There’s been a lot going on:
Quite a week for the LGBT community!
From NCTE:
Last night, Representative John Conyers of Michigan re-introduced The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, H.R. 1913. This would be the first-ever federal law to provide protections for transgender people. It is identical to the hate crimes bill passed by the House of Representatives in 2007 and includes the language that transgender advocates requested. It is also the first transgender inclusive bill to be introduced during this Session.
In his comments introducing the bill, Rep. John Conyers stated, “Hate crime statistics do not speak for themselves. Behind each of the statistics is an individual or community targeted for violence for no other reason than race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Law enforcement authorities and civic leaders have learned that a failure to address the problem of bias crime can cause a seemingly isolated incident to fester into widespread tension that can damage the social fabric of the wider community. The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 is a constructive and measured response to a problem that continues to plague our nation. These are crimes that shock and shame our national conscience. They should be subject to comprehensive federal law enforcement assistance and prosecution.”
Representatives are heading home to their districts for spring recess from now until April 21st. It is vital that you call them in their district offices to urge their support for this critical piece of legislation. Those who oppose this legislation will be active during this time-we need to be as well so that members of Congress are hearing from those directly affected by this legislation. Please take this important step to help address the violence faced by transgender people.
To find your Representative, visit our webpage or go to the House of Representatives webpage at www.house.gov and enter your ZIP+4 to find your member of Congress.
WHAT THE BILL SAYS
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, H.R. 1913, would:
- Extend existing federal protections to include “gender identity, sexual orientation, gender and disability”
- Allow the Justice Department to assist in hate crime investigations at the local level when local law enforcement is unable or unwilling to fully address these crimes
- Mandate that the FBI begin tracking hate crimes based on actual or perceived gender identity
- Remove limitations that narrowly define hate crimes to violence committed while a person is accessing a federally protected activity, such as voting.
The Hate Crimes Prevention Act is supported by nearly 300 civil rights, education, religious, and civic organizations. The bill is also endorsed by virtually every major law enforcement organization in the country-including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National District Attorneys Association, the National Sheriffs Association, the Police Executive Research Forum, and thirty-one state Attorneys General.
For more information:
- Read the specifics about this legislation from the Library of Congress, go to their website and search by bill H.R. 1913
- View our fact sheet about the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act and read additional information about hate crimes on our website.
& That’s exactly why I love NCTE: all the info you need to do what you need to do.
Apparently we left “thou shalt not kill homosexuals” out of the civics textbooks we gave the Iraqis when we “taught” them democracy.
Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous for gays and lesbians in Iraq since the rise of religious militias after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein six years ago.
Fuck this. The word “cleric” used to be such a cool word, and more & more it just seems to be mean “self-righteous, mob-creating fuckhead.” I really don’t think that whole “Thou Shalt Not Kill” directive is that hard to understand. There’s no asterisk, no caveat.
A Peruvian television station was invited to a planned attack on a local prostitute who is a “travesti” - a MTF trans prostitute. It aired on television, and was later aired with a longer segment.
Blabbeando covered it, as did Queers United.
Note: prostitution is not illegal in Peru.
Two female customers at a gay bar attack two trans guys in DC’s Dupont Circle. I mean, attack: whiplash and concussion. Presumably the two women were lesbians but since we don’t know that for certain, I’m not going to say it.
But still.
Human Rights Watch is asking Honduras authorities to investigate the murder or transgender activist Cynthia Nicole, who was murdered on January 9th, 2009.
As a leader in Colectivo Violeta - an organization working to defend the rights and health of transgender people since 1995 - Nicole had a long record of outreach work on rights with transgender sex workers in Tegucigalpa. She provided information about HIV/AIDS and human rights, and represented her community at various national conferences and before the media.
“The transgender community is terrified,” said Indyra Mendoza, director of the Honduran lesbian and feminist organization Cattrachas. “But these attacks will not silence the community in Honduras, and we will continue to work to ensure that the rights of transgender people are recognized and protected.”
Apparently this violence has been going on for years, with little or no response from Honduran authorities.
On May 16, 2007, Sean Kennedy, a 20-year old gay man, was attacked on the streets of Greenville, South Carolina. He died of his injuries later that night. Yet, because of the lack of hate crimes legislation, his attacker may be eligible for parole in February!
