Convicted Murderer of Gay Man Gets Parole; LGBTQ Community Vows to Fight It
Convicted Killer Jon Buice to be paroled in October 2011
Houston, Texas – With less than half his sentence served, the convicted murderer of a Houston gay man is to be paroled. The LGBTQ community and crime victims’ advocates are up in arms to stop it. Jon Buice, the last incarcerated member of the infamous “Woodlands Ten” who murdered 27-year-old Paul Broussard on July 4, 1991, is going free unless the Parole Board changes its mind. In a 2-0 decision handed down on Friday, the board unanimously acted to approve Buice’s parole over the protests of his victim’s mother. Nancy Rodriguez, who has stalwartly advocated for Buice to remain behind bars throughout the years, has told KHOU-TV that she has asked the members of the board to reconsider their decision.
Paul Broussard’s killing made national headlines in 1991 as a clear case of cold blooded hate crime murder. A gang of teens traveled from the Woodlands, an upscale northern suburb of Houston, to the Montrose neighborhood, looking for gays to bash. Their ploy was to ask a man on the street to direct them to a gay bar, and then, assuming his answer would incriminate him as a gay man, to assault and abduct him for a night of terror. Broussard, a young, unsuspecting banker, became their target. The youths dragged him to a park where they savagely attacked him with their fists, steel-toed boots, nail-studded two-by-fours, and a knife. Buice, who wielded the knife, stabbed Broussard three times with vicious efficiency, and “gutted him like a deer,” according to one commentator. Of the ten in the gang, five received significant jail time. Buice was sentenced to 45 years in prison because he did the slashing and stabbing of the innocent gay man.
Paul Broussard and his mother, Nancy Rodriguez
In the years since the trial, all but Buice have been released into society. Because of the heinous nature of the stabbing, Buice had been successfully kept in prison until now. In prison, he has earned college degrees, and some say he has been a “model inmate.” Based on the assessment of his advocates, Buice has claimed he has been rehabilitated and no longer offers and threat to society. Paul Broussard’s mother is not buying it. As reported in this blog last year, when parole was denied her son’s killer, Nancy Rodriguez has said that any remorse on Buice’s part is too-little-too-late, and is fabricated by his desire to get out of jail. Mrs. Rodriguez has often said that she prayed her son’s killer would stay in prison for at least 27 years–one year in captivity for each year of Paul’s unfinished life.
Reaction to the Parole Board’s decision was swift. Andy Kahan, crime victims’ family advocate, told KHOU: “We had anticipated, and certainly hoped, that it would be denied. Our efforts were in seeing how long it would be denied. It was stunning.” Kahan went on to say that he and his organization will fight the decision, vowing that, even if they lose, they will go down “kicking and screaming” because of the implications of the decision for other victims’ families and friends. “This decision sends chills down not only to Nancy’s family but to other families of murdered children in hoping that they don’t have to undergo the same ordeal,” he said. Noel Freeman, President of the Houston Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Political Caucus, says that Buice needs to remain behind bars, and he will work to flood the parole board with “thousands” of letters appealing to board members to reverse their decision. “There are people on death row who have done far less heinous crimes that what Jon Buice did,” Freeman said to KHOU. “We’re going to encourage all members of the community to write the parole board, write their representatives, write their state senators. We will mobilize the community. The community mobilized when Paul was murdered back in 1991.”
The two members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles assigned to Huntsville, where the decision was made to grant Buice a parole are Rissie L. Owens (term expires 2015) and Thomas A. Leeper (term expires 2013). They do not have to reconsider what they have done under law. But if Nancy Rodriguez, Andy Kahan, and Noel Freeman have anything to do about it, they will have plenty of mail to read from across the Lone Star State and from around the nation.
Huntsville Board Office, Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles contact information:
1300 11th St., Suite 520
P.O. Box 599
Huntsville, TX 77342-0599
936-291-2161
936-291-8367 Fax
Catholic Church Refuses Gay Man’s Funeral; Community Outraged
John Sanfilippo, gay Catholic denied a funeral because of church homophobia
San Diego, California – John Sanfilippo was a lifelong, devout Roman Catholic–and an openly gay man. His parish church, Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, flatly denied his funeral because of his sexual orientation, according to Channel 10 News. Sanfilippo, who died last week after a long struggle with emphysema, planned years ago for his funeral mass to be held at Our Lady of the Rosary. He was a faithful parishioner there for decades, and according to his friends had even left a large sum of money to the church in his will. That did not stop the church from rejecting his funeral. Last weekend, his partner of 30 years, his family, and his friends were curtly notified that the funeral was banned from the church because Sanfilippo was an openly gay man. A storm of controversy has broken out in the San Diego LGBTQ community about the overt institutional homophobia that caused the denial of a dying man’s last request. Sanfilippo was a fixture in the San Diego gay community, a businessman who owned and operated the popular SRO Lounge. According to EDGE, one of the parish clergy, Fr. Louis Solcia, allegedly said that gays themselves had “set up” the church for controversy in the wake of criticism from all over the region. A group of Sanfilippo’s friends went to the steps of the church to pray and get answers about why a Christian congregation would cause such pain and sorrow so needlessly. Queerty editorialized, “When the priests at Our Lady of the Rosary Church found out that [Sanfilippo] was survived by his partner of 30 years, Brian Galvin, they told Sanfilippo’s family that the Mass was canceled. That the priests managed to do so just two days after Sanfilippo died speaks both to their efficiency and their complete lack of humanity.”
Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Little Italy
The Diocese of San Diego, backtracking on the decision, tried to quell community anger by claiming that the initial refusal to hold Sanfilippo’s funeral mass was made by a visiting priest who was “unfamiliar” with customs and practices of the parish. Few are buying the story. “All of a sudden, they change their mind…Why? Because they got caught in the process of denying equal rights to people,” Sanfilippo’s friend, Neil Thomas, said to the San Diego LGBT Weekly. Six years earlier, another devout, openly gay parishioner of Our Lady of the Rosary was denied a funeral, John McClusker–and the painful memories are still fresh in the San Diego community. Hurt and deeply angered by the 2005 decision to refuse McClusker the pastoral offices of the church, members of his family converted to the Episcopal Church where his funeral was held in lieu of his Roman Catholic parish. In the Sanfilippo case, diocesan damage control did not work, either. Though a confusing statement from the diocese said the “ritual” could now be carried out at Our Lady of the Rosary for the deceased, his partner and his family had enough. On Thursday, John Sanfilippo’s final rites were performed at Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum on 4470 Hilltop Drive. The Roman Catholic Church in San Diego has some explaining to do: to their LGBTQ parishioners, to their families and friends, and to the LGBTQ community—but most of all, they have some explaining to do to themselves: about how a Christian church could reject the dying request of anyone. Much less a baptized believer who sought to be authentically gay and Catholic at the same time.
Harvey Milk Speaks Out On July 4th!
"Statue of Liberty" by renowned gay artist Keith Haring (1958-1990)
Harvey Milk On the Equality of All People in America: “[All People] are created equal. No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words. No matter how hard you try, you cannot chip those words off the base of the Statue of Liberty and no matter how hard you try, you cannot sing the Star-Spangled Banner without those words. That’s what America is. Love it or leave it.”
On Coming Out: “I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects … I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.”
On the Struggle for Human Rights: “It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions. Burst down those closet doors once and for all, and stand up and start to fight!”
On the Rights of the Young: “All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.”
On Refusing to be Distracted by Homophobia: “If I turned around every time somebody called me a faggot, I’d be walking backward – and I don’t want to walk backward.”
On Hope and the Human Rights Movement: “I ask this… If there should be an assassination, I would hope that five, ten, one hundred, a thousand would rise. I would like to see every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out – – If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door… And that’s all. I ask for the movement to continue. Because it’s not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power… it’s about the “us’s” out there. Not only gays, but the Blacks, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us’s. Without hope, the us’s give up – I know you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. So you, and you, and you… You gotta give em’ hope… you gotta give em’ hope.”
On the Invincible Thirst for Freedom and Equality: “I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted. I have a lot more to drink.”
Happy Fourth of July from the Unfinished Lives Project Team!
Asher Brown’s Legacy: Anti-Gay Bullying Ban in Houston Public Schools
Asher Brown, bullied to death in September 2010
Houston, Texas – By a vote of 7 to 0, with two board members absent, the Houston Independent School District made LGBT discrimination and anti-gay bullying against policy for all students and employees in Houston public schools. The action came in response to outrage over the “bullycide” suicide of 13-year-old Asher Brown, who took his own life after two years of intolerable harassment for his sexual orientation in Cypress-Fairbanks School District schools. His parents have testified that they repeatedly contacted school officials about the violence focused on their gay son, but to no avail. No school official or teacher intervened to stop the bullying and save Asher’s life. The gay teenager’s death in September 2010 sparked a state-wide effort to revise school policies to ban harm to LGBTQ students while on school property. The Dallas Voice picked up the story of the policy change from the Facebook page of HRC board member Meghan Stabler, and is covering developments in Houston and Harris County.
