DADT Claims Another Victim: Gay Sailor August Provost
Beaumont, TX – East Texas is not what an informed person would call a hotbed of liberalism. But the East Texas aunt of murdered gay sailor, August Provost, is speaking out against the investigation of the Navy into her nephew’s execution-style murder at Camp Pendleton, California. Rose Roy of Beaumont claims that a full year before his murder, Seaman August Provost complained that he was being harassed for being gay. Provost’s lover has corroborated the same story when he spoke out to the press on July 4. Mrs. Roy and other family members encouraged Seaman Provost to document the incidents and inform his superiors in the Navy about them, but she found out that he was afraid to do so because of the military ban on homosexuality, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). She told reporters for KBMT News that he was discouraged by the possibility that the Navy would have launched an investigation into his private life, so he didn’t pursue the matter officially. Now, the Navy is discouraging any suggestion that Provost, an African American patriot from Houston, TX, was murdered because of his sexual orientation. A spokesman refuses to give any other motive for the killing. Provost was shot multiple times, and his corpse was set afire in a guard shack in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence. According to statistics kept by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), nearly 13,000 members of the U.S. Military have been discharged under the provisions of the 1993 DADT law. That amounts to about one person each and every day. Since President Barak Obama was inaugurated, 284 Americans have been discharged from the military thanks to DADT. The untold story is the toll in lives lost because of murders that could possibly have been prevented were DADT not in place, not to mention the number of suicides among LGBTQ sailors, soldiers, airmen, coast guardsmen, and marines.
U.S. House Chair Calls for Hate Crime Investigation of Gay Sailor’s Murder
San Diego, CA – The Chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee is calling for a hate crime probe into the death of Seaman August Provost, 29, shot to death and immolated in a guard shack on base at Camp Pendleton on Tuesday. The AP reports that Representative Bob Filner, D-San Diego, chair of the powerful Veterans Affairs committee, has pressed officials for a full investigation into the murder of the African American Houston native who served in the Navy’s Hovercraft unit. Members of the San Diego LGBT community asked Rep. Filner to intervene on their behalf so that the truth could come out. The Navy has been traditionally reluctant to reveal details of any homicide involving homosexuality. The Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) took a “person of interest” into custody and filed no charges against him, but the Houston Chronicle reports on July 3 that he has been released. Captain Matt Brown, spokesperson for Navy Region Southwest in San Diego said, “Seaman Provost was an outstanding sailor looking forward to a bright future. He was also a son, a friend and a shipmate, and all of us share in the grief and this sense of loss. He will most surely be missed by all who loved and cared for him, and by those who served with him.”
Sean William Kennedy’s Killer Released Early by South Carolina
Greenville, SC – Sean William Kennedy’s killer, Stephen Moller, has been released early from prison, even after a reduced sentence that scandalized the nation. Moller, sentenced in June 2008 to 3 years for Kennedy’s murder, was given every break in the book. A massive letter writing campaign scotched the first attempt to parole Moller early. Hundreds of letters flooded the SC Department of Corrections to stop any early release, and it appeared that the state relented. Such was not the case, as Moller’s early release this week demonstrates. He served less than a year for the murder of 20-year-old Sean (pictured to the left). Kennedy’s mother, Elke Kennedy, issued this statement through a bulletin from the Human Rights Campaign: “This adds insult to injury. To release a man just one-year after his sentencing in this heinous crime and to inform the victim’s mother through an automated recording is despicable,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Sean Kennedy was violently attacked for no other reason than his sexual orientation. This is a text book case of why we need to pass federal legislation that would bring stiffer penalties and provide local authorities with the full resources of the U.S. Justice Department to address vicious hate crimes.” On the night of May 16/17, 2007, Moller attacked Kennedy outside Brew’s Pub, a popular Greenville bar. According to reports, Moller accompanied the assault with anti-gay epithets. He later bragged about bashing “that fagot [sp.],” and suggested that he owed Moller $500 for hurting his hand when he struck Kennedy in the face. The blow hit with such force that Kennedy fell back and sustained brain injury from the combination of the punch and the fall. South Carolina still has no anti-LGBT hate crimes legislation on the books, and this outrageous miscarriage of the law is one more strong reason for the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act now before the U.S. Senate. For more information, go to www.seanslastwish.org.
