The FBI said Monday that reports of antigay hate crimes rose 11 percent from 2007 to 2008. The FBI survey defines a hate crime as a conviction for a crime ranging from intimidation and simple assault, to murder.
African-Americans and Latinos continue to be singled out for violent racial attacks, and Jews continue to be singled out for violent religious attacks.
The total number of violent violent hate crimes crept closer to the 10,000 mark: from 9,500 to 9,700, according to Agence France-Presse (via Raw Story).
Underreporting of violent crime persists, as more than 80 percent of 13,690 participating law-enforcement jurisdictions reported no hate crimes.
J. Grace Harley was profiled by Mark Benjamin of Salon.com in 2005. According to that article, Harley — like most ex-gays — has a long history of irresponsible sex- and drug-related compulsive behavior that is completely unrelated to her orientation.
This week, Harley joined other Christian Rightists in defending a supposed right of religious majorities to commit hate crimes — legislatively defined as acts of felony violence — against people of minority sexual orientations and religious beliefs. Joining a long string of religious majoritarians, Harley used her “ex-gay” identity as if to prove to defenders of antigay hate crimes that LGBT people don’t need safety or equal protection under the law because they can change their self-label and become sexually dishonest. Just like she did.
In the video below, Harley misquotes Luke 13:13 to give a false air of legitimacy to her claim to be cured of any same-gender orientation:
And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
But that’s not what the Bible says. As Right Wing Watch points out, the verse is about a disabled woman, not a lesbian, and most versions of the Bible say the woman “straightened up.”
In video captured by Right Wing Watch, Holocaust revisionist and ex-gay activist Scott Lively joins Harley and a parade of other antigay activists who claim that they are being silenced by the federal law’s prohibition against felony violence. (It is worth noting that Lively supports the execution of all LGBT and HIV-positive people in Uganda.)
Falsification of miracles and sanctification of violent crime were once considered sinful. In the new age of the Christian Right, both are virtues.
Over the weekend the brutalized body of gay teen George Steven Lopez Mercado was found by the side of a road in Puerto Rico. The police investigator suggested that he deserved what he got because of the “type of lifestyle” he was leading.
As a result of police attitudes, the chance for successful prosecution and conviction is almost nil.
If the investigator and his superiors do not prosecute this murder to the fullest extent of the law, then the “law enforcement” officials of Cayey, Puerto Rico, should be held accountable under the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act for failure to carry out their duties. And the perpetrator of this murder should be punished just as severely as if he had murdered someone on the basis of the victim’s religion or race.
Roughly translated, activist Pedro Julio Serrano said: “It is inconceivable that the investigating officer suggests that the victim deserved his fate, like a woman deserves rape for wearing a short skirt. We demand condemnation of this investigator and demand that Superintendente Figueroa Sancha replace him with someone capable of investigating this case without prejudice.”
Humanity Calling Randy Thomas: Do you still think that antigay crimes like this should be protected by the police, Exodus, and Focus on the Family in the name of political correctness?
Puerto Rico’s Civil Rights Commission and Puerto Rico Para Todos, a local activist organization, have asked the Puerto Rico Police Department to take disciplinary action against Rodriguez. The PRPD has removed the investigator from the case, but local activists plan to protest outside the territorial capital in San Juan on Thursday. They also plan to hold a vigil later this
week.
The Puerto Rican government added sexual orientation to its hate crimes laws in 2002, but Serrano complained local police have not used it to prosecute those accused of anti-gay violence. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced it will take jurisdiction over the case if local investigators conclude López’s killer or killers murdered him because of his sexual
orientation.
These are the faces of people whom Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and other Christian Rightists believe are undeserving of equal protection under federal hate-crime law.
These organizations today protested President Obama’s signing of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which revised existing federal hate-crime law to protect victims of felony violence committed on the basis of the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Focus on the Family joined Erik Stanley of the Alliance Defense Fund in asserting that while “all victims deserve equal justice,” LGBT people should be excluded from that equal justice, as they were under the previous federal hate-crime law. The two organizations favor the earlier law, which only offered protection for victims in some demographics — race and religion — but not others.