The policy revision reads, in part: “A substantiated charge of harassment against a student or employee shall result in disciplinary action. The term “harassment” includes repeated, unwelcome, and offensive slurs, jokes, or other oral, written, graphic, or physical conduct relating to an individual’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability or handicap, or age, sex, marital status, veteran status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational or work environment.”
Houston School Board Member Larry Marshall said that the revision will make district schools safer for all children, especially LGBT students: “I think this recommendation clearly signals to principals that when you enter a school building you are on our turf, and on our turf we are going to treat everyone with dignity and respect. I think that administrators need to thoroughly understand that anything else will not be tolerated.”
Because the Houston ISD is the seventh-largest school district in the nation, the action of the district school board to ban discrimination and bullying against LGBT students will exert substantial pressure on other school systems to revise and enforce fair treatment of all children. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, for example, the district where Asher Brown attended school, has not yet changed its policy towards LGBT student bullying and harassment. Nothing will bring Asher back to his family and his friends. The horror of his death will remain. But actions like this policy revision, and vigorous education and enforcement of the ban will help ensure that no other family or school need go through the agony that surrounded the fragile life and death of a gentle teenager who just wanted to live an authentic life and be able to get a good education at the same time.
Southwest Air Pilot Smears Gays on Radio, Suspended, Then Reinstated
Southwest Air Flight Attendant Ken Cummings Jr. (r), and his murderer, Terry Mark Mangum (l)
Houston, Texas – Most passengers are acquainted with a friendly pilot’s voice on the inboard com link, welcoming them aboard a flight. A Southwest Air pilot, however, launched into a homophobic tirade on a stuck-open mic about gay employees and others in a rant that cost him a suspension, according to EDGE reports. In a March incident only now coming to light thanks to news reports by KRPC-TV, the pilot indulged himself in a series of epithets and slurs against gay people, older employees, and obese employees for two-and-a-half minutes, calling them (in the publishable portion of his rant), “gays, grannies, and grandes.” Thinking he was only speaking to his co-worker, the pilot did not realize his microphone was on until informed that it was open and broadcasting by air traffic controllers in the tower. A spokesperson for the airline informed media that the offending pilot was reprimanded and suspended without pay for an unspecified time period. After a period of LGBTQ sensitivity training, he has been reinstated and is flying the skies again. Corporate and professional amnesia about the effects of homophobic speech and behavior on Southwest Air employees contributed to this regrettable incident. Kenneth L. Cummings Jr., a longtime Southwest Air Flight Attendant, was brutally murdered by a religious zealot in June 2007. The grisly slaughter culminated in Cummings’s tortured body being set afire in a shallow stock tank near Poteat, Texas in what his murderer called a “burnt offering to God.” Southwest Air employees by the score aided in the search for Cummings in an effort co-ordinated by EquuSearch, and uniformed flight attendants, pilots, and company officers attended his funeral to honor him. But how soon people forget. Now a pilot in the same organization can rave on about gay people with little or no regard for their humanity, get a slap on the hand, some retraining, and then be put right back on the line, flying LGBTQ people among others to destinations around the world. Unfinished Lives Team hopes he has learned something from this experience, beyond the old bromide that anything is okay so long as you don’t get caught. Reports suggest that this pilot had to apologize to air traffic controllers and Southwest employees for his indiscretion as a part of his punishment. A representative of the Southwest Airlines Employees Union is filing a discrimination complaint with the federal government concerning this matter. Until then, fly carefully. You never know who might be at the controls.