Gay Sailor Murdered at Camp Pendleton
Camp Pendleton, CA – An E-3 sailor was found shot “execution-style” at Camp Pendleton’s Hovercraft Station on June 30. Privately, investigators confirm a “gay angle” in the slaying. 29 year old Seaman August Provost of Houston, TX was found dead in a guard shack Tuesday at about 3:30 PM. One as yet unconfirmed report says that in addition to his being shot, Provost’s body was badly burned. While the Navy will not comment on whether his sexual orientation was related to his murder, other sources allege that the victim and a “person of interest” to investigators had an ongoing argument on sexual matters for some weeks. 10News.com reports that an anonymous source says Provost was murdered by a fellow serviceman during a violent argument over Provost’s sexual orientation. The suspect in the slaying is being held in the Camp Pendleton brig. San Diego gay activists and the Servicemembers’ Legal Defense Network (SLDN) are calling for a full inquiry into whether this was indeed a hate crime. Kaether Cordero, Provost’s boyfriend in Houston, told reporters for the San Diego Union Tribune that his lover was “openly gay but kept his private life quiet for the most part.” “People who he was friends with, I knew that they knew,” Cordero said. “He didn’t care that they knew. He trusted them.” Provost’s sister, Akalia, said that he had recently complained to his family that someone was harassing him. His family recommended that he tell his supervisor. In 
view of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the military policy banning gay servicemembers from the military, Provost would have been unlikely to broach the subject. He would have had no place to go for counseling or advice, given that many chaplains and psychologists for the Navy would have felt it necessary to comply with DADT and turn a gay-affirming or questioning sailor in to his superiors. His family describes him as courteous, mannerly, and even a little nerdy, a good son who loved his mother and worked hard to see that she was always well cared for. He had completed three years of college prior to enlisting in the Navy in March 2008 in order to help finance the rest of his education, according to his uncle. He was studying to become an architectural engineer. Provost was assigned to Assault Craft Unit 5, nicknamed the “Swift Intruders.” Investigators for the Navy and the family await the autopsy and toxicology report before definitely confirming that Provost’s murder was an anti-gay hate crime. His sister told the Union Tribune, “He didn’t deserve anything but a good life.” As a retired military person said of the case, “This one could get ugly.”
Sending the Devil to Hell for a Trial?: DFW Leaders Demand Independent Investigation in Rainbow Lounge Raid
Fort Worth, TX – In the wee hours of Sunday, June 28, 40 years to the day after the Stonewall Inn Raid in Greenwich Village that sparked the Stonewall Rebellion against anti-LGBT oppression, officers of the Fort Worth Police and the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission raided the Rainbow Lounge. Unlike other so-called “checks” of liquor licenses, the police came hot to trot with a paddy wagon, plastic zip cuffs, and bad attitudes, according to many eye-witnesses and targets in the bar. Word spread fast. Now the Rainbow Lounge Raid is making national and international news, and the police are changing their tunes about what they did on that fateful night when LGBT Pride was challenged by force once again. Originally, FWPD Chief of Police Halstead claimed that officers had been “groped” by at least one patron of the bar, and that the severe cranial injury sustained by Chad Gibson, 26, who was arrested for “public intoxication” was due to “alcohol poisoning.” This is not the first time some version of the tired “gay panic defense” has been marshaled to justify overkill in the treatment of LGBT people. Ironically, hate crimes perpetrators are generally the ones who use the “blame the victim” technique to blur the oppression of LGBT people. That peace officers used it in Fort Worth is nearly as noteworthy as their choice of the Stonewall Anniversary to carry out their assault. Now Chief Halstead is changing stories, saying that Gibson, who is still critical in John Peter Smith Hospital in ICU, was injured “while in custody of the TABC.”
Local business, civic, and activist leaders are calling for an independent investigation of the actions of the FWPD and the TABC during the Raid. Fearing loss of face for Cowtown, as well as loss of business, leaders are demanding more than an internal investigation that may be self-serving at best. Meanwhile, Gibson struggles to heal. No costs of his hospitalization or damages will be forthcoming from the officers who slammed his head into a bathroom step at the Rainbow Lounge, for they are indemnified against facing responsibility for what they did by the state and the city. Too bad. As long as harsh treatment can be whitewashed clean by internal investigations and bureaucratic red tape, LGBT people cannot feel safe anywhere in the Metroplex. The Rainbow Lounge Raid proves that much, at least. The public has yet to hear a full-throated demand for justice from the Fort Worth LGBT community. While some are courageously speaking out, the so-called “Fort Worth way” is in full display, with queer folk in Cowtown still keeping their heads low for the most part. 