Then and now, the federal law explicitly limits hate-crime punishment to felony violence, and both the law and the First Amendment of the Constitution explicitly protect and preserve free speech. Nevertheless, Focus and the ADF equated the punishment of felony violence with “the criminalization of speech that is not deemed ‘politically correct.’” In short, ADF and Focus both maintain that violence is a valid (albeit incorrect) form of religious and political expression.
The Family Research Council, a spinoff of Focus, declared that the equitable punishment of felony violence “is part of a radical social agenda that could ultimately silence Christians and use the force of government to marginalize anyone whose faith is at odds with homosexuality.”
The Traditional Values Coalition has long contended that gay and transgender Americans should not be protected from violence, as other targeted “minorities” are. Exodus International spokesman Randy Thomas has repeatedly insisted that the punishment of felony violence against LGBT people amounts to punishment of “thought crime.” And PFOX frequently claims that ex-gays are the most persecuted minority in America.
The Washington Post notes tonight:
According to the FBI, law enforcement agencies around the country reported 7,624 hate crime incidents in 2007, the most recent year for which data were available. More than half were categorized as racially motivated, and about 17 percent were based on sexual orientation.
No such violence against ex-gays was reported.
The United Church of Christ was one of several religious institutions that applauded the newly revised law.
While mainstream media and a non-partisan antiviolence watchdog organization warned today that antigay killings are rising sharply, Focus on the Family said that’s of no interest.
Focus declined to tell its audience about the latest reported increase in violence and instead said:
In a Monday news conference, Reid, D-Nev., called hate crimes “a unique brand of evil.”
“A violent act may physically hurt just a single victim and cause grief for loved ones,” he said. “But hate crimes do more. They distress entire communities.”
Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said Reid has it backwards. A hate-crimes law, she said, could distress entire communities – particularly Christian churches.
Apparently, according to Focus on the Family, a law against felony violence is what distresses communities and churches — not the violence itself.
Focus concluded:
[Horne] said the most recent FBI statistics do not back up the alleged epidemic of hate crimes against people in the gay community.
That’s untrue: While overall hate-crime violence declined in 2007, according to the FBI, antigay hate crimes rose six percent. (Source: USA Today.) The FBI says that violent antigay hate crimes have been occurring with growing frequency since 2005.
But remember: Laws against violence distress communities and churches — not the violence itself.
Focus on the Family urges its audience to contact lawmakers and pressure them to vote “No” on legislation that would treat violent antigay hate crimes as harshly as all other hate crimes.
The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people killed in bias-motivated incidents increased by 28 percent in 2008 compared to a year ago, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. (Via MSNBC.)
“What we’re also seeing, more disturbingly, is the increase in the severity of violence,” said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, which coordinates coalition.
According to MSNBC:
Overall, the number of victims who reported anti-LGBT violence in 2008 increased by 2 percent compared to 2007, said the New York-based coalition of programs in 25 states.
Coalition officials say their figures are more accurate than those from law enforcement agencies. As an example, they say, the FBI doesn’t record bias crimes against transgender people because gender identity isn’t covered by federal hate-crime law.
Also, victims sometimes are reluctant to report bias incidents to police because they don’t want to reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity and/or they fear bias from police, officials said.
Reports of physical abuse by police increased to 25 incidents last year from 10 in 2007, the report said.
According to NCAVP:
Reports of violence in Milwaukee increased 64% and Minnesota and Chicago saw increases of 48% and 42%, respectively.
The number of reported killings and violent incidents against ex-gays was zero.
As reported yesterday, several religious-right organizations have falsely claimed this week that the American Psychological Association has changed its position regarding the factors that influence or determine sexual orientation.
The reason for the false claim became apparent today when antigay activists Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber cited the false claim as a reason for antigay bigots to call their senators and oppose the inclusion of sexual orientation in existing federal laws that punish felony violence against targeted groups of people.
