The Gaytheist Agenda

Two months ago 15-year-old Lawrence King of Oxnard, CA, was shot and killed because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. Even ten years ago there might have been, at best, an article about the crime in the local newspaper. But thanks to the power of the Internet not only has the crime received attention on national television and in major media publications but people around the world know his name and will keep him in their memories. Now The Washington Post has done a poignant article on this very phenomenon, and the way Lawrence King’s death has affected people who would otherwise never have heard of him.

No one really dies on the Internet. A private life becomes public. Every life finds an audience. Look at Lawrence “Larry” King. The openly gay eighth-grader who was shot and killed nearly two months ago lives on.

Larry lives on Wikipedia, where we learn about his tense life at school, the name-calling, the taunts, the teasing. Larry lives on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, where he’s mourned by strangers not willing to let go. Larry lives on Web sites where the 15-year-old’s photos — Larry in front of the White House, Larry on ice skates, Larry getting a haircut — stare back at us, as if incarnated. Alive.

The Internet, so vibrant, so potent, brings those attributes to the dead, immortalizing them in unexpected new ways. Where once there would have only been a candlelight vigil outside Larry’s house or school in Southern California, now there’s also a virtual vigil in real time that knows no geographic bounds. Where once people would have attended a memorial service and cried about Larry’s sad story, now they can also bear witness and become the sad story’s

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Here’s what we know: At E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, Calif., Larry wore purple eye shadow, pink lipstick and high-heeled boots. And Larry reportedly told Brandon McInerney, 14, a member of the Young Marines program, that he liked him. Then, on the morning of Feb. 12, during English class, Brandon allegedly walked into the computer lab with a handgun and shot Larry in the back of the head.

Larry’s death — reminiscent of the murders of Matthew Shepard in 1998 and Eddie Araujo in 2002, both also gay — was inadequately covered by the mainstream media, gay rights activists say.

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Nevertheless, Larry is immortalized on the Web. Google, after all, doesn’t forget. RememberingLawrence.org , sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, shouldn’t be confused with RememberLarry.com , put up by the slain teen’s family. (The Kings declined to comment for this story.)

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Says Joshua Porter Zeller, a 17-year-old junior at Trinity Catholic High School in St. Louis: “If it wasn’t for the Internet, I wouldn’t have known about what happened to Larry. I have a religion class. In freshman year, the class was about church history. This year the first semester was on the New Testament, and right now the second semester is on morality. I asked my teacher if were going to talk about Larry’s shooting. He said no.”

Zeller, who is straight, is helping organize a “Day of Silence” in the school’s cafeteria on April 24. He also started a Facebook group a few weeks ago. It now has 169 members, mostly strangers.

Here’s to you, Lawrence King, and to the day there will be no more deaths like yours.

Major beef with the article. The person they said was “gay” named “Eddie” Araujo was not gay, so far as I know. Her name was Gwen Araujo as she was known to her friends, and if you look up a picture of her you’ll find that
anyone who would mistake her for a gay man clearly is delusional. She was killed when men whom she had had sexual contact with found out that she was not a biological female.

Her death rocked the *TRANSGENDER* community (and hopefully Queer community, though presumably not if articles are still being written about her using the wrong name and pronouns, seeing as how even her legal name is now Gwen), as just one more of a slew of examples of our trans sisters (and brothers) who has been murdered for her gender identity, and then had the double dishonor of being punished by a media that refuses to tell the truth about her life. (run on sentence, but Gwen’s death makes me angry)

I truly believe that you didn’t know any of this before posting that article (or you would have said something to this efffect in your commentary), but I urge you, if you consider yourself an ally to transfolk, to educate yourself as best you can.
Thanks

 

You’re absolutely right, Ezekiel, and I apologize for the oversight. Gwen was a transgender teen who was brutally killed by three men because her biological gender didn’t match her presented gender (she was pre-op at the time). Normally I would pick up on the blatant error presented in the Wa-Po article–Araujo was transgender and not gay (though some people can indeed be both), but I’m afraid I put the post up right before I went to bed and being tired I’m afraid I missed that. Again I’m sorry for the error and meant no offense.

 

The next comment is from Ebon who said:

 

Poor guy. And you know, you just know, that a bunch of people are thinking it was his own fault for being gay or for fancying the other kid. A Limbaugh or an O’Reilly might even say it. Scumbags.

My faith holds that homosexuality is perfectly acceptable, just another variation of the human condition (full disclosure: I am personally bisexual). However, it does hold that celebrating or excusing violence, even necessary violence is unacceptable. Most atheists I’ve met hold similar views. And yet, apparently, we’re the danger to humanity. Go figure.

 

Indeed. I’m sick to death of the “blame the victim” mentality that’s constantly thrust upon LGBTs and others like us. It takes the responsibility off the true offenders and relieves them of the need to change their behavior. I find it interesting that the RRRW wrings their hands over the “persecution” of Christians left and right, and always lays the blame for that squarely on the feet of everybody else. Yet when it comes to LGBTs/atheists/etc. the blame for bigoted acts against us are always our own faults.

