fucking dress out of it. We are those trannies and queers your mother warned you about... We are Bash Back! Memphis.

Points of Unity:
1) I will fight for absolute liberation. Nothing more, nothing less.
2) I will reject capitalism, imperialism, and all other forms of state power.
3) I will actively oppose oppression both in and out of the “movement.”
4) I will respect a diversity of tactics in the struggle for liberation. I will not solely condemn an action on the grounds that the State deems it to be illegal.

--------

OK, I have some problems with the mainstream "gay assimilationist" movement, but this going too far, and is counter-productive. I'm not convinced this group committed the act of vandalism, they may just be taking credit for it, like some terrorist groups like to do. And dressing up like Al-qaeda terrorists is not going to win support for "gay liberation" within or outside the "gay community."


UPDATE: Queer Anarchists Deny Destroying MGLCC Billboard

19 Year Old Gay Youth Brutally Murdered in Puerto Rico

A Suspect has Been Arrested in the Brutal Murder of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado in Puerto Rico

(CNN) -- A suspect has been arrested in the slaying of a 19-year-old Puerto Rican man found Friday decapitated, dismembered and partially burned, police said Tuesday.
Members of the U.S. gay community are asking authorities to investigate whether the slaying was a hate crime because the victim, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, was gay, said Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

The suspect, John A. Martinez (26) claims that he picked the victim up because he was dressed as a female prostitute. When he got him home and discovered he was a male, he killed him for making sexual advances. His defense will be "temporary insanity" because of homosexual panic. We've heard that before...

365gay: Suspect Arrested in horrific PR hate crime

Urge Attorney General & FBI To Investigate Hate Crime

Arrests in Attempt to Burn Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center Flag

Man Arrested for Attempting to Burn MGLCC Pride Flag
Memphis Police arrested 23-year-old Ross Burton early Wednesday morning after he attempted to burn the gay pride flag at the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC).

A MGLCC billboard depicting gay local former Marine Tim Smith was destroyed in September. The billboard, located at Poplar and High, read, "I'm gay and I protected your freedom."

Update: Attempted Flag Burner Has Military Ties
Memphis Flyer is reporting that Ross Burton is a member of the Memphis-based 164th airlift wing of the Tennessee Air National Guard.

WMCTV: Second Arrest in MGLCC Vandalism

Towerland: Military Ties to MGLCC Arson, Second Man Arrested

Obama to Sign Hate Crimes Bill Wed.

The Advocate is reporting that Barack Obama will sign into law the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act on Wednesday.
The new law will protect victims of crimes who are targeted because of sexual orientation or gender identity, which is an expansion of the federal hate crime law.
Obama will sign the legislation – and make remarks – at 4:45 pm EST on Wednesday.

Official White House Note on Hate Crimes Signing
bama to Sign FY 2010 National Defense Authorization Act into Law; Will Host Reception to Commemorate the Enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, October 28th at 2:30 PM President Obama will sign into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. He will deliver brief remarks and will be joined by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Members of Congress, and others.
Later that day, the President will host a reception to commemorate the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. He will deliver brief remarks at 6:05 PM, and will be joined by Attorney General Eric Holder, civil rights community leaders and others.

In Wing-Nut Land:
AFA: Hate Crimes Bill is Un-American

House Approves Hate Crimes Bill

House Gives Final Approval to Hate Crimes Bill
The House on Thursday gave its final approval to legislation expanding federal hate crimes to include attacks on gays and transgenders. LGBT advocates hailed the vote as a long-awaited victory, but the GOP accused Democrats of "valuing some lives more than others," and of "immorality" for tacking the measure to the 2010 Defense budget.

Attached to the bill is a measure named after two murder victims: Matthew Shepard (left), a gay Wyoming university student who died in 1998 after being tortured, and James Byrd, Jr., a black man who was dragged to death by white supremacists the same year as Shepard's murder. (Image: familyequality.org)The National Defense Authorization Act, or H.R. 2647, passed by a vote of 281-146. Forty-four Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the bill.

GOP Leaders Voting Against Defense Bill Because of Inclusion of Gays in Hate Crimes Protections

Boehner: Hate Crimes Bill is Offensive

Gay Youth Attacked, 2 killed in Tel Aviv

Israelis Rally After 2 Murdered at Gay Youth Center
(Tel Aviv, Israel) Reeling from the worst attack ever aimed at homosexuals in Israel, members of the country’s gay community and their supporters rallied Sunday in the heart of Tel Aviv a day after a masked gunman killed two people at a center for gay youth and escaped.

HAARETZ: Police-Too Early to Assume Attack Was Hate Crime

Anti-Gay Bigots LIE!

Anti-gay religious bigots get all worked up over a "sin" that is not even in the Top Ten Commandments, but they sure piss all over one of the biggies: THOU SHALT NOT LIE!

