Thursday, October 12, 2023

Attacked For Being Gay

This is very bad, they wanted to maximize pain and injury. This is what is the result of all the anger that is being stirred up.
Gay Couple Beaten by Homophobic Gang Armed With Nail-Spiked Piece of Wood
The gang reportedly threatened “I know where you live” and “I will kill you.”
The Advocate
By Donald Padgett
October 6, 2023


A gay couple was viciously beaten in broad daylight on a public street in London by a homophobic gang wielding a wooden panel embedded with nails.

[…]

Balueta said the two men were walking down a street in east London around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 1, when they approached a group of 6 to 10 males aged around 18 to 20. The group hurled homophobic slurs like “batty boy” and “f*g” at the passing pair.
Why did they think that they could do that in the middle of the day in the streets of London? How has the political climate changed so much?
Hate crimes against LGBTQ people surging in Utah, as bookshop gets bomb threat over drag event
So far in 2023 there have been more hate crimes reported against LGBTQ people in Utah than the previous four years combined
The Desert News
By Kyle Dunphey
September 25, 2023


On Sunday, the King’s English Bookstore in Salt Lake City closed for the day after it received a bomb threat.

The threat, according to the shop’s owner, was over a drag queen-hosted storytime, making it one of dozens of hate crimes reported in 2023, which is shaping up to be a record year for Utah.

According to data from the Utah Department of Public Safety, there have been more hate crimes directed at the LGBTQ community as of July 2023 than the previous four years combined. Already, reported hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people have hit a five-year high this year.
ABC News reports…
Two newly released reports capture the growing anti-LGBTQ+ extremism across the U.S., that has led to protests, threats and violence against the queer community.

A new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue has found significantly more incidents of anti-drag protests, threats, and violence than previously reported, with the report adding that anti-drag efforts are accelerating amid growing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment from conservative politicians.

Another report from the Anti-Defamation League and the LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD shows there have been more than 350 incidents of harassment, vandalism or assault from June 2022 to April 2023, which the report states coincide with an increase in rhetoric and legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
Why the increase? And it is not just against us, it is against the Jews, Muslims, Blacks, and the Asian communities that are also the increase in violence.

The PBS station in Boston, WGBH reports that,
Across the country, anti-LGBTQ violence is on the rise. Just recently, a California business owner was killed for displaying a Pride flag.

"This is a tragic example of where someone was trying to be supportive and send a message of love and safety and then became targeted by the very hate that is used against so many," Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of BAGLY, told Under the Radar. "I think it's a reminder of how dangerous the situation has become with the increased rhetoric. ... And it's emboldening people, and all of us are being threatened in different ways."

The current climate is also reflected in at least 142 bills introduced across the U.S. this year that aim to restrict gender-affirming healthcare. But some advocates are pushing back. Janson Wu, executive director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, said these legal battles are about more than the law:

"It's about people's lives. It's about families who now have to consider whether or not they have to uproot their lives and move to another state to provide their child with the health care that they need. And it's about medical providers who are facing the loss of their licenses and criminal penalties for doing their oath, which is to provide and care for their patients."
People are fleeing their homes in fear. In fear that they will be arrested for having a miscarriage, doctors fear they will be arrested for saving the life of the mother over that of the fetus, parents in fear of having child protective services take away their trans child, Spouses in fear of being sued for having a picture of their spouse on their desk, teachers are fleeing in fear that they could say something to get them sued. It has become a hostile environment for those who don’t tow the MAGA party-line.
Advocates say an increasing number of LGBTQ+ people are moving to Massachusetts, specifically, in part because of the state's legal protections.

"I fled Ohio for the same reason. It just was not comfortable being queer in Ohio," said E.J. Graff, managing editor of Good Authority. "But especially those families that have trans kids, I don't see how they can stay where they are with their children always under threat."
Is this the America that I grew up in?

1 comment:

  1. "I don't see how they can stay where they are with their children always under threat."" How about money, money, money, job, job, job. Lot's of reasons that the poor, working poor and the non-privileged classes cannot just pick up and go. It is amazing how out of touch some people can be. So the questions should be, What type of resources does Connecticut, Massachusetts, and other so called safe state have in place to help people. What is the LGBT community doing to help. I would love for someone from Ct. Equality, The Voice, LGBT Chamber, all of the Pride Committees, the liberal churches to answer that question.

    ReplyDelete