Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Attacker Arrested for Brutal Transgender Beating in Hollywood

Vivian Diego, 22, speaks out for justice after being attacked on May 31 by a gang of transphobic men. (Advocate Image)

Vivian Diego, 22, speaks out for justice after being attacked on May 31 by a gang of transphobic men. (CBS 2 Image)

Hollywood, California – A man has been arrested in the savage beating case involving a transgender woman last month.  Nicol Shakhnazayan, 21, was taken into custody by detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department and charged with felony battery of a woman.  Shakhnazayan, whose arrest happened a day after Los Angeles city leaders posted a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the assailants in the case, is being held on $1.05 million bail, according to Gay Star News.  The victim, 22-year-old transgender woman Vivian Diego, was assaulted by four men shouting transphobic and homophobic slurs.  The assault took place late on the night of May 31 near a Metro stop at Hollywood and Ivar, after Ms. Diego finished her shift as a barista at Beso Restaurant.  CBS Los Angeles reports that video of the attack on Ms. Diego helped in making the arrest of the first suspect.  Lt. Marc Reina of the LAPD told CBS2: “One of the members of the group ran after Vivian and struck her from behind, knocking her to the ground. The remaining members of the group then joined in brutally assaulting Vivian by repeatedly kicking her, even while she lay motionless on the sidewalk.”

Ms. Diego described the horror and pain of the attack in vivid terms: “It was awful. I wouldn’t wish the pain I went through on my worst enemy.”  She sustained a broken jaw, a smashed cheekbone, bruises, and two cracked ribs.  Her family remains solidly in support of her, calling on the police and city officials to bring the other perpetrators of this hate crime to justice.

As she recovers, Ms. Diego, whose mouth is wired shut, communicated optimism and determination through her pain.  She is proud to be a transgender woman.  “I am not letting this incident, this attack stop me from living my life,” she said to CBS News. “As you can see, I’m still fabulous.”

June 25, 2013 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, California, Gang violence, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Latino and Latina Americans, LGBTQ, Slurs and epithets, Stomping and Kicking Violence, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Attacker Arrested for Brutal Transgender Beating in Hollywood

Young Transgender Person Savagely Beaten in Hollywood Hate Crime: Updated

Victor Diego, 22, transgender and gay victim of brutal beating on Hollywood Boulevard.

Victor Diego, 22, transgender and gay victim of brutal beating on Hollywood Boulevard [CBS 2 photo].

Hollywood, California – A 22-year-old transgender person who is identified as “gay” and male by his close relatives was brutally assaulted by a gang of men on Hollywood Boulevard near the Metro Station.  Victor Diego, a barista at Beso’s Restaurant, had gotten off work and dressed to go out with friends, according to CBS LA, when the men attacked Diego form behind, fracturing two ribs, shattering his cheekbone, punching him multiple times in the eyes, breaking his jaw, and kicking him in the temple–an injury that his sister says will require surgery.  Diego’s attackers did their worst and fled the scene, leaving their victim helpless in the street.  “He was basically left for dead just because of who he is,” Virginia Diego said to CBS.

Reportage on the attack has been careful to note that how Diego identifies in terms of gender identity and gender expression is not known.  His sisters Virginia and Melissa have used both male and female pronouns to describe Diego, which reflects family practice, but not necessarily Diego’s own sense of personhood.  Photographs show a graceful, lovely person with a sense of style and taste.  Sister Virginia Diego said to reporters, “Sometimes men try to talk to him and they get humiliated in front of their friends when they realize it’s a man. Because he looks really good, he looks like a woman, you couldn’t tell the difference,” she continued. Sister Melissa Diego said that the Los Angeles Police Department, Hollywood Division is pursing the case as a transphobic hate crime.  “We don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” she said. We just want somebody to come forward and let us know what they saw. He deserves justice.”  Diego is recuperating at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.  Update: GLAAD reports that the victim has informed the LAPD of her preferred name and pronominal usage.  In contradistinction to her family’s identification of her gender, the victim wishes to be known by “Vivian,” and indicated that she wants police and the media to use feminine pronouns when referring to her.

Diego shows multiple injuries sustained in Thursday night's attack.

Diego shows multiple injuries sustained in Thursday night’s attack.