LaBarbera’s reasoning — and perhaps that of his source, NARTH former president A. Dean Byrd — was simple: If Americans can be misled into believing that sexual orientation is readily changeable, then (they contend) there’s no reason for U.S. lawmakers to provide gay people with the same protection from felony violence that other groups already enjoy.
Instead of aiding their readers with a link to the actual federal antiviolence legislation, Senate Bill 909, LaBarbera, Barber, and the American Family Association directed readers to far-right web sites which claim that punishing antigay felony violence punishes free speech and protects pedophiles.
Felony violence against gay people should be a protected form of expression if it is committed by pastors, according to the text of a fund-raising e-mail dated Friday from the Family Research Council.
In the message, FRC President Tony Perkins — who in 1996 paid Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list, and who as recently as 2001 addressed the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens — argues that an expansion of existing federal hate crime laws (which punish felony violence) to include sexual orientation could be used to arrest pastors.
Here is the full text of Perkins’ message. Emphasis is FRC’s:
Hate Crimes legislation to silence you!
April 17, 2009
The enactment of so-called “hate crimes” legislation is a long stated objective of the homosexual agenda.
What “hate crimes” legislation does is lay the legal foundation and framework for investigating, prosecuting and persecuting pastors, business owners, and anyone else whose actions reflect their faith.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark-up the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 this Wednesday, April 22. They need to hear from you.
It was in a similar hearing last Congress that Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) admitted that under the legislation pastors could be arrested for hate crimes.
The act would establish a new FEDERAL offense for so-called “hate crimes” and add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes. It will mandate a separate federal criminal prosecution for state offenses.
Adding “sexual orientation” to thought crimes legislation gives one set of crime victims a higher level of protection than it gives to people like you and me.
ALL people deserve to be protected from crime, not just certain groups.
Sign our Petition TODAY to say equal protection under the law means equal protection for ALL. Please join the over 22,000 people who have already signed this petition. If you have already signed, please forward to ten of your friends and ask them to sign.
Sincerely,
Tony Perkins
President
Contrary to the wishes of Perkins, we believe that pastors who commit felony violence against gay and lesbian Americans should be punished to the fullest extent possible. But they won’t be punished equally, unless sexual orientation is added to existing federal and state hate-crime laws, because at present most such laws treat violent crimes against a victim’s race or religion more harshly than violent crimes committed on the basis of the victim’s perceived sexual orientation.
FRC believes that “pastors, business owners, and anyone else” are entitled to a special right to commit acts of violence on the basis of their faith.
We disagree.
Growing U.S. public support for hate-crime laws suggests that Americans are slowly realizing that false appeals to religion must not be used by right-wing extremists as a blank check to justify violence against people with different religious and moral beliefs.
Murder and felony violence against gay and Latino Americans are on the rise — while the religious right trivializes the issue of violent hate crimes and airs false and unfounded allegations of violence at peaceful gay protests in defense of the freedom to marry.
A rash of attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people across the country – including the severe beating of a New York man whose attackers believed he was gay – suggests the number of reported assaults could rise in 2008, an advocacy group said.
The number of reported attacks against LGBT people increased 24 percent in 2007 over 2006, and they were expected to jump in 2008, said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project.
Officials were still crunching the 2008 figures, which will be released next spring, Stapel said.
Seven years ago, she was brutally and fatally attacked by two dogs in her San Francisco apartment hallway.
The dogs’ owners were originally convicted of murder, but a judge subsequently reduced the conviction to involuntary manslaughter. But on Sept. 22, Marjorie Knoller, dog owner and present at the attack, was sentenced to 15 years to life.
Superior Court Judge Charlotte Wollard reinstated the second-degree murder conviction. She noted that Knoller’s complete disregard for Whipple’s well-being, awareness of the dogs’ violent temperament, not calling 911, not coming to her aid, disregarding warnings to train them, and actually blaming Whipple for her own death, constituted the willing taking of a life.
This is precisely the sort of crime that the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act was intended to punish:
