Box Turtle Bulletin

Ellen DeGeneres Discusses Larry King’s Murder

I can’t think of a single thing to add to this:

Students March for Lawrence King

Last Friday, we reported on a memorial march for Lawrence King, the 15-year-old student who was shot and killed by a classmate because he was gay. There was another march Saturday, this time organized by Oxnard, California students. They had expected only a few hundred to show up. But much to the surprise of organizers, school officials and police, more than a thousand turned out to remember Larry.

Vigil And March For Lawrence King Tonight

A vigil organized by the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance is being held tonight (Friday). Supporters will gather at the Art Barn (856 E. Thompson) at 7pm and proceed to the pier.

Update: Friends, classmates, and total strangers gathered for a quiet and solemn remembrance:

Prejudice

Being gay in America carries much less of a burden than it did fifty years ago. And while we still have examples of discrimination and violent crimes against us, it is nothing like the experiences of people elsewhere. An unnamed gay Kenyan blogger who calls himself “Gay Nairobi Man” reflects on the recent ethnic and political violence that has been engulfing his country for more than a month:

This quote by George Aiken caught my eye: “If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.”

This rings true with what we have faced in the last month or so. You have to work twice as hard to garner half of what you’ve earned in a system that’s set up to work against you. Nevertheless for those of us who refuse to play the victim, work hard, beat the odds and actually attain success and prove that we’re formidable in our respective areas, we’re still looked down upon for being the wrong race, wrong gender, wrong orientation or dare I say tribe?

When it comes to the issues of bigotry, I’m expected to smile, overlook and pretend like everything is okay. I shouldn’t have to do that. No one should. So don’t do it! Don’t allow yourself to be judged on such fickle standards.

Possible Anti-Gay Serial Killer In Chicago?

Two recent murders of openly gay African-American men are leading some activists in Chicago to wonder whether there’s a connection between the two:

On November 17, 24-year-old Larry Bland was shot to death in his Englewood home. Bland, a security guard at Northwestern Hospital was shot more than once after struggling with a man who had entered the house through an unlocked basement door.

Then on December 23, 47-year-old Donald Young, the choir director at Trinity United Church of Christ, was shot multiple times in his South Side apartment. His roommate found his body.

“We’re calling on the police department to let the community know what’s going on,” said Marc Loveless of the Coalition for Justice and Respect. “Are we under attack? Is this a serial killer?”

So far, police aren’t willing to draw a connection between the two. They also say there’s no evidence so far to suggest the crimes are hate crimes. But in a neighborhood where gays and lesbians are very unwelcome, the two men’s sexuality is muddying the waters for some. Lynn Bland, Larry’s brother remarked, “Englewood? Come on. That’s why a lot of gay guys won’t come out, because they fear for something like this to happen,”

Possible Hate Crime Assault In Chicago

It appears that an horrible hate crime near Chicago a few days ago, and already one anti-gay extremist is positively dripping with glee as he takes a shot at twisting it to his advantage.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times:

Felipe Rivera, 43, is charged with a hate crime as well as aggravated criminal sexual assault and other offenses, said a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. If convicted, he could face more than 30 years in prison, a source said.

… “Mr. Rivera got upset apparently because he believed the victim, No. 1, didn’t respond to a female and then, No. 2, somehow winked at him — made what he perceived as a sexual advance,” said Cicero police spokesman Dan Proft.

According to police, Rivera punched the unnamed victim in the face and was asked to leave the party. According to another report, Rivera offered to pay the victim $50 for sex, an offer that the victim refused. Rivera then waited outside for the victim to leave the party, and then followed him to the outer staircase of a basement apartment, where he raped him, punched the victim in the head rendering him semi-conscious, and then sodomized him with a metal broom handle.

Rivera then confessed the entire crime to the police, saying he did it “because he hates f – – – – – s, and this is what they get,” according to police spokesman Proft. Proft also said that Rivera claimed that the whole reason he did this is because the victim winked at him, which the victim denies.

Rivera then went to his mother’s home. His mother — his mother! — called the police on him because she has a protective order against him. Even his own mother won’t have anything to do with him. But Peter LaBarera sees Rivera as being unjustly accused of committing a hate crime — all because of a mere allegation that Rivera offered $50 for sex.

What LaBarbera doesn’t seem to understand however is that 1) we don’t know whether Rivera really made the offer, 2) we don’t know Rivera’s sexual orientation (was the offer real or a taunt?), and 2) Rivera’s orientation has no bearing on whether this is a hate crime or not. If a Black man who holds White supremacist views (and believe it or not, a very few of them exist) attacks an African-American solely because of his race, then it’s a hate crime.