Fox News Latino reports that Hollywood’s Beso Restaurant where young Diego works is owned by actress Eva Longoria, famed for her roles on The Young and the Restless, and Desperate Housewives.  The film and television star has not issued a statement in relation to the attack.

As the manhunt for Vivian Diego’s attackers continues, we are left to speculate about the rising number of anti-gay, anti-lesbian, and transphobic bias attacks reported recently, especially in New York City where the incidents of hate crimes is spiking to record highs as LGBT Pride celebrations kick off in the Big Apple.  Is this hate crime attack against a gay and transgender person connected in some copycat way to the wave of East Coast brutalities?  Some pundits suggest that the recent emphasis on the high profile human rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the increasing number of states making marriage equality legal for their residents may be igniting hostility among the opponents of LGBTQ rights in America.

For now, Vivian Diego has more immediate problems: facing surgery and how to pay for it, recuperating from the shattering physical and mental experience of being attacked for who she is–a crime unthinkable among fair minded people, but brutally frequent in the swirling emotions surrounding the expansion of human rights in the United States.

June 3, 2013 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, California, gay bashing, gay men, Gay Pride Month, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Hollywood, Latino and Latina Americans, LGBTQ, transgender persons, transphobia, U.S. Supreme Court, Unsolved LGBT Crimes | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Young Transgender Person Savagely Beaten in Hollywood Hate Crime: Updated

Alleged Anti-Gay Hate Crime Attacker’s Bail Raised to $500K; Free Again

Clayton Garzon, 20, accused anti-gay hate crime attacker (MySpace capture).

Clayton Garzon, 20, accused anti-gay hate crime attacker (MySpace capture).

Yolo County, California – The 20-year-old man arrested for a brutal attack on a gay man had his bail raised Wednesday to over half a million dollars, and was out on the streets of Davis, California by Thursday afternoon.  Clayton Garzon, charged for an anti-gay hate crime against Lawrence “Mikey” Partida, an openly gay Davis resident, had his bail raised to $520,000 in response to the request of Yolo County Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Mount who called Garzon a “serious public safety risk,” according to the Davis Enterprise. After only one night in Yolo County Jail, his family posted bail, and Garzon is free again until an April 12 court date. Garzon is also charged with felonies in a previous case, in which he allegedly stabbed several people in a bar brawl in Dixon.

Garzon is charged for beating Partida unconscious while screaming anti-gay slurs at him in the early morning hours of March 10.  He is alleged to have left the gay man bleeding on the lawn outside of his cousin’s home in order to beat on the door of the house to brag loudly about what he had just done.  A Solano County gas station attendant has come forward to report that Garzon also bragged about what he had done to a gay man, later that same day.  Frances Swanson, Partida’s aunt, said to CBS Sacramento that Garzon’s believed he had killed her nephew. “The only reason he’s not dead is because we’re blessed, and my nephew got lucky. Otherwise, that was the intent,” she said.

Partida is now released from an acute care rehabilitation facility where he spent over a week following his hospitalization at the UC-Davis Medical Center.  The assault left him with bleeding on his brain, a fractured skull, and a shattered eye socket.  He says he feels like a prisoner in his own home as long as Garzon is free on the street. Yet, according to several interviewers, Partida seems to bear no grudge against his attacker.  Instead, he hopes that he will never have to see his assailant again, and that the young man will somehow learn from this experience that hatred never pays.

This time, Garzon is being monitored closely by the Yolo County Probation Office.  Though he is out on bail, he is wearing a GPS device to show his location at all times, and a SCRAM device, which monitors any alcohol intake.  The court ordered that he must stay 100 yards away from his alleged victim.

March 29, 2013 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, California, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Hillary Clinton, Latino and Latina Americans, LGBTQ, Slurs and epithets | , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Gay California Man Brutally Beaten Unconscious in Hate Crime Attack

Mikey Partida, 32, savaged in anti-gay hate crime in Davis, California [Facebook image].

Mikey Partida, 32, savaged in anti-gay hate crime in Davis, California [Facebook image].

Davis, California – A gay man whose account is supported by eyewitnesses says he was savagely beaten and knocked unconscious because of his sexual orientation.  Mikey Partida, a native of Davis, recounts for CBS 13 Sacramento that he was verbally harassed by local men before the assailants launched the actual physical attack that put Partida in the hospital last Sunday.   As he was walking down the sidewalk from his relatives’ home with his cousins, Partida, an openly gay 32-year-old, said that men followed them, aiming the “f word” at him, over and over.  The savage attack came when he turned back to retrieve a set of keys he had left behind in his cousins’ house.

The assault came “out of nowhere,” Partida told reporters.  “[I] was just an easier target for them. They knew I was gay. They knew they were taller and bigger, and knew how to fight,” he said.  “I couldn’t fight them off. I’ve never been in a fight. They were just saying the f-word — the gay word — but f.” According to his cousin, Vanessa Turner, the men kept shouting anti-gay epithets as they beat, punched, and kicked him unconscious, leaving him a bloody mess with multiple fractures, a severe concussion, cuts, bruises, and a dangerously swollen eye.  Partida was rushed to UC Davis Medical Center, where his doctors say he should make a full recovery.  But the emotional damage done to him will take much longer to heal, he told CBS 13.  “Even if you think it’s your back doorstep, it’s a scary, scary world. You’d think in your hometown, which is Davis, you wouldn’t think anything at your doorstep would hit you that hard,” said Partida.

In an interview with ABC News 10, Ms. Turner, Partida’s cousin, said that one of the assailants, a man from their neighborhood, came back to the scene of the crime and knocked on their door, bragging about what he had done to their gay cousin.  She said what they did to her cousin was an expression of ignorance and arrogance.  Like Partida, she has no doubt that the assault was an anti-gay hate crime.  His main attacker kept shouting the epithets repeatedly.  “I heard him, personally, yelling slurs at him,” she said. “I know it was unprovoked.”  

On Thursday, Davis Police arrested 19-year-old Clayton Garzon, in the case, a local student with a record of offenses.  Garzon has been charged with assault causing great bodily injury, assault with deadly weapon, commission of a hate crime, stalking, commission of a felony while on release from custody and infliction of bodily injury during the commission of a felony.  He was put on $75,000 bond, which he met soon after his arrest, and now walks free until his date with a judge.  No other arrests have been made.  In the meantime, Partida is attempting to put his sense of security back together again. But he is not going to allow homophobes to dictate whether he can visit his own cousins, he says.  Davis is his home, too, and he is looking for justice to be done.

March 15, 2013 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, California, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, LGBTQ, Slurs and epithets | , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Gay Literary Lion, Gore Vidal (1925-2012)

“How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.” Gore Vidal, Julian

Los Angeles, California – Gay intellectual and literary giant, Gore Vidal, died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills.  He succumbed to pneumonia after what his nephew, Burr Steers, called “a long illness.” Vidal was 86.

Charles McGrath of the New York Times writes in his obituary, “Mr. Vidal was, at the end of his life, an Augustan figure who believed himself to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right.”  Eugene Gore Vidal, born at the U.S. Military Academy where his father was an assistant football coach and flying instructor, grew up in the patrician environs of New York City. He dropped his first name so he would not be confused with his father, Eugene Vidal Sr.  His grandfather, Senator T.P. Gore of Oklahoma, tried to steer his grandson toward a life of politics.  Instead, Vidal pursued a literary career, eventually churning out more than 25 books, numerous celebrated essays, a raft of plays for theater, and many successful and lucrative screenplays for Hollywood.

By turns moody, brooding, trenchant, and uncommonly brilliant, Vidal was a star in the remarkable constellation of gay writers who transformed American life and set their stamp on gay culture throughout the world.  Vidal had a celebrated feud with Truman Capote, a rich friendship with Tennessee Williams, and wrote alongside James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, and Christopher Isherwood. His 1947 novel, The City and the Pillar, was the earliest fiction title in American literature to feature a fully gay character.

Vidal loved sex but rejected labels.  It was clear that his preference was for men, whom he cruised with abandon.  Yet, the only person he ever loved, to whom he dedicated The City and the Pillar, was Jimmie Trimble, a classmate of his at the exclusive St. Alban’s School, who died on Iwo Jima.

Vidal carried out a highly publicized antagonism with conservative maven, William F. Buckley Jr., who, in a fit of pique at being bested by Vidal’s razor tongue and superior wit, denounced him as a “queer” on national television. Vidal accused Buckley of libeling him (though at a later time he agreed that he was, indeed, gay), and the quarrel spilled over into print.  Buckley wrote in the August 1969 Esquire Magazine, “On Experiencing Gore Vidal,” with the subtitle, “Can there be any justification in calling a man a queer before ten million people on television?”  Vidal answered with a broadside of his own in the September edition, entitled “A Distasteful Encounter with William F. Buckley, Jr.,” with the subheading, “Can there be any justification in calling a man a pro crypto Nazi before ten million people on television?”  The cover of the magazine flashed the title, “The Kids vs. The Pigs” and a photo of a collegiate boy face-to-face with a live pig, to reflect the confrontation of youth and police at the Chicago Democratic National Convention–the nub of the argument between Vidal and Buckley.

Twice Vidal ran unsuccessfully for public office as a Democrat in New York. But his real charism was writing, and through that medium he left an indelible stamp on the creation and definition of what it means to be gay in American life. For many years, he lived abroad in Ravello, Italy, returning as needed to the States. He once said, “In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you are a great writer, you must say that you are.”  Vidal followed his own advice.  He was never able to remain quiet about his own genius.  In large measure, he was right–both about himself and the American people. 

Gore Vidal was an outlaw prince amidst a band of queer princelings who changed the fortunes of the countless LGBTQ people who followed them.  From the era prior to World War II, when gayness was thought to be unspeakably dirty and verboten, to the 21st century when queer folk have become media darlings, Vidal and his associates wrote a whole new reality into existence–a more diverse and tolerant nation than the one into which they were born.  We owe him and them for that.  And we will not forget it.

August 1, 2012 Posted by | California, gay men, Gore Vidal, Remembrances | , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Gay Martyr for Justice Harvey Milk Celebrated Throughout America

San Francisco, California – Harvey Milk Day, May 22, celebrates the life and legacy of love of Harvey Bernard Milk, born May 22, 1930, and gunned down in his San Francisco City Hall office on November 27, 1978.  He was the first openly gay person elected to a major political office in the United States when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.  His close associate,  gay activist Cleve Jones, says of his friend Harvey, “He fought for gay people, against war and for workers and the poor. He stood with women, immigrants, seniors and youth. He forged coalitions that built power for ordinary men and women and moved us all forward with his humor, compassion and great love for his people.” 

In today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Anne Kronenberg, another intimate friend of Harvey’s who managed his successful election campaign to the Board of Supervisors, reflects on Harvey’s legacy of human rights progress in the 33 years since he was assassinated.  She writes, “In 1977” (the year of Harvey’s election), “we were taking baby steps in our fight for equal rights. In 2012, we have come a long way as the dialogue on equality is a top-of-mind issue and specific actions are reaching that goal. Harvey Milk’s life and death changed the course of history,” Kronenberg went on to say. “Milk’s legacy, to give people hope for a better tomorrow, is very much alive in the hearts of anyone working to achieve change. Thank you, Harvey!”

In 2010, the State of California officially set aside May 22, the anniversary of Harvey’s birth, to be an annual celebration of his memory, the story of the struggle for LGBTQ rights, and of the continuing effort to make this a better world.  His work in education (successfully opposing the infamous Briggs Initiative, also known in California as Prop 6), and in youth empowerment is now being championed by the Harvey B. Milk Foundation, founded by Harvey’s nephew Stuart Milk and his friend Anne Kronenberg.  To learn more about Harvey’s life, times, assassination and witness for justice, see the Academy Award winning films The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) and Milk (2009). In book form, the definitive work is still Randy Shilts’s The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (St. Martins Griffin, 2008).

The Unfinished Lives Project Team joins grateful Americans from every walk of life in the celebration of Harvey Milk, hate crimes murder victim, gay rights pioneer, and friend of all marginalized people.  Though he died, yet he lives in our hearts and minds, and in the living shrine of liberty made up of the lived experiences of increasing millions of out and proud LGBTQ people.  Happy Birthday, Harvey!

