Transphobia and Homophobic Violence and Hate Crimes

Jack, at Angry Brown Butch, blogs:

On February 10, Sanesha Stewart, a young trans woman of color, was brutally murdered in her apartment in the Bronx. This is tragic and deeply saddening in and of itself, and part of a frightening and enduring pattern of violence against trans people. But because of this woman’s identities – trans, woman, person of color, low income – the tragedy doesn’t end with her death and the grief of those who knew and loved her. Instead, the mainstream media, specifically the Daily News, has managed to add to the tragedy with grossly disrespectful and transphobic journalism – if such garbage can even be called journalism. This, too, is part of a pattern, one that I’ve written about before. And yet, every time I read another disgustingly transphobic article, I’m still shocked and appalled that some media sources will stoop so low. Even in death, even after having been murdered, trans people are given no respect and are treated as less than human.

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Perhaps advocates of hate crimes legislation believe that such laws would send a message to people that homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of prejudice and hatred are wrong. I don’t think it will. How could such laws counteract the prejudices that permeate our society? I seriously doubt that hate crimes legislation that is only brought up after someone is hurt or killed can make a dent in the ubiquitous flood of messages that we receive from politicians, religious leaders, the media and pop culture that queers and trans people are less deserving of respect and rights than straight and non-trans people.

Craz-ay Jewish Congresspeoples

Matt writes:

By now you might have seen the unbelievably ugly story of a virulently anti-Semitic flier that was distributed by supporters of Nikki Tinker, the Democrat who is challenging Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in a primary election.

“Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus,” reads the flier. “Memphis Christians must unite and support ONE Black Christian to represent Memphis in the United States Congress in 2008.”

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So why am I writing about this, apart from my complete disdain for anti-Semites? Because Cohen has also been attacked in the past by black ministers for supporting the inclusion of gays in hate-crimes legislation.

Pull Your Pants Up!

Darian writes about a campaign by Dooney Da Priest and his tactic in trying to get people to stop sagging their pants:

If you allow yourself to get caught up in the hard beat of this song when you hear it then it’s very possible to miss the homophobic punches by Dooney Da Priest in an attempt to scare the young men “straight” who’ve adopted sagging as their personal style. In one verse and a chorus he questions their masculinity, accuses them of being gay and on the down low and is personally offended along with all of the other “real men” at the sight of their boxers outside of their pants.

I guess when legislation fails to criminalize sagging and stern lectures from authority figures fall on deaf ears the only option left is to pull the gay card. What’s sad is this campaign has good intentions but it relies on stereotypes and fear to achieve the desired result.

Murder of South African Lesbians

Fellow Blog and the Bullet member, Yolanda, blogs about the recent rash of murders of lesbians in South Africa:

Like the United States, South Africa is a deeply misogynist, racist, and homophobic society, a consequence of its (our) legacy of white supremacy and apartheid. It has one of the highest per capita sexual violence rates in the world, and women who identify as lesbians or who are thought to be LGBT are routinely targeted for rape. Police are often unresponsive to this violence and insensitive to its victims. Perhaps not surprisingly, misogynist-homophobic violence often hits Black women and girls the hardest.

Time To Stand UP Against…Straight Bashing??

Yolanda, fellow editor at The Blog and the Bullet, writes on her blog:

Four African American lesbian women from Newark, New Jersey were sentenced this past June 14th to excessively long prison terms in New York for the crime of defending themselves against homophobic harassment and violence. These young sistas were railroaded by both a dismissively misogynist judge and by the reactionary, sensationalist media.

Time To Stand UP Against…Straight Bashing??

Yolanda, fellow editor at The Blog and the Bullet, writes on her blog:

Four African American lesbian women from Newark, New Jersey were sentenced this past June 14th to excessively long prison terms in New York for the crime of defending themselves against homophobic harassment and violence. These young sistas were railroaded by both a dismissively misogynist judge and by the reactionary, sensationalist media.

Dirty Sex

Kevin, of Slant Truth, blogs about a recent online quiz he took to pass the time:

So there you have it folks. Apparently having sex with Puerto Ricans makes you dirty and is worthy of a fine. But it’s okay because the quiz makes it clear that “You don’t have to confess your answers, just the amount of your fine.” And lest the LGBT community feels left out:

–Kissed someone of the same sex?
–Had sex with someone of the same sex?