But I guess one thing we can be sure of. We certainly know who LaBarbera sees as the victim in this case.

Update: LaBarbera’s evidence for Rivera’s supposed homosexuality evaporated, but he’s sticking to his story anyway.

Hate Crimes Bill is Officially Dead

Anti-gay Activists can now rejoice that violent hate crimes against gay persons will continue to be ignored by the federal government.

Bashers, haters, and anti-gay activists can now celebrate together.

Three Sentenced in Michael Sandy’s Death

Last October, Michael Sandy, 29, was lured to a secluded beach in the New York area by three others who he met in an online chat room. At the beach, he was then assaulted and chased onto a busy freeway, where he was struck by a sport utility vehicle. He later died. The four men who were accused of planning the attack were arrested on hate crime charges. The police investigation showed that Sandy had been selected to be robbed because he was gay, believing a gay man would hesitate to resist or report the attack.

Gary Timmins, 17, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery with a hate crime enhancement. As part of his plea agreement, he testified against his friends in exchange for a four-year prison sentence. John Fox, 20, who posed as a gay man in the internet chat room was manslaughter and attempted robbery as hate crime and was sentenced to between 13 and 21 years in prison. Anthony Fortunato, 21, tried to avoid the hate crime enhancement by claiming he was gay himself. He was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime and was sentenced to 7 to 21 years. Ilya Shurov, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and attempted robbery as hate crimes.

Despite the police and prosecutor’s determination that this was a hate crime, Michael Sandy’s high-profile death was not included in the FBI’s 2006 hate crimes statistics.

National Transgender Day of Rememberance

With all this talk about hate crime statistics, now’s a good time to mention that tomorrow, November 20, is the annual Transgender Day Of Remembrance. This day is set aside to remember those who have been killed due to anti-transgender violence. Those deaths, by the way, don’t show up in the FBI’s hate crime statistics because the current federal Hate Crime Reporting Act doesn’t address gender, gender identity or expression. You can learn more about transgender hate crimes at the Remembering Our Dead web site.

Crimes Based on Sexual Orientation Most Violent

Here’s a trend which continues to hold true:

Out of all the major categories, hate crime incidents motivated by sexual orientation are more likely to be crimes against persons (i.e. violent crimes) as opposed to crimes against property (robbery, vandalism, etc.). Only Ethnicity come close, and that is largely due to the recent surge in anti-Hispanic hate crimes for 2006.

But Hispanics and other ethnicities are currently protected by federal hate crimes laws. So is religion. Disability isn’t covered. And the same is true for one other category. Can you guess which one?

See also:

Hate Crime Statistics Released for 2006

Hate Crime Statistics Released for 2006

The FBI’s latest hate crime statistics are out for 2006. Here’s what it looks like compared to 2005:

Overall, hate crimes in 2006 went up a little more than 8% since 2005. Hate crimes based on religion went up by 283 incidents (an increase of 22% from 2004). Nearly two-thirds of those reports are anti-Jewish. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation experienced the second-largest jump, up by 244 incidents (an increase of 21%).

These FBI statistics rely on the voluntary cooperation of local law enforcement agencies to report hate crimes which occur in their jurisdictions. This reporting is not mandatory, nor is it funded. So not all agencies participate, and those that do often do so inconsistently.

 This year, there were 12,620 law enforcement agencies participating in the Hate Crimes reporting system, covering 255,086,543 of the U.S. population. That compares to 12,417 agencies in 2004 covering 245,006,413 of the U.S. population. Since that represents only a 4% growth in the population represented by these statistics, the much larger increase in hate crime incidents ought to be seen in a very disturbing light.

One of the things that jumped out at me is that there were no murders recorded for sexual orientation. The other thing that jumped out at me is that there was one anti-black murder, and two anti-white murders. So much for the “special rights” argument against hate crime laws.

But the fact that there were no murders based on sexual orientation meas that Jason Gage wasn’t counted. Neither was Michael Sandy. Maybe in Gage’s case subsequent investigations demonstrated that it wasn’t really a hate crime. (We know that prosecutors in the Sandy Case pressed the case as a hate crime). Or maybe, local police just didn’t bother to do the follow-up investigation required to make such a determination. Or maybe they just didn’t bother to file the reports. We don’t know.

But I’ve noted before that problems like these contribute to a likely significant undercount of total hate crime incidents for all categories. As I report in Daniel Fetty Doesn’t Count, it happens all too often.

See also:

Crimes Based on Sexual Orientation Most Violent

Liberal Democrats Vow To Defeat Hate Crimes Bill

Well, not really, but what an ironic world we live in.

When the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Act was being debated in the House, President Bush promised to veto the legislation. So when the Senate took up the measure, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) attached it to the Defense Authorization Bill in order to try to make it veto-proof. Now that the Defense Authorization Bill has passed both the House and Senate in two different forms, it now goes to a joint Congressional conference committee.

And that is where the trouble started. As many as 180 house conservatives (mostly Republican) who voted against the hate crimes bill threaten to vote against any defense authorization bill that would include the hate crimes provisions. And they will be joined by as many as 20 anti-war Democrats who vow to vote against the defense authorization because it will provide for the continuation of the Iraq war.

Now it looks like further action on the defense authorization bill will be delayed until early December. It’s unclear right now whether the hate crimes provisions will survive.

Possible Anti-Gay Vehicular Attack Near Ft. Lauderdale

Ft. Lauderdale has been making some gay news lately, mostly due to a campaign of homophobia coming from the city’s mayor, Jim Naugle.

Now Ft. Lauderdale police are investigating a hit-and-run that, according to an eye-witness, may have been an anti-gay hate crime attack.

Marcus Hopkins … was there that night outside Ramrod, a popular bar primarily for gay men where [Tommy] Davis works as a bartender.

It was shortly after 10 p.m. Sept. 18 when Davis was crossing Northeast Fourth Avenue to return to work. Hopkins said Davis got halfway into the right lane when Davis, he and another friend heard an engine rev.

Hopkins said Davis ran, but before he could get away, the car swerved onto the sidewalk and hit him.

“When he hit the windshield, he bounced off the car and hit the dirt,” said Hopkins.

The driver of the car then swerved back onto the road and kept going. Hopkins believes the incident might have been a hate crime.

Anti-gays often claim that their objections are to “sin not sinners”. And when others point out that their denunciations result in violence, they loudly protest their innocence and that there is “no proof” to link the rhetoric to the crimes. They say, “you can’t prove the one who committed the crime was at the sermon or the press conference”.

Well, it is my observation that when anti-gay language escalates in an area, anti-gay violence soon follows. And I’m tired of bigots refusing to see the link. I’m disgusted at those who claim to “love the sinner” but take no responsibility for the results of their campaign against “the sin”.

To those who use God as a justification for their denunciations of their gay brothers and sisters, I ask this question, “Don’t you think He’s watching? Don’t you think He cares about the consequences of your campaign?”

Getting Gay-Bashed Isn’t Just For Gays

Terrance Heath’s latest entry in his LGBT Hate Crimes Project is a profile on National Guardsman Matthew Ashcroft, who was beaten with a baseball bat outside a gay bar in Newport, Kentucky, an old historic Cincinnati suburb, in June, 2004. What makes this case so interesting is that Matthew is straight. But he was attacked while coming to the aid of Leon Hughes, a gay man who was being beaten outside the bar. Ashcraft suffered a fractured skull, cranial bleeding, and a blood clot on his brain:

Ashcraft was uninsured, and his medical bills topped $29,000. A fund was set up at U.S. Bank in Newport to help with medical expenses. A benefit for Aschraft was held at Woolly’s, on July 7, 2004, where about $200 was raised to help with his medical bills. Ashcraft attended, but became ill during the benefit and had to be taken to the hospital. Woolly’s owner Rick Petri said he planned to host more benefits. Another bar owner, Carl Fox, reported receiving a death threat in the mail after speaking in favor of gay rights on television. Ashcraft suffered paralyzing headaches following the attack and was discharged from the National Guard, but hoped to re-enlist in one year.

Next time someone tries to tell you that hate crime legislation based on sexual orientation unfairly elevates one class of people over another, tell them about Matthew Ashcraft.

Hate Crimes Bill Passed by Senate

Today 50 Democrats, 9 Republicans, and an Independant voted to add the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill to the bill that funds the war in Iraq.

39 Republicans voted against the measure. Technically the vote was for cloture – to end debate. The vote to add hate crimes to the defense bill was passed by voice vote unopposed. This allows Senators to have voted both for and against the bill.

A similar situation happened in 2004 but Republican leadership removed hate crimes in negotiations between the Senate and the House. That is unlikely to happen this time around.

President Bush will be in the uneviable position of either signing the bill and infuriating his social conservative supporters (about the only supporters he has left) or vetoing the bill and trying to explain to America that preventing hate crimes legislation is more important than paying our soldiers overseas.