May 22, 2012 Posted by | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, bi-phobia, Bisexual persons, California, gay men, GLBTQ, gun violence, Harvey B. Milk Foundation, Harvey Milk Day, Hate Crimes, hate crimes prevention, Heterosexism and homophobia, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, Remembrances, Social Justice Advocacy, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Gay Martyr for Justice Harvey Milk Celebrated Throughout America

Transgender Woman of Color Murdered in Possible Hate Crime

Brandy Martell, 37, transgender woman shot to death in Downtown Oakland.

Oakland, California – As 37-year-old transgender woman Brandy Martell sat behind the wheel of her car early Sunday morning, the men who were talking with her shot her to death.  ABC7 reports that two other women in the car with Ms. Martell say the two men who attacked her had approached the car for a conversation.  The witnesses told News 7 that the conversation turned angry, and one of the men drew his weapon and shot into the car.

Many in the East Bay progressive community say that the murder was an anti-transgender hate crime. Oakland Occupy Patriarchy, and affiliate of Occupy Oakland, reports that the killer had “become enraged and shot her when he realized she was trans.”  A vigil in memory of Ms. Martell was held Sunday night for her grief-stricken friends and the Oakland transgender and transsexual community.  SF Weekly reports that one attendee, Holly Fogelbach, expressed the feelings at the vigil in an email message. “This morning,” she wrote, “I can’t shake the pain of what I saw, not for me but for that family and for those friends and for the people who make their living on those corners and will be out there again tonight while Brandi’s [sic] blood is still drying on the pavement.”

Ms. Martell recently worked as an outreach worker for the Tri-City Health Center in Fremont, an agency specializing in assistance to members of the gender variant community. She and her friends were out on the town, having a good time together when the savage attack occurred, according to ABC 7.  One of the occupants of the car who declined to be identified because the killer and his accomplice are not yet in custody, strongly refuted any suggestion that Ms. Martell and her friends were “engaged in the sex trade” or were doing anything other than enjoying each other’s company in Downtown Oakland.  “Everyone who is out late is not doing something wrong, you know,” she said. Another friend of Ms. Martell, Tiffany Woods, said, “When you don’t provide a space in society for people who you think are the other or different, especially transgender women, especially transgender women of color, when you don’t provide spaces for them to be in a safe environment or a safe space, whether it’s socializing or services, this is what happens.”

Police are not yet investigating this case as a hate crime.  No one has been arrested and charged for the shooting as of this writing.  Because of the slow pace of mainstream media coverage of this story, many in the transgender community of the East Bay are left feeling “nobody cares.”

May 2, 2012 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, California, GLBTQ, gun violence, Hate Crimes, LGBTQ, Media Issues, transgender persons, transphobia, Unsolved LGBT Crimes, Vigils | , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Transgender Woman of Color Murdered in Possible Hate Crime

Hollywood Hate Crime Suggests City Unsafe for Gays

All is not well for gays in the City of the Stars.

Hollywood, California – Police are investigating a severe beating at one of the busiest corners in Hollywood this Sunday. According to CBS 2 News, three men approached a lone, 39-year-old Hispanic man at the corner of North Caheunga Boulevard and Yucca Street, asking him if he was gay.  When he said “yes,” the men attacked him so brutally that he lost consciousness.  They only stopped their assault when other people arrived on the scene, and moved in to help the victim.  The victim took a cab to the hospital where he was treated and released.  Police have only a vague description of the attackers. There has been no evidence to suggest there was a racial/ethnic dimension to the assault.  This appears to be a gay bashing, plain and simple, and police in the Hollywood Division of the LAPD are investigating it as such.

The attack took place around 1:30 am in the heart of Hollywood, a location where people have felt safe for years.  For a man to be assaulted so blatantly raises security concerns for residents.  Area resident Daniela Castro told CBS 2 reporters that she was shocked and disgusted that such a hate crime took place in her neighborhood.  “I hate that people have to think that way,” she said. “People need to be more open-minded.” Noting that she walks through the same intersection to and from acting classes, Castro said, “I really hope they get caught. If they keep doing that to people, it’s just not right.”

The gay community in the Hollywood area is on high alert already.  In October, a series of gay bashings took place in West Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Authorities downplayed the anti-gay attacks at that time, reassuring the community that there was no evidence that the fall attacks were related to each other, and that there was apparently no upsurge in anti-gay violence in the city.  Now, with this disturbing gay bashing taking place in the heart of the city, gay activists are calling for immediate investigation and action to protect the large LGBTQ community.