I’m with you. I despise hatred, violence and everything associated with them. I would love a world in which they were non-existent.

People across America have been rending their garments and fretting about the psychological ramifications for the child of transgender man Thomas Beatie. In the meantime officials from Texas Child Protective Services have removed a total of 183 young women, girls and boys from the Fundamentalist LDS Church’s compound near Eldorado, TX, once again proving that faith and religiosity by no means predict–let alone guarantee–ethical behavior.

A total of 183 young women, girls and boys - 97 girls, 40 boys and 46 young women over the age of 18 - have been removed.

The investigation into the safety of the children living at the ranch was initiated after Child Protective Services were notified by someone that a 16-year-old girl had suffered physical abuse. Eighteen of the girls removed from the compound were put legally into state custody because they appeared to have “been abused or were at immediate risk of future abuse.” The rest of the children are currently staying at a local civic center until authorities find them foster homes.

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The community was led by Warren Jeffs , who succeeded his father Rulon Jeffs in 2002. Warren Jeffs resigned his leadership of the FLDS Church in 2007, shortly after being convicted of being an accomplice to rape by the state of Utah. It is still unknown who is leading the FLDS church. However, several enclaves can be found in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, South Dakota, and in British Columbia, Canada.

It is important to keep in mind that Mormon fundamentalism, like FLDS, is considered a splinter group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormons. Mormon fundamentalists embrace the doctrine and practice of polygamy, also known as “plural marriage” or “plurality of wives,” as it is generally referred to. Polygamy is not practiced by any, active contemporary member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormons have stopped practicing polygamy since 1890, after the Mormon Church officially disavowed polygamy.

Mormon Fundamentalists, however, believe that acceptance into the American mainstream came at way too high a price. They contend that the Mormon leaders sold them out and splintered off from the Church. Fundamentalists have formed numerous small sects, often within cohesive and isolated communities in areas of the Western United States, Western Canada, and northern Mexico.

To think, just recently State Representative Monique Davis (D-Chicago) claimed that it is dangerous for children to know atheism exists. Apparently the mere fact that some people believe in deities makes them morally and ethically superior to atheists. I have a feeling that the 183 children and young women removed from the Texas compound would disagree, as would I.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is asking you to put yourself on the map as taking a stand against hate. There are currently 888 recognized hate groups in the US, an increase of 48% since 2000. The more we speak out, the greater our chances of putting a stop to them. I’m on the map. Will you join me?

That is the question asked in the upcoming issue of The Advocate. See if the conclusions they arrived at are as astonishing to you as they were to me.

Elson, who says King didn’t mention being bullied at school to foster-care professionals, pointed out that each LGBT child at Casa Pacifica is given a “Know Your Rights Guide” provided by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a legal advocacy group. “Queer and Trans Youth in California Foster Care Have Rights!” declares the pamphlet’s cover. Inside is a description of the state’s Foster Care Nondiscrimination Act, along with a list of entitlements for queer children like safe bathrooms and dating. Included on the list—below an illustration of a teenager in overalls and high heels—is the right for kids to wear clothes and hairstyles that fit their gender identity. King clearly took that freedom to heart in the last weeks of his life.

As wonderful as this encouragement sounds, did it put Larry in harm’s way by sending him out in a world not ready for him? It may be beyond the capacity of kids to reconcile a tolerant atmosphere like Casa Pacifica with the xenophobic, conformist nature of school. Children like Brandon McInerney are products of their society, one that simply does not know what to do with a boy in heels.

The Advocate, ostensibly a magazine that supports GLBT rights, is actually proposing the notion that the bigot who shot this boy was an innocent product of his society, and the organizations that encouraged Lawrence King to express his true self were at fault for his death? What alternative universe is this? Has the magazine been taken over by Gary George?

 

But did the pamphlet, however inadvertently, cause Larry harm? Marksamer bridles at that suggestion. “I think it’s really important that we don’t get caught up in the idea that either Larry or the group home or somebody could have prevented this by telling Larry he shouldn’t have been himself. That is not an approach that’s good for anybody, because you can’t just protect somebody by telling them not to express themselves, because people will know who they are even if—” He trails off, then resumes, “How could he ever think somebody would kill him for expressing his rights? That goes beyond any reasonable expectation. Maybe he could have expected to be called names or to be laughed at. But he also should have expected the school would have done something about that.”

Amen to that. It’s deplorable that anybody should suggest someone hide who and what they are in order to prevent becoming the victim of a hate-crime. Worse yet, it is obvious that one doesn’t even need to be openly gay or gay at all to be the victim of homophobia. That’s why it’s critical that homophobia be eradicated for the good of all.

