It Is Time To Stop The Hate!

Hate crimes are not just limited to the “T” community, lesbians and gays are also being murdered and raped because of the way they were born.

In Richmond California, a Lesbian was brutally ganged raped…

Lesbian rape victim in Richmond not alone in 2008
By Lisa Leff
Associated Press

In Richmond, the crime-ravaged city where the 28-year-old lesbian reported being assaulted by four men 10 days ago, police on Tuesday received so many calls from community members wanting to help that they asked the local rape crisis center to set up a fund to aid her.

In Indianapolis Indiana, a trans-woman and her partner was murdered…

Bilerico Project
Two Indianapolis residents were killed over the holidays. While details aren't definite, it would appear one or both individuals were specifically targeted. If the double slaying is a hate crime, nothing will be done about it. Indiana doesn't have a hate crimes law; instead we have a "hate crimes reporting" law, but there is no recourse if police departments don't report to the state. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department stopped documenting hate crimes years ago.
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In a video released by the local NBC affiliate, Lt. Kevin Kelley can be seen stating "the two individuals did live an alternative lifestyle" at a press conference yesterday.
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While I didn't know either victim and know nothing more than what has been reported, I'd bet my bottom dollar that Elzy is transgender. This leads me to one obvious question. If she is trans, has the media not only incorrectly identified her gender, but also released her picture under her male name? (As far as I've seen reported, IMPD referred to Hunt and Elzy as "individuals" without assigning gender.) Of course, both victims were obviously not considered consequential since mug shot photos were released to the media instead of the usual family-supplied photo.

Instead, as is often the case in Indianapolis, all remote mentions of the LGBT community is silently being swept under the rug…
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UPDATE: Elzy has been identified in the comments section as Layia Lovely. Hunt was her boyfriend. Layia presented as female and was involved in sex work. Police have not confirmed this information or included it as a possible motive.

Once again, in Memphis Tennessee, a third trans-woman in six months was murdered…

Memphis transgender woman shot
by O&AN Staff Reports
Posted 12/25/2008
Three transgender women have died in Memphis. The city has become a dangerous place for the GLBT community. Out of a total of 56 anti-gay hate crimes that were reported to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) in 2007, 21 of those cases occurred in Memphis.

Memphis Police say the shooting happened sometime around 5 a.m. on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 in the 3100 block of Boxtown Road in south Memphis near T.O. Fuller State Park.

The victim, Leeneshia Edwards was last seen about an hour earlier at the “C.K.’s Coffee Shop” on Union Avenue in midtown Memphis.

Also in Memphis this year, Duanna Johnson was shot to death on November 9 and Ebony Whitaker was murdered on July 1.
The Mercury News article also stated…

FBI statistics show there were 1,265 hate crimes based on sexual orientation [gender based hate crimes are not reported to the FBI] in 2007, up from 1,017 two years earlier and 1,239 in 2003. That compares with 3,820 racially motivated incidents in 2007 and 1,400 in which the victim's religion was a factor.

Because not all states allow attacks motivated by anti-gay bias to be charged as hate crimes and because some victims are reluctant to reveal their sexual orientations to police, advocates suspect the numbers to be much higher.

The vast majority of brutality against gays is carried out by young men, usually acting in groups, said Riki Wilchins, executive director of Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, a Washington nonprofit that works in schools to address discrimination.

It is time to end the violence and hate. It is time for the police to enforce the hate crime laws and to pass a national hate crime law. It is time to end the scapegoating of the LGBT people. This has to come from the top down, President Bush did everything in his power to demonize and oppress the LGBT community. The religious leaders must stop their hate speech and this includes the Pope. The Pope in his Christmas sermon blamed the ills of humanity on the homosexual transgender communities, this is hate speech!

BBC
Speaking on Monday, Pope Benedict said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was as important as protecting the environment.

Or what Rick Warren said…

L.A. Times
By Katha Pollitt
December 22, 2008
Warren doesn't just oppose gay marriage, he's compared it to incest and pedophilia. He doesn't just want to ban abortion, he's compared women who terminate pregnancies to Nazis and the pro-choice position to Holocaust denial…
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Speaking of Jews, Warren has publicly stated his belief that they will burn in hell, presumably along with everyone else who hasn't accepted his particular brand of Christianity

This type of speech is used by an oppressor to deflect the people from seeing their internals problems and to put the focus on an external minority to make them less than human. To drum up the troops to battle the external forces of evil; we can see it used through out history.

Stop the Hate