Gays Seek Safer Houston in Last “Unfinished Lives” Pride Month Session
Dr. Sprinkle speaks to a full house at Resurrection MCC Houston on "Unfinished Lives" book
Houston, Texas – Strategies for mobilizing the LGBTQ community to act for a safer Houston will be the focus of the concluding “Unfinished Lives” Session at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church this Friday, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, professor at Brite Divinity School and author of Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memories of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims (Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2011), will offer Houstonians effective ways to prevent hate crimes, wrestle with with issue of anti-LGBTQ teen school bullying and suicide, and close ranks with transgender Americans to staunch the alarming number of violent attacks upon then in today’s world. Attendance and enthusiasm remained strong at the June 10 session on lessons and insights the stories of hare crimes victims teach the wider community. Dr. Sprinkle lifted up five lessons we stand to learn from LGBTQ people who have died because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. In brief, these were: 1) confront head on the rising number of violent attacks against the queer community with educational efforts, 2) deal with the amnesia of the LGBTQ community, media, and the general public about queer hate crime murders, 3) begin the long-overdue conversation about transphobia and transgender hate crimes in America, 4) use the language of outrage when speaking about LGBTQ hate crimes, not the language of “tragendy,” and 5) the necessity of dealing with the religious and theological roots of anti-gay and transgender hate violence. The stories of Ryan Keith Skipper of Wahneta, Florida and Talana Quay Kreeger of Wilmington, North Carolina were highlighted to illustrate Dr. Sprinkle’s lecture. Session Three: Strategies for Mobilization and Activism will continue this no-nonsense approach to the crisis of anti-LGBTQ hate violence in contemporary church and society. The series is co-sponsored by Resurrection MCC Houston, Cathedral of Hope Houston, and the Transgender Foundation of America. As always, a light supper is provided and the public is invited at no charge. Make Pride Month count for more than a parade and a party, and come out to this important final session.
Houston “Unfinished Lives” Series Draws Large Crowd; Session 2 on June 10: “Lessons Learned”
Houston, Texas – Strong attendance marked the first “Unfinished Lives” session for Houston’s Gay Pride Month. Much-anticipated Session 2: Lessons Learned is upcoming at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church at 6:30 pm. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, author of Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memories of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims, will share five life lessons the stories of hate crimes murder victims have to teach us. Among the insights Dr. Sprinkle will share in Session 2 are: Why we must learn to talk and think about anti-gay hate crime murder in a different way than ever before; How to stand with our Transgender sisters and brothers as so many are preyed upon; What makes the numbers of anti-LGBTQ hate murders spike upward, even after the enactment of the long-awaited Matthew Shepard Act. The first session, “Stories of Those We’ve Lost,” set the stage for considering violent hate crimes against the LGBTQ community in a brand new light. Dr. Sprinkle compassionately told the stories of Houston’s own Kenneth L. Cummings Jr., and Simmie/Beyoncé Williams Jr. of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, both of whom died for being gay and/or gender variant. Cummings, a 46-year-old Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant, was hunted by a religious zealot who murdered him and burned his corpse in a remote South Texas location as a “burnt offering.” Williams, a transgender teen of color, was shot to death on the day word came to her of acceptance in the Job Corps, news so exciting that she went down to the Sistrunk Avenue “Transvestite Stroll” to share with her gay family. She was shot to death by two young men who fled the scene, and are as yet unidentified. Dr. Sprinkle talked about sadness and hope in relation to both killings, and encouraged the audience to learn more about the real people behind the statistics on hate crimes. Central to his presentation was the idea that LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims are our ancestors, portals through whom we can learn to love our lives and our queer communities better, deeper, and more fully. Rev Kristen Klein-Cechettini and Rev. Lynette Ross led the session in a meaningful, hopeful, and life-giving celebration of the lives of all hate crimes victims, represented by the fourteen stories told in Unfinished Lives. “Session 2: Lessons Learned” will pick up the theme, highlighting two more stories from Dr. Sprinkle’s ground-breaking book, and offering important insights on what the lives of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people really count for. From 6:30 to 7 p.m., a delicious light supper will be provided free of charge. The session will begin at 7 and conclude by 8:30 p.m. Sponsors for the series are Cathedral of Hope Houston, Transgender Foundation of America, and Resurrection MCC. Everyone is invited to add this significant experience to their Pride Month activities in Houston!
Minnesota School District Notorious for Bullying Under National Pressure to Change
Justin Aaberg, one of at least four bullycide victims in Anoka-Hennepin Schools
Anoka-Hennepin School District, Minnesota’s largest, was put on notice by national LGBTQ and civil rights advocacy groups that they would file a federal lawsuit to force “prompt and meaningful action to remedy the current hostile environment” to protect the constitutional rights of LGBTQ students. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) issued their demands to Superintendent Dennis L. Carlson in a letter dated June 6.
Further, the SPLC and the NCLR denounced the school district’s gag order against teachers, counselors, and students who would bring up the topic of LGBTQ rights or anti-gay bullying, and demanded it be lifted immediately. Attorneys for both organizations wrote Superintendent Carlson: “The gag policy serves no legitimate education-related purpose. Rather, as made abundantly clear in the District’s own guidance about the policy, the gag policy singles out a vulnerable and disfavored minority – LGBT students – and prevents teachers and other district employees from supporting, or even protecting, those students within the classroom. The mandatory silence imposed by the policy leaves teachers without tools to handle LGBT bullying, and creates an atmosphere in which LGBT students are isolated and feel unprotected.”
