For LGBTQ Community, words translate into actions and actions are ignored

Words

• “AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.” — Jerry Falwell
• “We will see a breakdown of the family and family values if we decide to approve same-sex marriage, and if we decide to establish homosexuality as an acceptable alternative lifestyle with all the benefits that go with equating it with the heterosexual lifestyle. — Jerry Falwell
• “This vote on whether we stop the gay-marriage juggernaut in California is Armageddon.” — Chuck Colson.
• “[they are] watching the destruction of Western civilization.” — Rev. Jim Garlow
• “I am appealing to you who have stood by The Call these years to drop everything to come to Qualcomm Stadium and join this mighty prayer battle that is going on….There are certain spiritual powers of darkness that will not be restrained unless we are willing to gather. God promises if we will do that. He will fight for us.” — Rev. Jim Engle.
• “One cannot ignore the negative consequences that can stem from the ordination of people with deeply-rooted homosexual tendencies.” — The Vatican.

Actions*

• Hate crimes incidents decreased slightly last year despite a surge in those targeting gays and lesbians.
• Simmie Williams Jr., 17, was shot to death while dressed as a woman on Feb. 22 in an area of Fort Lauderdale known as a popular place for transgender prostitutes. Williams, who was wearing a dress, was known in the area by his first name or as “Chris” or “Beyonce.” 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. Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
• Tony Randolph Hunter, 37, a resident of Clinton, Md., was brutally beaten on Sept. 7 as he and a friend walked to the Washington, D.C., gay club, BeBar. He died 10 days later. Activists are decrying the attack as an anti-gay hate crime but police said they had insufficient evidence to label Hunter’s killing a hate crime. Two weeks ago, D.C. police identified Robert Hannah, 18, as the man wanted in connection with the death of Hunter. He is wanted on a felony warrant for voluntary manslaughter.
• D.C. police listed as a hate crime an incident on Oct. 24 in which two men leaving the D.C. Eagle, a gay bar on the 600 block of New York Avenue, N.W., were assaulted by a group of men shouting anti-gay names.

  Acting Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees the police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, said the incident occurred near the corner of 7th Street and New York Avenue, N.W., a short distance from the Eagle’s entrance.

  “The victims, who state they were walking through a group of 6 black males, were punched and called homophobic names,” Parson said in an e-mail alert.

• TORRANCE — Authorities say a Torrance man who used an anti-gay marriage “Yes on Prop. 8″ sign to attack an openly gay man has been charged with a felony hate crime.
  Joseph Storm, 23, got into a scuffle with a 22-year-old man wearing a “No on 8″ button early Sunday in Torrance, according to Deputy District Attorney Janet Wilson.
  Storm and the victim, whose identity has not been released, have known each other since junior high school, she said.
  During the fight, Storm took the lawn sign and knocked the victim down with it, then punched him in the face and choked him, Wilson said.
  Storm is also accused of calling the victim a derogatory name for homosexuals.
• (Jimmy Lee) Dean was severely beaten and pistol-whipped in the early morning hours of July 17 in the 3900 block of Dickason Avenue, just a few feet from a parking lot serving Dallas’ largest gay nightclubs.

  The suspects in the attack — Bobby Jack Singleton and Jonathan Russell Gunter, both of Garland —are awaiting trial on charges of aggravated robbery.

  Singleton and Gunter reportedly yelled anti-gay epithets before, during and after the attack, and police said Singleton and Gunter admitted they felt it would be easier to rob a gay man

• One week after Washington State University’s Week Without Violence celebration, the Pullman community was shocked by four attacks against Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender individuals whose incidents were separated by days.

  On Oct. 16, Kristopher Shultz, WSU junior, was walking home for a book when he said he heard someone shout at him. The moment he turned around, his face was met with a fist, followed by kicks in his side. …

  At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jackson Hogan, junior, was attacked in a campus-parking garage while walking to the elevator.

  “A guy passed, I said a quick ‘hi’ and kept walking,” Hogan said. “Then he turned and started kicking and beating me.”

• INDIANAPOLIS — The friends of two elderly men found dead in their southwest-side home on Monday said they believe the men were killed because they were gay.

  Milton Lindgren, 70, and Eric Hendricks, 73, were found dead Monday morning in their home at 9160 Middlebury Way. Police would not say how they were killed or how long their bodies had been inside the home, only that their deaths came by “violent means.”

  The victims bodies were found inside their home Monday morning by a friend who had’t seen or heard from them in two weeks. The bodies were found lying in blood and their heads were battered.

  Patrick Beard, a friend of the victims, told 6News’ Rick Hightower that he believed the men were targeted.

  “I firmly believe it was definitely a hate crime. Milt was 70 and his partner was 73 and to go into someone’s home and do something like that, it’s just too coincidental,” he said.

  Police reports show that the men had their phone and cable lines cut twice in the past few months, and that anti-gay statements were posted on their front door.