Unlike Casa Pacifica, E.O. Green provides no literature about or for LGBT students. The Hueneme School District, of which E.O. Green is a part, has a program called the Second Step violence prevention education program, which lasts until sixth grade. Both King and his killer took part in this program, says Hueneme School District superintendent Jerry Dannenberg. As part of the program, kids have weekly classes that attempt to teach empathy and emotion management. Robin Freeman, assistant superintendent of education services, was hard-pressed to come up with any examples of tolerance training for her seventh- and eighth-graders. She brought up the substance-abuse prevention program Project Alert, saying it helped with decision-making skills.

“Part of the role of a school is to teach young people how to function in a democracy,” says Kevin Jennings, a former teacher and the founder and executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, a national organization working to ensure safe schools for LGBT students. “In a democracy we protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Where are they going to get that lesson? They’ve got to learn it in school.”

But they don’t. At least not in the way they did before the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted by Congress in 2002 at the Bush administration’s urging.

“There’s been a real retrenchment of antibullying and diversity programs since No Child Left Behind,” says Jennings. “What that’s done is establish standardized testing as the only measure of good schools. In the late ’90s there was a lot of momentum around multiculturalism and diversity. That was really reversed by this imposition of standardized testing. A lot of educators are frustrated because they understand the importance of addressing some of these larger [social] efforts, but when they try to they’re told, ‘You’ve just got to get the math scores up.’ ”

I’m not surprised there. The quality of everything in schools has suffered since NCLB was implemented. But with regard to homophobic bullying, the rise is no doubt also fueled by the rise in the RRRW “moral values” crowd which has held so much power under the Bush Administration. They’ve pushed their version of morality, which has a hefty dose of anti-gay hatred, and it has definitely infected America’s schools–much to the detriment of LGBT students.

 

Brandon McInerney was E.O. Green’s alpha male: tall, good-looking, popular, smart. But like King’s, McInerney’s family life was far from stable. In fact, court records show a history of violence that lasted most—if not all—of McInerney’s life. Stories of abuse, shootings, drug addiction, and even a car chase fill the McInerney family history, reported the Ventura County Star newspaper.

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In many ways the killer and his victim were a study in duality. McInerney was hypermasculine while King was proudly effeminate. While King enjoyed an environment of understanding and stability at Casa Pacifica, McInerney’s world outside of school remained volatile. But at school the roles reversed: McInerney was imbued with authority and respect because of his good looks and athleticism, while King was different and an outcast, subjected to ridicule, scorn, and violence.

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Even though he was harassed at school, King was bold. Surrounded by queer kids at the Rainbow Coalition and understanding adults at Casa Pacifica, King felt free to share his desires with a world not ready to hear them. It wasn’t just his gender identity that King expressed. When he developed a crush on McInerney, King took action in his typical brazen manner—he let people know, including McInerney.

“Brandon would talk about it [and say] ‘He’s a faggot,’ ” says a student who chose to remain anonymous. McInerney became the butt of jokes after word of King’s crush got around, and according to students, he made his displeasure clear to King, with one report suggesting McInerney told King to “fuck off” after he caught King staring at him. Students mocked King for his crush, and according to student Weber-Hernandez, principal Joel Lovstedt sought Larry out to ask if he was OK. The teen said he could handle it.

“I asked the principal for an emergency assembly and he said no,” says Weber-Hernandez, adding that the principal cited King’s insistence on being fine as the reason. Lovstedt couldn’t be reached for a response, but his boss, superintendent Dannenberg, says, “I haven’t heard about that.” Nevertheless, Weber-Hernandez seems certain: “The day after he died I said, ‘Maybe if we had that emergency assembly, this wouldn’t have happened.’ ”

Maybe, maybe not. I think it would have taken more than an emergency assembly but I could be wrong. We’ll never know though.

It’s a striking fact that the society now prosecuting Brandon McInerney as an adult is the same one that failed both him and Lawrence King as children. And whatever is decided at the trial, one thing is likely to become evident: McInerney wasn’t the only one who pulled the trigger on February 12—he was joined in his crime by anyone who teaches violence as a solution to conflict, school curricula that weigh grades over education, and a culture where just being different can be deadly.

Indeed. It’s a society that continues to teach that LGBT people are of lower value than others because they offend the chosen religious bigotries of others. That they deserve to be denigrated and abused for who and what they are. Until that changes we will continue to have victims like Lawrence King.

Aye, there’s the rub. Often it’s not until straight people are harmed by the actions of homophobes that people take notice or care, and sometimes even then people don’t notice or care–so long as gay people are kept second class citizens. This time the victim is a 15-year-old boy who has been harassed mercilessly by his peers for the past three years. He’s not gay, but that doesn’t matter to them. They accuse him of being gay in person, behind his back and online. They subject him to myriad forms of abuse based on the mere perception that he’s gay, regardless of how many times he protests that he is not.