March 18, 2012 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, California, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, LGBTQ, Unsolved LGBT Crimes | , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Hollywood Hate Crime Suggests City Unsafe for Gays

Homophobe Stabs Gay Waiter at Denny’s; Gets Big Jail Time

Curtis Martin, convicted for brutal homophobic stabbing (KCOY image).

Santa Maria, California – A 25-year-old man pled no contest on Wednesday to the attempted murder of a gay waiter, and received a 26-years-to-life sentence for the homophobic hate crime attack.  Curtis Martin gained entrance to Denny’s Restaurant on East Main Street in Santa Maria just before opening time on a day in mid-September 2010 on the pretense of using the restroom.  Once inside, Martin asked a waiter whether he was gay, and then stabbed him twice, once on the side of the neck and then in his throat, according to Central Coast News. Witnesses testified that Martin was yelling anti-gay epithets at his victim as he carried out the brutal attack.  He fled in a car, but Santa Maria Police apprehended him within a few blocks of the restaurant.  The victim survived, and is still recovering from the aftermath of his wounds.

Mercury News reports that Martin was charged with a hate crime which enhanced his sentence for attempted murder with a deadly weapon.  No other motive has been uncovered for the crime than irrational hatred of someone he perceived to be gay.  The assailant and his victim did not know each other prior to the savage attack. As Instinct Magazine suggests, now even an American dining icon like Denny’s is no longer exempt from hate crimes against LGBTQ people. We at Unfinished Lives hope Martin serves his full sentence.  No one should have to fear going out to eat because of their sexual orientation.

February 11, 2012 Posted by | Anglo Americans, Anti-LGBT hate crime, California, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, LGBTQ, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets, stabbings | , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

DOMA Discrimination Against Lesbian Army Veteran Challenged in Court

Tracey Cooper-Harris, highly decorated Army veteran, denied spousal benefits because she is lesbian

Los Angeles, California – A highly decorated lesbian veteran of the U.S. Army is being denied disability benefits because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and today the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed an important lawsuit to challenge DOMA on her behalf. Tracey Cooper-Harris served with honor in the U.S. Army for 12 years, and received an honorable discharge in 2003 after having received more than two dozen medals and commendations.  But because she married a person of her own sex in California, a perfectly legal marriage still in force, the United States government is denying her and her spouse Maggie equal disability benefits to those heterosexual spouses are receiving.

Cooper-Harris, who achieved the rank of Sergeant for her service in Kyrgyzstan and Kuwait in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, was diagnosed in 2010 with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a disabling disease of the brain and central nervous system for which there is no known cure. Government doctors determined that Cooper-Harris contracted MS as a result of her military service. Faced with a daunting future, she is trying to get her affairs in order as any responsible spouse would. Cooper-Harris received individual disability benefits, but since DOMA is still federal law, the government says that she and her spouse are not eligible for the spousal benefits her service truly entitles them too–all because of anti-gay discrimination, even after the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT).

Cooper-Harris said, “I dedicated 12 years of my life to serving the country I love. I’m asking only for the same benefits the brave men and women who served beside me enjoy. By refusing to recognize our marriage, the federal government has deprived Maggie and me of the peace of mind that such benefits are meant to provide to veterans and their families.”

The federal lawsuit, Cooper-Harris vs. United States, filed February 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, challenges the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the laws governing the Veterans Affairs policy that denies equal treatment before the law for Cooper-Harris and other married same-sex persons in the nation. Christine P. Sun, Deputy Legal Director of the SPLC, said, “The government’s refusal to grant these benefits is a slap in the face to the gay and lesbian service members who put their lives on the line to protect our nation and our freedoms. Especially given the recent repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, it’s shocking that the federal government continues to demean Tracey’s years of service and the service of many others in this way.”  The case is being litigated on Cooper-Harris’s behalf pro bono (at no charge) by the SPLC.

February 1, 2012 Posted by | African Americans, California, DADT, DOMA, GLBTQ, Heterosexism and homophobia, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, Marriage Equality, Social Justice Advocacy, Southern Poverty Law Center, U.S. Army | , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on DOMA Discrimination Against Lesbian Army Veteran Challenged in Court

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