Sean was a brave young man with a bright, infectious smile. But his life was cut short and justice left unserved. Now, PFLAG is joining with Sean’s mother, Elke Kennedy, and asking all of our members to write to the parole board and urge them to rule that Moller must serve his complete sentence for this heinous, anti-gay crime.
Because South Carolina – and many other states- lack protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, Moller was able to plea-bargain to involuntary manslaughter charges (considered a “non-violent crime”) and received a suspended five to three years sentence for his crime. Because of the credit he received for time served before sentencing, his full sentence means that he will be free in September 2009. And he is also eligible for parole in February, which means that he will have served only 8 months of his full sentence for Sean’s death.
The parole board is currently conducting a review on whether to grant Moller parole. It is critically important that they hear from our community, and that we each send a strong message that it is unacceptable to grant such early parole following a brutal anti-gay murder!
Please join us in writing a letter to the parole board, and ask them to deny Stephen Moller’s parole. If you have the time, please write a personal letter by hand or by computer, as those will be the most effective, and if you knew Sean or his family personally, please include that information.
There is a diarist at Daily Kos who has written about the high incidence of murder of African American trans women.
Queerty (tongue in cheerk) predicts Memphis will reach out to the trans community as a result. I doubt it. They’re 2nd in homicides in the country, which means everyone - not just trans people - have been victims of violence (via Grand Divisions).
What a way to start a new year.
I mentioned, in She’s Not the Man I Married, that someone may not be gendered in American way when I wrote about looking around at people on the subway. Tonight I read, in the NYT, that a young Ecuadorean man and his brother were walking home from a night out at a bar with their arms around each other. A group of thugs pulled up in an SUV, yelled slurs about them being Hispanic and about them being gay, and only left when one of the brothers said he would call the cops on his cellphone. The other brother - Jose O. Sucuzhanay - died on Friday night in the hospital.
As GenderPAC regularly points out, anti-gay violence isn’t just a problem for gay people. Anyone who is presumed to be gay, for whatever reason, can be a target. And in this case, the brothers showed affection in ways that aren’t common here in the US - even if that kind of affection is very common between men in other counties - it caused these bigots to assume they were gay men.
That’s about gender: what kinds of affection are appropriate between men, which aren’t.
I’m just so sickened and sad reading about this. For this year and for many years to come, this family will remember this violent, senseless death and this loss right before Christmas.
(h/t to kiri for posting this story in our forums)
‘50 Under 30’ Youth Hate Crimes Report Re-Issued: Almost 20 New Victims; Re-Titled “70 Under 30”
WASHINGTON (December 4, 2008) — The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition’s 2006 hate crimes report, “50 Under 30: Masculinity & The War Against America’s Youth” has been updated and re-issued. Because of the nearly 20 new murders, the new title has been changed to “70 Under 30.”
Said GenderPAC Executive Director Riki Wilchins, “It’s sad to see so many new murders so quickly. We had hoped to only need to update this report every few years or so, but the pace of violence has surpassed our expectations.”
The report highlights the continuing vulnerability to assault that individuals face if they are young, of color and gender non-conforming. It also underscores the limited resources for safety and support many of them have.
I’m honestly a little surprised the US news media is reporting these terrorist bombings in India, because usually, they don’t. Most Americans have no idea how many bombings have gone on there in past years; all these years we’ve been worrying, since 2001, they’ve had regular bombings with regular fatalities.
Our condolences to all the people whose lives were lost or injured by these hateful acts.
The New York Times reported on Duanna Johnson’s murder. I’m actually surprised - pleased, but surprised.
Here’s another update - and more chilling news - about the astronomical levels of rape and sexual harassment inflicted on female soldiers serving in the US military. To really add insult to injury, the military’s health insurance plan doesn’t pay for rape kits in many circumstances.
This is embarassing and pathetic for us as a country.
In the meantime, Ann Dunwoody has become the first female four-star general. Maybe she can do something about it.
Ann at Feministing posted about this really good article from The American Prospect about trans activism in the heartland and a companion article about gay activism’s slow adoption of trans issues.