A car the color of a school bus pulls up with a boy who tells his brother beside him that he’s going to beat up Billy Wolfe. While one records the assault with a cellphone camera, the other walks up to the oblivious Billy and punches him hard enough to leave a fist-size welt on his forehead.

The video shows Billy staggering, then dropping his book bag to fight back, lanky arms flailing. But the screams of his sister stop things cold.

The aggressor heads to school, to show friends the video of his Billy moment, while Billy heads home, again. It’s not yet 8 in the morning.

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The many incidents seem to blur together into one protracted assault. When Billy attaches a bully’s name to one beating, his mother corrects him. “That was Benny, sweetie,” she says. “That was in the eighth grade.”

It began years ago when a boy called the house and asked Billy if he wanted to buy a certain sex toy, heh-heh. Billy told his mother, who informed the boy’s mother. The next day the boy showed Billy a list with the names of 20 boys who wanted to beat Billy up.

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In ninth grade, a couple of the same boys started a Facebook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” It featured a photograph of Billy’s face superimposed over a likeness of Peter Pan, and provided this description of its purpose: “There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.”

According to Alan Wilbourn, a spokesman for the school district, the principal notified the parents of the students involved after Ms. Wolfe complained, and the parents — whom he described as “horrified” — took steps to have the page taken down.

Not long afterward, a student in Spanish class punched Billy so hard that when he came to, his braces were caught on the inside of his cheek.

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The Wolfes are not satisfied. This month they sued one of the bullies “and other John Does,” and are considering another lawsuit against the Fayetteville School District. Their lawyer, D. Westbrook Doss Jr., said there was neither glee nor much monetary reward in suing teenagers, but a point had to be made: schoolchildren deserve to feel safe.

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This is the sort of toxic, dangerous environment people like Sally Kern, Peter LaBarbera and James Dobson perpetuate under the guise of their “deeply held religious beliefs” or “God’s Word”. But it is nothing more than religiously justified bigotry, plain and simple.

Homophobia, Bi-phobia, Transphobia–they hurt everybody. Help put an end to them now and forever.

That is the only way I would describe the type of people who would abuse a disabled person, particularly one they were supposed to be providing care for. After reading this story I don’t know whether to cry, vomit, scream or do all three at once.

ALTON, Ill. - Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor.

Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where prosecutors say housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.

They torched what few clothes she had, authorities say, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle.

Dixon — six months pregnant — died after weeks of abuse. Police have charged two adults, three teenagers and a 12-year-old boy with murder in the case that has repulsed many in this Mississippi River town.

“This is heartbreaking,” police Lt. David Hayes said. “It was almost as though they were making fun of the abuse they were administering. This woman was almost like living in a prison.”

Investigators put much of the blame on Michelle Riley, 35, who they said befriended Dixon but pocketed monthly Social Security checks she got because of her developmental delays.

Dixon saw little, if any, of the money, Hayes said. For months she weathered the torment to keep a roof over her head and that of her year-old son, who weighed just 15 pounds when taken into state custody after his mom’s death.

“I’ve never seen an almost conspiratorial effort by a group of people to continuously torture someone until she finally died, then not really show any remorse,” Hayes said. “It was just a slow, torturous, tragic way to die. I highly doubt Dorothy Dixon even knew she was dying.”

Riley, 43-year-old Judy Woods and three teenagers, including Riley’s 15-year-old daughter, LeShelle McBride, are charged with first-degree murder, aggravated and heinous battery, intentional homicide of an unborn child, and unlawful restraint. Riley’s 12-year-old son is charged as a juvenile.

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Last summer, Dixon and Riley moved into the $800-a-month, three-bedroom rental in Alton about 15 miles north of St. Louis. From the start, neighbors Chad Hudson and Terri Brandt considered Riley trouble.

“Michelle was evil, vindictive. Manipulative,” said Hudson, convinced the teenagers were Riley’s powerless minions.

“She was angry, vicious,” added Brandt.

Riley considered Dixon her slave, making her rub Riley’s feet until Riley fell asleep and forcing her to run naked around the house when she got in trouble, the neighbors said.

“Being in their house was like being in a prison day room,” Hudson said. “They just sat around the kitchen table and fought.”

There was little question that Riley ruled the roost.

While doing fix-ups on the home last fall, landlord Steve Atkins saw Riley “barking orders” at the children and everyone else. Atkins joked to her whether he needed to call the Army and see if they wanted their drill sergeant back.

“She didn’t laugh about it at all,” Atkins said. “Obviously, I hit a nerve.”

Atkins said Dixon generally kept to herself “but was always nice when she spoke to you.” He saw no hints she’d been suffering or tortured.

“I would have never, ever suspected something like this,” he said. “It’s definitely shocking.”

Police said Dixon was allowed out of the house but didn’t say under what conditions. Hayes didn’t know who the father of Dixon’s fetus is.