The Christo-Fascist "World Net Daily News" has been stirring right-wing opposition to the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (Hate Crimes Bill) by confusing "sexual orientation" with paedophilia, and calling the bill the "Pedophile Protection Act."

Faith2Action's anti-gay crusader Janet Porter has been leading the right-wing campaign to kill the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, falsely claiming that the hate crimes bill would infringe on the religious freedom and freedom of speech of Christians and would protect pedophiles and other "sexual deviants."

First, there is nothing in the Hate Crimes Bill to infringe on any one's freedom of speech! The bill clearly targets CRIMINAL ACTS that target people based on race, gender, religion, handicap, sexual orientation or gender identity. People can say or think whatever they want about gays, or Jews, but they cannot commit CRIMINAL ACTS! If someone commits CRIMINAL ACT, like physically attacking or killing someone because they are Jewish or gay, the bill will provide FEDERAL resources to prosecute the crime and enhanced penalties. (Our criminal justice system takes motivation into account in sentencing crimes.)

Second, religious fundamentalists are free to preach their anti-gay bigotry, as long as they don't preach VIOLENCE against people who are gay, Jewish, etc. Why are bigots like Janet Porter defending violence against gay people as "freedom of speech" or "freedom of religion"???

These Christo-fascist anti-gay campaigns are not just targeting the U.S. Congress, they are sowing their anti-gay bigotry across the states. Here in Tennessee they are using the very same radical right-wing propaganda against a state hate crimes bill and against a non-discrimination ordinance here in Memphis!

A group of anti-gay preachers have formed an ad hoc group, Memphis City Churches, to fight the Shelby County non-discrimination ordinance, using the same lies they used against the hate crimes bill. Memphis City Churches is a front group for the Christo-fascist Traditional Values Coalition

If you live in Memphis or Tennessee, visit the Tennessee Equality Project to take action against this anti-gay bigotry and support LGBT civil rights in Tennessee

Take Action on the Shelby County Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Take Action on the Tennessee Hate Crimes Bill

See Also:

American Family Assocaition: Senate Poised to Give Special Protection to Pedophiles

RIGHT WING WATCH: A HATE CRIMES THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

Grand Divisions: News and Comment on TN Politics: A refresher course on the Ten Commandments needed for some Shelby Co Churches

Hate Crimes Bill Passes House/GOP Rep. Calls Matthew Shepard Act a "Hoax"

The "hate crimes" bill (Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Act) passed the U.S. House of Rep. today by a vote of 247-175, despite a campaign of lies by anti-gay religious groups.

The leader of the Republican opposition to the bill, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) referred to the naming of the bill after Matthew Shepard as "a hoax":

"If you didn't vote for this bill -- against this bill and against this rule for anything else, you could vote against it because we are spending additional money. i also would like to point out that there was a bill -- the hate crimes bill that's called the matthew sheppard bill is named afte a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. it wasn't because he was gay. this -- the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."



She is a LIAR!

No wonder only 20% of the American people identify themselves as Republican!

Anti-Gay Hate Crimes Surge

FBI: Hate Crimes Down, But Anti-Gay Crimes Surge in 2007

While hate crimes overall declined 1%, hate crimes targeting gays and lesbians surged 6%!

Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Killed by Gunman

Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney Killed in Shooting

Is it another right-wing, liberal hating terrorist acting out the wishes of right-wing talk radio, or just another bitter unemployed white man who blames Democrats for Republican economic policies that are destroying the working class??

Two's a Trend

The Tragic Arkansas Shooting and Conservative Hate Speech

God, Gays & Guns: Obama Was Right!

Knoxville Church Shooter Was Angry Over Liberals, Gays & Work

Obama was right! Some people are turning to "gods & guns" because they are "bitter" about the economic distress they suffer as a result of right-wing (Reaganomics) policies, but they blame liberals, blacks, immigrants and gays!

Out & About: Shooter Targeted Church Because of its Support of Gays


Guess where Jim Adkisson, the 58 year old terrorist, learned to blame the gays and liberals for his problems?
O'Reilly, Savage Hannity on Accused Church Shooter's Reading List

Terrorist Opens Fire on TN Church

2 Dead, 7 Hurt in Tenn. Church Shooting
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — A gunman opened fire at a church youth performance Sunday and killed two people, including a man who witnesses called a hero for shielding others from a shotgun blast.
Seven adults were also injured but no children were harmed at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Church members said they dove under pews or ran from the building when the shooting started.

The gunman was tackled by congregants and eventually taken into police custody.

Jim D. Adkisson, 58, was charged with first-degree murder and was being held on $1 million bail, according to city spokesman Randy Kenner, who did not know if the suspect had retained an attorney. Authorities were searching Adkisson's home in the Knoxville bedroom community of Powell, Kenner said.

WBIR.COM: Attack details
The man slain was identified as Greg McKendry, 60, a longtime church member and usher. Church member Barbara Kemper told The Associated Press that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us."