Arguing that LGBTQ students are singled out by the gag order and denied their rights guaranteed under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the attorney-advocates continued, “The policy imposes a stigma on LGBT students as pariahs, not fit to be mentioned within the school community, a message that comes across loud and clear both to LGBT students and their peers, and which has grave repercussions for the psychological and emotional development of LGBT students.”
Highlighting the dangerous nature of the School Districts policies, SPLC attorney Samuel Wolfe pointed out, “The gag policy is anything but neutral. It is rooted in homophobia and sustains a hostile environment harmful to all students. The district must repeal this dangerous policy.”
According to the NCLR, “The letter was prompted after a number of present and past District students requested that SPLC and NCLR investigate the pervasive harassment they have experienced based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression at District schools. The ongoing investigation has found that the gag policy contributes significantly to the lack of safety of LGBT students and students perceived as LGBT within the District.”
Since 2009, at least four LGBTQ students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District have died by “bullycide” due to the severity of anti-gay bullying allowed and in some cases allegedly encouraged by school officials, teachers, and other personnel. Among these victims was Justin Aaberg, 15, whose mother Tammy has become an outspoken critic of the school system, and a tireless advocate for LGBTQ youth nationally. Public relations officers for the district contacted the editors of Unfinished Lives Blog to complain about the language of the post linking school policy to anti-gay bullying, resulting in the suicide of Aaberg. Standing by the post, Unfinished Lives refused to change its language or content. Now, with the legal efforts of the NCLR and the SPLC, actual change that saves lives may begin in Minnesota’s most populous school system. It may be far too late for Justin Aaberg and the other victims of bullying in these middle and high schools, but it will prove life-saving for untold numbers of other LGBTQ students who seek an education in Minnesota public schools.
Change.org has issued a call to concerned citizens to sign a petition demanding the compliance of the Anoka-Hennepin School District with the conditions set forth in the SPLC and NCLR letter to Superintendent Carlson. You may view the petition online and sign it here.
Palm Springs Parents Bash Gay Couple In Front of Their Child
Russell Bates and Abigail Sheehy, alleged gay bashers
Palm Springs, California – A dispute over a parking space resulted in young parents beating the teeth out of the mouth of a gay couple–all done in front of the parents’ small child. Russell Bates, 24, and Abigail Sheehy, 19, both white, took their rage out on an older gay male couple in what police are calling “a brutal attack that should be prosecuted as a hate crime,” according to the Desert Sun. The gay men, 45 and 63 respectively, business owners at a popular strip of flower and yogurt shops, asked the straight couple with a young child to move their parked car from a space clearly reserved for business patrons at about 4:20 p.m. on Saturday, May 21. Bates and Sheehy refused. The gay couple took their pictures, which sparked the dispute into an all-out attack, taking place in full view of the four-year-old boy. Shouting anti-gay slurs at the gay men, the straight couple thrashed the couple so violently with closed fists that the teeth of one of the victims were knocked out of his head, and his jaw was broken. Both victims were taken to a local hospital to be treated for their injuries. They have since been released to recuperate at home. The assailants fled the scene, only to be apprehended the next day at a public park. Bates and Sheehy have been charged with three felony counts each, including hate crimes charges. They lost custody of their son, who has been remanded to Child Protective Services. Sheehy was released on bail later in the week. Bates, who has a previous criminal record, is being held on $50,000 bond for violating his parole agreement. The offending couple are due to appear in court on June 6. According to local residents, Riverside County has a gay-friendly reputation, making this attack unusual. Darron Dahle, long-time citizen of Palm Springs, told the Desert Sun, “I’m just outraged that something like this is still happening. This is something that happened 35 years ago. It still happens in this town in daylight? That’s really the most outrageous part.” It is customary for the victims of a hate crime to remain unidentified for their own protection until the trial date, which has yet to be set.