Hayes said things apparently came to a head Jan. 30, when investigators believe that Woods, during a dispute, beat Dixon on the head with an object Hayes wouldn’t identify. The next day Woods found her dead.

Hayes watched the autopsy and found her injuries disturbing. X-rays revealed roughly 30 BBs lodged in her. Deep-tissue burns covered about one-third of her body — her face, her chest, her arms and feet — and left her severely dehydrated. Her face and body showed signs of prolonged abuse. Many of her wounds were infected.

None of the injuries, Hayes said, proved singly fatal to Dixon. Her system already was taxed by her unborn baby.

“The autopsy sort of indicates her immune system just shut down,” he said. “It was not capable of fending off any more.”

In the rental home’s basement, Atkins said, he found spots of blood in a shower and tiny smears on the concrete floor, washer and dryer.

“It’s disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this girl was,” he said. “She didn’t deserve to die the way she did. It’s just terrible, senseless. It’s just a total shame.”

Having worked with adults who have developmental disabilities for many years I feel a special outrage when people like Dorothy Dixon are subjected to neglect or abuse, particularly at the hands of their so-called caregivers. There is no excuse whatsoever for such behavior. I hope the perpetrators, if found guilty, are made guests of the state for a long time. It’s the least they deserve.

Addendum: A comment has arrived. Marcus said:

Thank you for bringing further attention to this story. What this poor woman Dorothy Dixon endured should not be allowed to “fall through the cracks” as her young life did. She had no advocate, nobody checking up on her. It is so tragic that with her innocent heart she was preyed upon by monsters instead of having the luck to fall in with decent people who would have helped her and her son. These people even deprived her infant son of food. I can only hope that 1. this little boy goes on to recover from his lack of nutrition and care and goes on to live a happy life and has no memory of what he has been put through and 2. the people involved in hurting this poor lady over months and months get the harshest sentences permitted.

I agree. As I noted I worked with disabled individuals for many years and we had multiple regulatory agencies reviewing us continuously. Every scrape, bruise, illness and other issue experienced by our clients had to be reported by us and followed up on to the nth degree. How they let Dorothy’s “caregiver” go unmonitored to the extent that they did is unconscionable.

Considering how young Dorothy’s son is it’s likely he’ll not remember any of the negative incidents that he’s experienced if he is quickly put into a healthy, happy home. He may, however, suffer lingering effects of the malnutrition. Sadly that can have detrimental effects on the brain and body of an infant, particularly a newborn. Only time will tell how he’ll ultimately come through this.

The Southern Poverty Law Center observed a disturbing trend between 2000 and 2007. There was a 48% increase in the number of Hate Groups in the United States. They attribute this astonishing rise largely to the ongoing debate over immigration.

The latest annual count by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) found that the number of hate groups operating in America rose to 888 last year, up 5% from 844 groups in 2006. That capped an increase of 48% since 2000 — a hike from 602 groups attributable to the exploitation by hate groups of the continuing debate about immigration. And it comes on top of some 300 other anti-immigration groups, about half listed by SPLC as “nativist extremist,” formed in the last three years.

At the same time, FBI statistics suggested that there was a 35% rise in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2006. Experts believe that such crimes are typically carried out by people who think they are attacking immigrants.

Although there were some signs that nativist hatred may be starting to abate, you wouldn’t know that by listening to the furious rants of many groups. “America is being destroyed from within by a modern version of Genghis Khan’s army,” the Emigration Party of Nevada, listed by the SPLC as a hate group, said. The group’s leader, Don Pauly, wants to send government “sniper teams” to the border and forcibly sterilize Mexican women after a first child.

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Promoting such theories, coupled with a history of ties to white supremacist groups and ideology, is what caused the Southern Poverty Law Center to add a major anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), to its list of hate groups last year. FAIR has also promulgated the theory that Mexico is involved in a secret plot to “reconquer” the American Southwest.

“You need to understand that WE ARE AT WAR RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA,” is the way another nativist group, the Nebraska-based United Citizens of America, put it. “We are being invaded by a foreign country and we are being betrayed from within. Our government, from top to bottom, is being controlled by global elites. They have infiltrated our government at ALL levels.”

These people sound eerily similar to the average fundamentalist Christian. Their perceived threat(s) might be different, but their pattern of thinking and plan of action is essentially the same.

Here’s a more detailed look at several sectors of the radical right:

NEO-NAZIS
Neo-Nazi groups
While the number of neo-Nazi group chapters increased over the course of 2007 from 191 to 207, this rise was largely due to a shake-up within the National Socialist Movement (NSM). Although the NSM remains the largest neo-Nazi organization in the country, with 73 chapters in 34 states (down from 81 chapters in 36 states in late 2006), it suffered a mass exodus of high-profile members last year, most of whom quickly either founded new chapters of rival neo-Nazi groups or established their own new spin-offs.