Many would view the politically red heart of the country as a harsh, unwelcoming, and vaguely dangerous place for the transgender community. When we think of states like Nebraska and Wyoming, we don’t think of M.J. — we think of people like Brandon Teena and Matthew Shepard, both killed in vicious, nationally publicized hate crimes. But the truth of the matter is far more interesting, inspiring, and instructive. Away from the coasts and the urban havens, a vibrant transgender-rights movement is slowly emerging across the mountain and plains states. Through increased visibility, community building, legislative outreach, and face-to-face public education in churches, schools, and neighborhoods, trans people are building a foundation for equality in some of the nation’s most conservative regions.
(A big thank you to the women at Feministing for their coverage of transgender issues. They do a great job of it, and it’s such a relief to see my fellow feminists speak up about trans stuff.)
People who here we’re from New York often assume things are better here, but if you take a look at the Transgender Day of Remembrance lists, you’ll see how many trans people were murdered in big cities, including San Francisco (Ruby Rodriquez, 2007) and New York (Sanesha Stewart, 2008). The assumption that big liberal cities are “safer” is fine until you run into that one asshole.
Stay safe, people.
Duanna Johnson was murdered Sunday night.
You may remember her as the woman who pressed charges after dealing with harassment by Memphis police.
She was shot execution style while on her “usual corner.”
I’m tired of this.
I want there to be no reason for the Transgender Day of Remembrance. I want there to be no new names on that goddamn list.
I hope her mother, and her family, and her friends, find peace, and that she has too.
What do we do about this? What can you do? My heart breaks over this poor girl, 13 years old, by herself in a stadium, facing all that evil and hate.
Be ashamed, Americans. This is just godawful news: a mosque in Dayton, Ohio, was sprayed with a toxic substance during Ramadan prayers. And not just that, but the shitheads that did it chose the room where the small children and babies were waiting for their moms, who were in prayer.
Religious freedom, my ass.
On behalf of the rest of us Americans, my apologies to the Dayton Muslim community.
Now to the people I met who came to the conference: the woman who wanted to know how Betty and I had sex (and not for prurient reasons, but to ask me how I felt about missing cock). The woman who’d been married three times before she realized she had rotten taste in men and much better taste in women. Her partner, butch identified, who said she can only think of herself as a woman if she says “lesbian woman” but not without the clarifying adjective. The mom whose lesbian daughter told her about a young gay man who had been kicked out of his home and who she, in turn, took in, and in the process left off being a homophobe to become an LGBT ally. And a woman who volunteers at the local PFLAG, whose daughter or son isn’t gay, and who isn’t LGBT herself, but who was invited to a wedding years ago where the younger daughter of two was getting married, and the older daughter was coming to the wedding with her girlfriend. The mother of these young women sent out a note to “warn” friends and family coming to the wedding about the older daughter coming… and something struck this friend of their family as just wrong. We talked about what it means to be an ally, especially when LGBT people are “born that way” but we who are not choose to ally with them, & how hard that is for other people to understand sometimes, and how much it makes you queer – that long fall off the short cliff of heterosexual privilege.
As I said before, I met and talked to most of the students.
The last people I met were the couple whose own life was the reason for the conference: they lost their son last year when he was gay-bashed. They gave me a t-shirt, and we exchanged information, and they have become powerhouses for PFLAG much like Judy Shepard did after the murder of Matthew. They were beautiful, mourning, and determined to get justice for their son.
I was once again impressed with how intense the sense of community is in smaller places; here we have enough LGBT people that there are splinters of gay men who wear leather vs. gay men who don’t. But in this community, there was a much greater sense of everyone hanging together or ending up hanging separately which has been, in my experience, typical of smaller places where there are fewer LGBT people. The murder of that beautiful kid, Sean Kennedy, was the reason for the conference, and the conference had a remarkable energy to it: sad but tenacious, tired but optimistic. There was no room for cynicism, and I found that incredibly refreshing and inspiring.
… there’s an interesting discussion of misogyny and sexism is going on in response to Nicholas D. Kristof’s previous NY Times column about the difference between the two.
Down with evolutionary psychologists, is what I have to say.
That is, fine-tuning what the difference is doesn’t help the women with the fistulas much. Maybe action? Funding? Education? Punishing rapists and batterers?
(Thanks to Joanne for the link.)
A woman in the US military is more likely to be raped or sexually harassed by a fellow serviceman, CO, or even a military doctor than she is to be killed in Iraq…
…reported Keith Olbermann tonight.
Horrifying, and backed up by Jane Harman in The LA Times.