KKK and “GodHatesFags” Zealots Turn On Each Other
Arlington, Virginia – Klansmen joined in a counter-protest attempting to screen military funerals from a Westboro Baptist Church picket at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day weekend. The Fred Phelps-founded protestors, made infamous by their “God Hates Fags” campaign and their more recent demonstrations at the funerals of fallen United States military servicemembers, found themselves confronted by a number of members of the Knights of the Southern Cross Soldiers of the Ku Klux Klan, a racist KKK cell based in Powhatan, Virginia, according to the Hatewatch post of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Including the KKK, 70 counter-protestors waved American flags and held up pro-USA signs, blocking the funerals in progress from the demonstrators holding signs brandishing such slogans as “Fag Nation,” “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “Pray for More Dead Soldiers,” and “Thank God for IED’s,” typical of the anti-American message propounded by the Topeka, Kansas Baptist church in its continuing opposition to “homosexual lifestyles.”
Dennis LaBonte, spokesperson for the Knights of the Southern Cross Soldiers, said that their counter-protest was in defense of freedom of speech and in support of the U.S. military. LaBonte told reporters that it was the military in this country that fought to defend the rights of groups like Phelps’s Topeka, Kansas church which recently successfully defended itself before the U.S. Supreme Court against a suit brought by the parent of a Marine killed in combat–a soldier whose funeral had been picketed by the Westboro zealots to condemn the “fag-enabling ways” of the nation. “It’s the soldier that fought and died and gave them that right,” LaBonte said. Responding to the Klan counter-protestors, Abigail Phelps, an attorney as are many of her siblings, complained to CNN that people should not “idolize” soldiers who died in national service, or anyone else who died in an “unrighteous cause.” When directly asked about her reaction to the presence of KKK members in opposition to the Westboro Baptist demonstration, she told the reporter, “They have no moral authority on anything.” According to yourblackworld.com, Phelps went on to say, “People like them say it’s white power … white supremacy. The Bible doesn’t say anywhere that it’s an abomination to be born of a certain gender or race.”
Nationalism makes strange bedfellows, indeed–enlisting bigots in competing demonstrations against other bigots. No one in the LGBTQ community is under any illusion about the feelings of the KKK toward them, however. As the SPLC points out, the Klan hates gay people only slightly less than they hate Jews, African Americans, and “mongrel races.” As one blog commentator wrote, “On the one hand, this could be laughable, but it is not. One could also [take this news] with a grain of salt. Neither side are LGBT friendly. Let them fight among themselves.”
About
If you are a first-time visitor to the Unfinished Lives Project website, we invite you to read A Welcome Message introducing you to our project. We are truly grateful for your visit.
The Unfinished Lives Project website is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBTQ hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation. LGBTQ people in the United States are suffering a slow-rolling decimation of terror and murder all across the country. Every locale and demographic of society are affected: First Nations, Anglo, Black, Latino and Latina, South and Southeast Asian, Transgender, Bisexuals, Gay men, Lesbians, disabled, young, and mature. Homophobia has a long, crooked arm, and it is reaching out to snatch the life away from women and men whose tragic stories are under-reported to begin with, and whose memories are swiftly forgotten.
The horror of these killings transcends the shock and bereavement of loved ones and friends. These are not typical homicides; they are not killings for money or drugs, incidents of domestic strife, or crimes of passion. The vicious nature of hate crimes against LGBTQ persons is extremely brutal, grotesquely violent, and egregiously hateful.
Each murder serves the LGBTQ population as a sobering warning about the actual level of danger in our communities. The message these killings send is that freedom and open life for LGBTQ people is a cruel dream. Every time we remember one of these victims, however, the intentions of their killers are frustrated. To remember these women and men is to begin the process of changing the culture that killed them.
Our Project Director
Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle (Keith Tew photo).
Stephen V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBTQ person to be tenured there. Read More…
Recent Social Justice Advocacy Activity By Dr. Sprinkle
Summer 2009 – Dr. Sprinkle responded to the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay bar, on June 28, 2009, the exact 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Dr. Sprinkle was invited to speak at three protest events sponsored by Queer LiberAction of Dallas. Here, he is keynoting the Rainbow Lounge Protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse on July 12, 2009. Read More…
Contact Us
Communicate with the Unfinished Lives project team:
info@unfinishedlivesblog.com
Schedule a Presentation
Dr. Sprinkle will gladly present his acclaimed presentation to your organization. To arrange an Unfinished Lives presentation for your organization or group, please contact us.
Dr. Sprinkle has given his Unfinished Lives presentation to these and other community groups and organizations. Read More…
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Publisher: Steve Sprinkle (Project Director)
Steve Sprinkle
Unfinished Lives: Remembering LGBT Hate Crime VictimsBrite Divinity School/Texas Christian UniversityFort Worth TXprofessor, minister, author, blogger, LGBTQ advocate
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