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Two former powerhouses of the neo-Nazi scene, Aryan Nations and the National Alliance, were in states of more or less suspended animation last year. Aryan Nations still exists but is barely active. In early 2007, two of the group’s leaders, Clark Patterson and Jonathan Williams, quit to form a new Christian Identity group called the United Church of YHVH after complaining that Aryan Nations had forgotten its roots in Identity, a theology that says people of color are soulless non-humans and Jews are biologically descended from Satan.

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Finally, the National Vanguard looks to be all but finished. Its leader, Kevin Alfred Strom, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and is facing up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in April.

RACIST SKINHEADS
Racist Skinhead groups
Racist skinhead gangs, or “crews,” are unstable and often transient by nature, making them difficult to track. However, over the course of 2007, it was possible to identify 90 racist skinhead outfits operating in the United States, up from 78 in 2006. Five of the new chapters are reactivated or recently established divisions of Hammerskin Nation (HSN), a once-mighty coalition of skinhead crews whose power waned earlier in this decade but is now clearly resurging. In addition to the five new domestic chapters, HSN also now claims active crews in at least 10 foreign countries, including Australia, Hungary and Switzerland.

Last September, the leaders of HSN and the Vinlander Social Club, a rival skinhead coalition in the Midwest, unexpectedly announced they had reached a peace agreement, ending a blood feud of nearly 10 years. The following month, Hammerskin Nation celebrated its 20th anniversary at Hammerfest 2007, a hate rock festival held near Portland, Ore., and hosted by the Northwest Hammerskins, a regional affiliate of HSN. The Portland-based, neo-Nazi skinhead gang Volksfront provided security. Members of the neo-Nazi group White Revolution and the white nationalist organization Women for Aryan Unity were in attendance. One of the speakers was Michael Lawrence, a prominent member of the Confederate Hammerskins, another HSN affiliate, and the founder of the Christian Guard, a major Christian Identity organization.

KU KLUX KLAN
Ku Klux Klan groups
Although most Ku Klux Klan factions continued to exploit the roiling national immigration debate in 2007 by holding anti-”illegal alien” rallies (rather than their more typical “anti-black crime” fare), last year was a relatively quiet one for the KKK. The number of Klan chapters dropped to 155 last year from 165 in 2006, marking the second straight year of decline after five years of rapid growth.

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BLACK SEPARATISTS
Black Separatist groups
The death last May of black separatist cult leader Yahweh ben Yahweh (born Hulon Mitchell) coincided with the ongoing rebirth of his Nation of Yahweh, a notorious religious sect that has preached violence against “white devils.” Nearly 500 Nation of Yahweh members, many of them conspicuously flaunting material wealth in the form of expensive cars and jewelry, attended the funeral of Yahweh ben Yahweh, who shortly before his death was released from parole after serving 11 years of an 18-year sentence on federal conspiracy charges related to 14 murders committed in South Florida in the 1980s.

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The New Black Panther Party, a racist group unrelated to the original Black Panthers, was also highly active in 2007. Although Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz was barred from entering Canada last May because of his radical ideology, Shabazz did successfully organize a major rally for a black hate crime victim in West Virginia, made a public show of force in Jena, La., and held an Atlanta “Black Power Summit” last October that was attended by about 100 party members from across the country.

But wait, there’s more. I’m sure my LGBT readers will recognize this next group.

Other events of importance on the radical right included the emergence of Watchmen on the Walls, an international and incredibly virulent anti-gay organization with strong ties to Latvia. The organization has gained a foothold in the United States among Russian-speaking Slavic immigrants on the West Coast, holding a major conference in Lynnwood, Wash., in October.

Yes, good old Watchmen on the Walls. I’m very familiar with those homophobic and anti-Semitic hate-mongers.

Needless to say the significant increase in hate groups is disturbing. I can’t help but think the RRRW government we’ve had for the past seven years has helped contribute to this increase. The nationalistic, racist, homophobic attitudes they’ve instilled have created a perfect breeding ground for these groups to flourish. Sadly I don’t know if the trend will be reversed, or how long it may take.

For most of us the horrors of The Holocaust are something we experience in history classes, movies and television shows. For one young Pennsylvania man it was much more than that. His grandfather, who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz, gave him a first-hand account of the events. Now anti-Semitic hatred has been visited on the young man himself, in the form of a violent attack.

“He told me stories about the Holocaust, but I thought I’d never have to live through a hate crime,” said the student, who suffered a broken nose and a fractured orbital bone in the attack. “I never thought I’d have to deal with a hate crime.”

…..

Four Temple students were suspended by the university last week and the attack was strongly condemned by school president Ann Weaver Hart, who wrote: “Hate crimes will not be tolerated by Temple University.”

The four suspects - Michael Walsh, 20, of Florham Park, N.J.; David Scott, 20, and Steven Scott, 19, two brothers from Willow Grove, Montgomery County; and Bryan Pediero, 19, of East Brunswick, N.J. - turned themselves into Philadelphia police on Wednesday and yesterday to face the music, police said.

The four were charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person, ethnic intimidation and criminal conspiracy, police spokeswoman Officer Christine O’Brien said.

…..

Temple police have video of the incident in front of Alpha Epsilon Pi house on North Broad Street near Norris, cops said.

The 23-year-old victim and his 22-year-old friend had emerged from the Owl’s Nest Pizza shop around 1:30 a.m. and were swarmed by a group of young men, police said.

The victim remembers that seven males walked up to him and his friend, who is not a Temple student.

“You f—ing Jews! You f—ing [Jewish epithet]!” are the chants he remembers from that early Friday morning.

“Are you part of this f—ing Jewish fraternity?” at least one asked.

They punched him in the face, he remembers.

When his grandfather heard about the attack, “he cried,” the young man said.

Since the beating, the victim said he walks around in fear - scared that he’ll be a victim of a hate crime again. *

It is my fervent hope that the perpetrators get the maximum possible sentences for what they have done. The notion that dislike of another person allows one to cause harm to them is one that I find particularly abhorrent.

To the victim and his grandfather I offer my deepest condolences. This should never have happened, and if I had my way it never would have.

More than once when a L, G, B and/or T individual has stated that they are or are not voting for a particular politician because of his/her stance on some LGBT policy the cry goes out, “How can you be such a One Issue Voter?”. Of course it’s usually the case that the individual is not voting solely because of the politician’s stance on the LGBT policy, but also because of other issues as well and is mentioning only the LGBT issue at the time. But, that aside, it’s important for everybody to realize that LGBT concerns are in no way “one issue”, so voting based on them can in no way make a person a “One Issue Voter”. Allow me to break it down for you.

 
Marriage

 
Marriage in and of itself is not one issue as it provides couples so many rights and carries so many responsibilities. It also affects any children the couples may have, thereby having broader scope than just the couple themselves. However it is largely unavailable to same-sex couples.

Same-sex couples are currently allowed to legally marry in only one state, Massachusetts. Although they are granted the same rights and benefits as other married couples under state law, they are not granted any of the more than 1100 rights and responsibilities granted to married couples by the federal government. Furthermore, their marriages are not recognized as legal outside of MA, so if they travel to another state or move their rights are in jeopardy.

Five states, CA, CT, NH, NJ, and VT, offer Civil Unions/Domestic Partnerships for same-sex couples. These unions offer ostensibly identical benefits and obligations to those of civil marriage in their states, but again none of the federal benefits of marriage. However it has been discovered repeatedly that the DPs/CUs fall short of their promises as they don’t actually provide the benefits they are supposed to. Employers, agencies, families and others have worked to avoid providing benefits to same-sex couples under DPs/CUs claiming that they’re not obligated to do so as the unions are not marriages. Hence the need for same-sex couples to have federally recognized legal marriage rather than the Colored Only drinking fountain of the 21st century known as DPs/CUs.

 
Four states (HI, ME, OR and WA) and DC offer DPs/CUs that offer portions of the rights enjoyed by married couples in their regions. Again, these unions are fraught with the same limitations as the others, in that they’re dependent upon others to comply with their stipulations and many try to get around them since they are not marriages.

Twenty six states have constitutional amendments that ban same-sex marriage outright, marking the first time in history that amendments have been used to write discrimination into constitutions. Forty three states have statutes restricting marriage to unions between a man and a woman including a number of the states that have DPs/CUs. (Some states have both a statute and a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage).

 
For same-sex couples who cannot marry or enter into a DP/CU, they can engage the services of a lawyer and draw up a number of documents to try to ensure that they have particular rights and privileges that opposite-sex couples would normally have. However this is often a very costly and difficult process , and may be contested by any number of people in various situations. For example it is not uncommon for one partner to be denied the right to see the other or make decisions for the other in a hospital even with Power of Attorney. When a partner dies their relatives may contest their will, making it impossible for the surviving partner to collect benefits left to them. These are just a few of the many examples of the indignities same-sex couples deal with by virtue of the fact that they are treated as second-class citizens and refused the right to marry.

Adoption

 
Adoption is another way that LGBT individuals are often denied the rights their straight peers are afforded. Ten states and DC allow “second parent adoption”, the process by which a partner in a same-sex couple can adopt his/her partner’s biological child without terminating the parental rights of the biological parent.

Single-parent adoption by individuals who are gay is outlawed in Florida, though they are allowed to be foster parents. Utah law forbids cohabiting, non-married couples to adopt, and likewise prohibits same-sex marriage thereby effectively outlawing adoption by any unmarried couples regardless of sexual orientation. That’s just one of many state and local laws that harm straight people in the process of engaging in bias against LGBT individuals.

