I Am On A Hate Crime Council.

We just had a meeting today and when the zoom meeting ended I open Google News and I find this…

Marjorie Taylor Greene Claims Violence Needed To 'Stand Up' To Trans People
Newsweek
By Ewan Palmer
February 24, 2022


Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to suggest the threat of violence is "exactly how we need to stand up" against trans and non-binary people in society.

Speaking on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' InfoWars show on February 20, Greene criticized reports that biologically male counselors who use they/them pronouns at a science camp in California shared a cabin with fifth-grade girls, as well as transgender woman competing in sporting events.

Greene described the reports that the non-binary counselors at the Camp Pali in San Bernardino slept in the same cabin as the school girls as "evil" before suggesting her husband would have attacked the counselors if her children were at the camp.

Author Ron Hogan said: "Just to be clear, Greene was not speaking metaphorically. She unequivocally put forward literal physical assault as a preferred solution' to the 'problem' of trans people existing in society."

Stop and think for a moment about the Ukraine.

An article in the Freedom House by Elene Kurtanidze reported,

Dismantling LGBT+ rights as a means of control in Russia

From anti-LGBT+ legislation to Chechen atrocities, the Kremlin uses state-sponsored homophobia as a part of its strategy to maintain power and influence at the expense of its own citizens fundamental rights.

[...]

Russian law enforcement officials have refused to investigate assaults and violence against LGBT+ individuals and activists, neglecting peoples’ fundamental right to safety enshrined in the Russian constitution. Recent instances include the Murmansk police’s refusal to investigate online death threats made against an LGBT+ activist, arguing that one of the activist’s social media post had deliberately sought to “provoke a negative assessment of persons of traditional views.” Officials have also declined to investigate a young bisexual woman’s claims that her family forced her to undergo violent “conversion therapy” in Chechnya. Furthermore, the Russian LGBT Network, a prominent LGBT+ rights organization, has reported that the Federal Security Service (FSB) has misused its power by actively seeking to identify “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” on the internet, even though this is not part of the FSB’s mandate.

What is the difference between Congresswoman Greene calling for violence against us and the policy of violence against LGBTQ people in Russia?

As I said, I was on a Zoom meeting on ways to reduce violence against minorities, what can you do to counter the hate from an elected official?

How can we bring about a culture change from the violence that elected officials spew to a culture of respecting one another?