The Death of a Reverend

Pam blogs about the death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell in her blog Pam’s House Blend:

It’s sad to hear, as of last week (in an interview with CNN), he stood by his 2001 comments that gays, lesbians, pro-choice advocates and feminists were to blame for 9/11.

I wish that Reverend Falwell, who at one time was against integration and interracial marriage, could have lived long enough to see full LGBT equality finally come to pass. We all know that it will prove him terribly wrong once again — that treating one group of citizens the same as everyone else isn’t a threat to marriage, the American family or this country.

Gentrification of Hate Crimes

Ron Kipling Williams blogs about a new hate crime bill in his blog Aware and Outraged:

President Bush threatened to veto an expansive hate crime bill passed by the House on Thursday which includes violence based on sexual orientation and gender. He and his White House people believe that the current laws cover this already.

Meanwhile many in the clergy believe that it would hamper their sermons against homosexual behavior. In fact, this is what Bishop Harry Jackson of Hop Christian Church in Lanham, Maryland said, according to CNN:

“We believe that this legislation will criminalize our freedom of speech and our ability to preach the gospel.”

This is where people who are seemingly informed and educated come out of the ignorance closet. How does protecting homosexuals from being assaulted and/or killed translate into preventing the clergy from preaching against homosexual behavior? Unless it is their objective that violence be one of their unfortunate byproducts of the masses’ increasing intolerance of homosexuals.

The Virginia Tech Killer: Its da fault of dem gays!

Tom blogs about a headline he saw for The Globe, a national tabloid newspaper, which read “Killer’s Secrete Gay Life: What Really Drove Him to Kill,” in the blog tom’s music film ohio politics n stuff:

Who will buy this magazine because of the headline? Many buy the tabloids for humor because of the preposterousness of it all. But this isn’t funny. The more likely readers are those who are looking for confirmation that gay people are evil and depraved.

Cho Seung-Hui mentioned in his ramblings of his disdain for being bullied — including being called “gay.” Incredibly sad and ironic that he is called gay even after death. And if you haven’t noticed, it is still being used as a negative slur.

Russell Simons: Hypocrit or Real Reformer?

Ivonne Salazar blogs about Russell Simons’ recent statements on words such as “ho” and “bitch” to be “extreme curse words” that should be banned from hip-hop in the blog WIMN’s Voices Blog:

Simmons’ statement is the first attempt by hip-hop insiders to acknowledge the need to clean up the lyrics, but as author Joan Morgan puts it, the announcement “amounts to nothing.” Morgan, author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down, was also featured in the article and she believes the recommendations are “short-sighted at best and disingenuous at worst.” In her opinion, the announcement is an “anemic, insufficient response” that failed to address homophobia and other issues in certain strains of hip-hop culture and rap music. She said that calling for the removal of these words assumes that “all of the violence, misogyny and sexism in hip-hop are only expressed in those words.”

Gay Beating OK in Cops Eyes

A blogger, on the blog aggregator Best Gay Blogs, describes a fight he was in and the reaction by a Denver police officer:

Three times I insisted that I wanted Officer Boehnlein and his partner to arrest my attackers and to every request he said “No, go home”. I told him I was a second year law student and that I know I had the right to defend myself after I was attacked. I told him that I have the right to press charges. I told him this was a hate crime. He didn’t care.

Homophobia in the Black Community

Terrance blogs about homophobia and the Black community in his blog The Republic of T.:

He’s right in terms of black homophobia having its roots in the homophobia of the dominant society, just as Horace Griffin traces it back to the “queering” (as I imagine Dyson might put it) of black sexuality going all the way back to slavery and the inculcation of black slaves into a conservative, biblically literalistic Christianity during a sexually repressed Victorian era.

However, I think that only means that there’s even more of a need to focus on homophobia in black communities. There’s even more of a need to point out that black churches are in many ways aligning themselves with the same political forces that used religion against black people, as a means of justifying slavery and segregation, because the leaders of those movements know that religiously-based homophobia is one area of common ground they have with religious blacks. And those same political leaders employ religion to justify economic policies (among others) that negatively impact many African Americans.