However even if the child is the biological child of an LGBT parent, there are potential difficulties. While there is substantial, legitimate, peer-studied research to indicate LGBT parents are every bit as effective and fit as other parents, they must face constant criticism and bigotry. However opponents have used faulty, distorted and outright fabricated research to make the claim that children raised by LGBT parents are at risk in various ways. Furthermore the biases of judges, social-service workers and others who make decisions about child custody can result in children being taken away from their LGBT parents based not on the actual fitness of the parent, but on their sexual orientation/gender identity.

 

Housing

 
GLBT individuals can legally be denied housing based on their sexual orientation/gender identity in most states. To date there are approximately thirteen states and numerous cities that ban housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and some include gender identity. However there is currently no federal law that does so. Therefore GLBT individuals do not have the same protections under the law in this area that other Americans currently do.

 
Employment

 
Thanks to President Bill Clinton, federal civilian LGBT employees enjoy protection from discrimination. But private-sector LGBTs are not so lucky. While twenty states, DC and 140 cities have banned discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation (some including gender identity) others still allow employers to fire, or refuse to hire, people for being LGBT. And, of course, even where anti-discrimination laws exist religious organizations and employers run by religious organizations are exempt from them.

ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, would ban discrimination against LGBT people on a nationwide basis. After numerous attempts it went through both the House and the Senate last Autumn, albeit without protections for Transgender individuals. It seems that the bigots couldn’t be convinced that they were worthy of such protections so they were dropped from the bill. It sits now in limbo, waiting for President Bush to sign or, more likely, to veto it.

Hate-Crimes Protection

 
32 states and DC have statutes that provide stronger penalties for those who engage in bias motivated crimes against people based on sexual orientation. 11 have protections for people based on gender identity. Only 16 are required, however, to collect statistics on these crimes, allowing for much valuable data to be lost.

Currently no federal legislation exists for prosecution or data collection of bias motivated crimes against LGBT people. In 2007 the Matthew Shepard Act, named for the young gay man brutally murdered in 1998, was introduced to Congress. The bill made it through the Senate, but not the House. LGBT people remain without federal hate-crimes protection and will do so indefinitely.

 

Military Service

 
On a personal level I have no interest in serving in the military. I detest the idea of killing anybody except as a last resort in self-defense. I abhor war and am a conscientious objector. Furthermore I can’t fathom why any LGBT person would put his or her life on the line to serve a country that can’t be bothered to give him/her the same rights and protections as all other citizens. Nonetheless I accept that there are indeed many LGBT individuals who wish to proudly serve in the military and are prevented from doing so by discriminatory legislation.

Previously the military simply banned gay/bisexual people from serving. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993 he had promised to allow gay people to serve openly. The resultant backlash from military leaders and the right-wing forced him to implement a compromise, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, more commonly known as DADT. Gays could ostensibly serve in the military as long as they didn’t disclose their orientation, and the military couldn’t ask. While meant as a compromise, the policy has since led to more problems than it solved as it became very much a witch-hunt.

Between 1994 and 2005 there were 11,082 service-members discharged under DADT at a cost of approximately $200 million to the United States. Myriad polls have shown that the public favors allowing gay people to serve openly. Nonetheless military leaders remain staunchly in favor of DADT and it has been upheld in federal court five times.

 
In Conclusion

 
Marriage, employment, housing, partner benefits, health care decisions, inheritance rights, our families, hate-crimes protection, military service and so much more. Far from being “one issue”, these far reaching issues affect every aspect of our lives, and some can even put our lives in the balance.

So please realize that we are never “one issue voters”, even if it appears that we are. Things are much more complex and substantial than they seem on the surface.

Addendum: A comment has arrived. Tyler says:

 

I rant, you articulate. Very well done.

Thank you very much, Tyler. Actually on my blogs I articulate. Elsewhere I’m much more prone to ranting. Thanks again for stopping by.

In reference to the murder of Lawrence King Ellen said on her show what I’ve long wished every Presidential candidate would. Just watch and listen–it’s amazing.

Listen up, politicians. I will vote for any candidate who has the cajones to say what Ellen said and to offer the policy to back it up. I’m willing to bet there are thousands, if not millions, who would do the same. Forget what the bigots will think and for once consider what is right. Consider what really matters. Equal Human Rights.

Addendum: I’ve received a comment on this entry. dara says:

i don’t like any of the candidates-to-be. ugh, i’m really disappointed with this
country. ellen for president!

I don’t either. I made it plain in a previous post that I have no use for Barack Obama. I did vote for Hillary Clinton, but only because she’s the last candidate left standing against him and I don’t want him in the G.E. (I don’t dislike HRC but I have no strong affinity for her either) My candidate of choice was Dennis Kucinich because I agreed with nearly every one of his stances, but he dropped out long ago. I then opted for John Edwards as a second choice and he too dropped out right before our primary.

I’m sick to death of having to settle every single time. This time I believe I’m going to end up taking a different path.