• Several local organizations will hold a vigil Tuesday, February 19 in remembrance of Lawrence King, the 15-year-old junior high student in Oxnard, California, who was shot by a fellow classmate Tuesday, February 12.
  King, who was perceived to be gay and gender non-conforming, was taken off life support Friday.
• Surveillance tape from a Memphis police station shows police officers hitting a transsexual who they had taken into custody.
  One of the officers involved has been fired and another has been placed on leave, Memphis police said Wednesday. The tape was made in February.
  Duanna Johnson was in the booking area at the Memphis Police Department after an arrest on prostitution charges. The videotape showed an officer walk over and hit her in the face several times.
• He said he was beat up until he was unconscious because he’s gay, and police agree. Now police are looking to arrest a suspect in what they’re calling a hate crime. News 10NBC talked exclusively with the victim.

  Lance Neve said he was in the bar minding his own business and was then attacked.

  “I was punched and I went to the floor,” Lance said. “He continued to beat my head into the floor.”

• Two teenagers were ordered held without bail yesterday in the death of a Randallstown High School student who was stabbed and stomped to death after his fellow Bloods gang members found messages on his phone that suggested he was gay.

  Steven T. Hollis III, 18, of Randallstown and Juan L. Flythe, 17, of West Baltimore - both of whom are members of the Bloods gang, according to police - were arrested and charged Thursday evening with first-degree murder. They are accused of killing a fellow gang member days before his high school graduation in May.

  The body of Steven Parrish, 18, was found May 29 in a wooded area near his parents’ home and Woodlawn Cemetery.

• A 33-year old man is charged with murder in the brutal killing of Patrick Murphy regarded by most in Albuquerque’s LGBT community as a drag icon.

  Police allege that Dana Madsen shot Murphy three times in the head. He was arrested shortly after calling police to report a shooting inside his apartment.

• Stacy Brown, Baltimore, January 8 2008. Found dead inside a house in the 300 block of W. North Avenue near Gwynns Falls Park. Shot in the head, in the house shared with Brown’s mother and sister. People were home when police arrivede, but have yet to explain the circumstances of Brown’s death.
• N. CHARLESTON, S.C. — News that a gender non-conforming teenager was shot down here more than a month ago has been slow to reach regional and national LGBT media organizations.

  Adolphus Simmons, 18, was shot at the Bradford Apartments complex by a 15-year-old boy on Jan. 21. Police arrested and charged the suspect on Jan. 24. Another juvenile was arrested and charged later. The names of the suspects are not being released by authorities.

• DETROIT - The identity of a young transgender woman found dead in Detroit Feb. 4 was revealed late last week in response to a FOIA request filed by this newspaper. The Detroit Police Department announced that the body found dumped near the intersection of Canfield and Ellery streets on Detroit’s East Side was that of Michael Dionthe Sweeney. Between The Lines has also learned that the victim was more commonly known by the name of Ashley and will, henceforth, refer to her as such.
• 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.

• Lloyd Nixon, Location: West Palm Beach, Florida, Cause of Death: Repeatedly beat in the head with a brick, Date of Death: April 16, 2008, Lloyd was 45 years old.
• Memphis, TN - Tears well up in Claudia Blair’s eyes when she thinks about her 20 year-old cousin, Ebony (Rodney) Whitaker, as a child.

  “I used to change his diapers,” she says. “He was a good child. How all this ended up…abandoned building, clothes everywhere, condoms…he didn’t have to die like that. He didn’t.”

  Claudia and her 19 year-old daughter Porshia, say whoever killed Ebony (Rodney), killed a young man with a heart of gold. A young man, they say, whose family always suspected she was gay.

• This is an extremely upsetting story about a man who went on a date with a trans woman, and, upon discovering she still had male genitalia, bludgeoned her to death. I’m not going to recount the details of the gruesome murder, which you can find at the link if you are so inclined, but I want to highlight one thing that the murderer, Allen Ray Andrade, said to investigators while describing the murder: His first attempt failed, and he was surprised to discover Angie Zapata was still alive, as he thought he had “killed it.”
• WAILUKU » The stabbing death of a transvestite last month under a highway overpass in Makiki was not a hate crime, Honolulu police Detective Theodore Coons said Thursday.

  Coons said that while the motive is still not known, the victim, Jason L. Namauu, and his alleged assailant, Joel Chris Allen, knew each other and appeared to have been living in the same car.

  Namauu, 35, a former Maui resident, was allegedly stabbed repeatedly by Allen in the car near Cartwright Neighborhood Park in Makiki at about 6:30 p.m. July 17.