Linda Kreager, 61, died at the University of Tennessee Medical Center a few hours after the shooting, Knoxville city spokesman Randall Kenner said.

Five people remained hospitalized, all in critical or serious condition. Two others were treated and released.

The gunman's motive is not yet known. The church, like many other Unitarian Universalist churches, promotes progressive social work, such as desegregation and fighting for the rights of women and gays. The Knoxville congregation has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to its website.

Kemper said the gunman shouted before he opened fire.

"It was hateful words. He was saying hateful things," she said, but refused to elaborate.

The FBI was assisting in the case in case it turns out be a hate crime, Police Chief Sterling Owen said.
----

Since this was a "liberal" (Unitarian Univerasalist) Church that helped the poor, homeless, immigrants and gays, I can just imagine the "hateful" things the gunmen said..

UPDATE:
YEP, He Was Angry Over Liberals, Gays & Work

Obama was right! Some people are turning to "gods & guns" because they are "bitter" about the economic distress they suffer as a result of right-wing (Reaganomics) policies, but they blame liberals, blacks, immigrants and gays!

Transgender Murder in Memphis

Memphis Police Investigate Transgender Homicide
(Memphis 7/1/08) Memphis homicide detectives are trying to unravel the city's latest murder mystery.

A body was found steps away from a daycare, an abandoned apartment complex and a strip club in Memphis. The victim is transgendered.

The victim's body was found early Tuesday morning in the 32-hundred block of Whitebrook Plaza in southeast Memphis.

Advocates say transgendered people tend to be targets of crime.

Jonathan Cole with the Tennessee Equality Project says, "Transgendered individual are often the victims of crime mainly because we know that people are homophobic or transphobic."

This follows a recent incident in which a Memphis Police Officer Attacked a Transgendered Person.

Another School Shooting: Why?

The Northern Illinois University Shooting should put gun control back into the U.S. political discussion, but both parties ignore the problem of guns and pander to the gun nuts, the NRA, and the gun lobby.

Steve Kazmierczak, the shooter who killed at least 6 people at North Illinois University, used the same website as the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui who purchased a gun to kill 32 people at that school.

Gun violence and mass kills are almost daily news:

Virginia Tech, the Omaha mall shooting, Colorado church shooting, the Missouri City Hall shooting, as well as the three other school shootings — in the last week — in Louisiana, Tennessee, and California

Also, this week: In an apparent hate crime, a Gay Teen Shot in the Head, Declared Brain Dead. Lawrence King, a 15 year old transgender boy, was shot by 14 year-old Brandon McInerney. Where did a 14 year old get a handgun?

Why is it so easy for people, even people with mental problems, to buy handguns and assault weapons in the U.S.? Why won't our political leaders, especially the so-called "progressive" ones, stand up to the NRA and gun lobby?

Let's STOP THE NRA!

Congress Drops Hate Crime Bill

Congress Drops Hate Crime Bill
Once again, LGBT civil rights are getting screwed in the political machine. Bascially, Democratic leaders thought that the best chance of passing the Hate Crime bill was to attach it to a defense authorization bill that Republicans would support and Bush would not want to veto. However, many liberal Democrats do not want to vote to authorize more funds for the Iraq occupation and don’t want to vote for it, and added with the anti-gay conservatives who won’t vote for it, Democrats have been forced to take the Hate Crime bill out of the defense authorization.
Sometimes I HATE politics!

Senate Passes Hate Crime Bill

The Senate passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Bill today. Sen. Ted Kennedy attached it to a defense appropriation bill, but George Bush may still veto it.
(Wide-stance toe tapper Larry Craig voted against it.)

Anti-Gay Black Pastors Attack Rep. Steve Cohen

His Behindness, Homophobic Bigot "Apostle" Alton R. Williams (World Overcomers)

Rep. Steve Cohen Meets with Black Ministers Over Hate Crime Bill and was viciously attacked by a group of anti-gay, RACIST, bigots. The Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association, a group of 100 black ministers, have been using Cohen's support for the Hate Crime Bill which includes sexual orientation to argue that he cannot represent blacks. "He's not black and he can't represent me," said Rev. Robert Poindexter of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church. "Apostle" Alton R. Williams (World Overcomers) said, "The real motivation...is about getting laws passed that will federally protect gays and lesbians." That is the real issue is not "freedom of speech" or "freedom of religion," it is that these racist bigots do not want a white person representing them and they do not want gays and lesbians to have the same civl rights they have. LaSimba Gray, past of New Sardis Baptist Church, said they were offended by suggestions that the black and gay communities are somehow connected. Well, we are connected, we are human beings and we have suffered as a group from prejudice, bigotry and discrimination. In MLK's words, injustice against any of us is an injustice against all of us. I guess these "ministers" did not understand the MLK's message.