• On August 20, Nakhia Williams, an African American transgender woman, was found by police outside her Louisville, Kentucky apartment beside a dumpster. She died of multiple wounds including a gun shot wound. Williams was transported to The University of Louisville Hospital where she died 10 days later. Subsequent media coverage of her murder by WLKY-CBS 32 and WDRB-Fox 41 used inaccurate terminology, including male pronouns, and failed to use Williams’ correct name. There have been no follow-up stories offered by Louisville media outlets covering the investigation of this crime.
• The body of the transgender woman who was found in the American River in Sacramento last week has been identified by police as Ruby (nee Fernando) Molina. The police are citing it as a “suspicious” death and need more information: Anyone who knew the victim, the victim’s recent whereabouts, or who has other information about this case is asked to contact the Sacramento Police Department at (916) 443-HELP. A $1,000 reward is currently being offered
• A Des Moines teenager is accused of committing a hate crime Friday night after he allegedly threw bricks at some men near an East Village gay bar and called them anti-homosexual names, according to Des Moines police.

  Sander “Sam” O’Dale Johnson, 18, of 912 24th St. in Des Moines, was arrested for assault with a hate crime and violation of individual rights, records show.

  Police also suspect Johnson and his friends may have been involved with a similar hate crime on Sept. 6 that also happened near the Blazing Saddle bar in the 400 block of East Fifth Street.

• Last week, Todd Metrokin, whose brutal beating on Kalorama Road we wrote about, told City Desk police were close to making an arrest in his case. Today, via the Washington Blade, we learned one unnamed juvenile has been charged.
• A Magna man has been charged with attacking a Salt Lake man apparently because he was gay.

  Fa Junior Moimoi, 20, took a picture with an 18-year-old man he met Aug. 9 at an overlook of the city on Churchill Drive, according to charges filed Thursday in 3rd District Court. A girl with Moimoi asked the teen if he was gay, and later Moimoi and four other men attacked the teen and his friends, according to the charges.

  Moimoi faces two counts of aggravated assault, a first-degree felony, and one count of misdemeanor assault.

• (Bourbonnais, Illinois) An elementary school bus driver has been charged with leading a homophobic attack on a 10-year old student passenger.

  The Kankakee Sheriff’s Police Department said that the boy was taunted by the driver who then encouraged other students to chase and beat the child.

  Chief Deputy Ken McCabe said the incident occurred on a Bourbonnais Elementary School District bus which was returning students to their homes last Friday.

  McCabe said the driver repeatedly called the boy “gay.”

• PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER) — Police in Portland are investigating what they say was a random, hate crime that left a man unconscious. Investigators say the victim was assaulted because his attackers thought he was gay.

  The victim was hospitalized. He is now at home recovering from a head injury.

  It happened early Saturday morning near the corner of Forest and Cumberland Avenues. Police say the victim was walking home when he was approached by Two men. The men used homophobic slurs and proceeded to attack him.

• He does not want to get a handgun, but a Boston man who was among four people victimized in what authorities say was a homophobic attack wants to start carrying pepper spray.

  “I’m very, very nervous,” said Jeff, who asked that his last name not be published. “I am going to be very cautious.”

  Jeff was interviewed yesterday hours after a Framingham man pleaded not guilty to four counts of civil rights violations and multiple counts of assault and battery for his alleged role in the Aug. 24 attack in the South End.

• Rest in peace, Greg McKendry.
  Rest in peace, Linda Kraeger.

  You were loved, and will be missed.

Non-Action

“Ten years later, Shepard’s mom sees little change”

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (AP) — Matthew Shepard’s mother still mourns lost opportunities to battle hate crimes and promote a greater tolerance of gays in the 10 years since her 21-year-old son was beaten, tied to a wooden fence and left for dead in a frigid Wyoming pasture.

Though Congress has not passed a federal hate crime law, Judy Shepard is buoyed by enhanced punishments for crimes based on sexual orientation in 31 states and the District of Columbia.

“Ten years have gone by and not that much has changed, and I think that’s just really disappointing,” said Shepard, who with her husband formed the Matthew Shepard Foundation to promote equality for the gay community.

“We passed up a golden opportunity to set things in motion and make a change and set an example and let it go,” she said.

In a case that outraged gay activists and their advocates around the country, Matthew Shepard died October 12, 1998, five days after he was kidnapped, robbed and pistol-whipped by two men he met in a bar. Both men are serving life in prison for the murder, which police said was partly motivated by the fact that Matthew was gay.

Sources:
www.brainyquote.com
www.rightwingwatch.org
People for the American Way
http://www.washblade.com
Associated Press
www.southernvoice.com
www.washingtonblade.com
www.ktla.com
www.dallasvoice.com
www.uiargonaut.com
www.outinindy.com
www.ebar.com
www.whec.com
www.baltimoresun.com
www.hatecrimesbill.org
misstrgendered.blogspot.com
www.q-notes.com
www.pridesource.com
www.feministe.us
www.transgenderdor.org/?page_id=58
transgriot.blogspot.com
Shakesville.com
archives.starbulletin.com
www.glaad.org
www.myhusbandbetty.com
www.desmoinesregister.com
www.washingtoncitypaper.com
www.deseretnews.com
www.365gay.com/
www.wcsh6.com
www.boston.com
Shakesville.com

*This is by no means a comprehensive list. If there are incidents of crimes against the LGBTQ Community that you would like to add, or personal experiences you would like to share, please leave them in the comments section.

-WKW