As the days drag on from the time of the Raid, and as Gibson fights to get better from bleeding on the brain in ICU, the Fort Worth LGBT community may yet find its voice. One of the most telling witness statements from a patron of the Rainbow Lounge on the night of the raid was that the assault by police “was just like Stonewall without fighting back.” The spirit of Stonewall is resistance, plain an simple. Non-resistance is not and never has been the Stonewall way, and Fort Worth LGBT people and their allies have to find more spine if they are to have freedom and equality in deep, dark red Tarrant County, stronghold of right wing Republicanism in North Texas.
This story has all the makings of a regional earthquake in human rights: Excessive police force, severely injured LGBT people, gay panic defense, police cover-up attempts, heterosexist attitudes, terror in the queer community, and finally, the will to resist on the part of gay men and lesbians who have had enough jawboning and harm from their elected leaders and law enforcement agencies. Passively allowing the law enforcement agencies and city officials responsible for this outrage to mollify the public with “internal investigations” is like sending the Devil to Hell for a trial. No jury in perdition would ever find him guilty. Without consistent pressure coupled with open communications, things will pretty much go back to homophobic normal in Cowtown. Instead of an earthquake, all Fort Worth may experience from this unwarranted use of brute force will be a shrug. The coming days will see if the North Texas children of Stonewall will rise up and seize the moment, or not.
~ Stephen V. Sprinkle, Director of the Unfinished Lives Project
“Remain Vigilant!” Warns Southern Poverty Law Center
Montgomery, AL – In a letter to supporters dated June 17, J. Richard Cohen, CEO and President of the Southern Poverty Law Center urges the entire SPLC network to “remain vigilant” in the wake of the murder of Holocaust Memorial Museum Security Guard Stephen Johns. The SPLC carries out the most extensive program of tracking hate groups and extremist organizations of any non-governmental organization in the nation, most recently on the anti-LGBT hate monger, Scott Lively and his band of co-extremists, Watchmen on the Walls. Two Slavic Christian fundamentalists from Sacramento, CA with ties to Lively’s group carried out a fatal attack on gay East Indian immigrant Satendar Singh during the July 4 holiday season of 2008. Cohen’s important letter reads in part:
“In addition to the Holocaust Museum shooting, we’ve seen the murders of five police officers by extremists in recent months and the assassination of a prominent Kansas physician by an extremist tied to the anti-government militia movement. These killers may have acted alone, but they were all influenced by the hate movement in America. What’s alarming is that this movement is now being aided and abetted by far-right pundits on cable TV and talk radio, who are fanning the flames of hate with their increasingly hysterical rhetoric targeting President Obama, the government, Latino immigrants and others who are not like them. These are the same commentators who ridiculed the recent Department of Homeland Security that predicted the very kind of violent attacks we’re now seeing.” Cohen concludes by urging all fair-minded Americans to stand firm against hatred: “We all need to speak out against hate — whether it’s in the national media or in our communities…. We hope the lessons from this latest tragedy won’t soon fade from our national consciousness.”
Tennessee Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes Up Dramatically
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) released statistics on May 28 showing a massive spike in 2008 hate crimes in the Volunteer State, up 38% over 2007. While the largest number of bias-related crimes was against African Americans (a number actually slightly down from 2007), the second largest percentage of violent attacks was against members of the sexual minority–11.8% of the total for 2008. Reported acts of hate violence against LGBT people in Tennessee increased just a whisker shy of 13% over the previous year. The entire report in .pdf format may be viewed by going to the TBI website. The largest category of hate crimes in the 2008 report was bias crimes of unknown motivation. The numbers of anti-LGBT hate crimes almost certainly will rise when more of these crimes yield evidence about the class or group against whom they were perpetrated. The Unfinished Lives Project has previously highlighted the steep rise in attacks on transgender women of color in Memphis. Representative of these brutal crimes was the killing of Duanna Johnson of Memphis, who was murdered in November 2008 after lodging a $1.3 million dollar lawsuit against the city for a savage beating police gave her which was caught on a jailhouse camera earlier in the year.
Hate Crimes Victims Remembered at Dallas Day of Decision Protest
Hundreds gathered to hear speakers call for protests in the streets to show the determination of the LGBT community to have equal rights. The Dallas gayborhood rang with with voices of protesters in the largest street demonstration in years along Oaklawn and Cedar Springs. Blake Wilkinson of Queer LiberAction named Matthew Shepard whose death 10 years ago has not yet been vindicated by federal hate crimes legislation. He urged protesters to get angry that LGBT advocacy for hate crimes victims is so ineffective that a decade out from the Shepard murder, the queer community still does not have laws protecting LGBT people from being bashed and killed. Then Wilkinson called on the crowd to channel that anger into effective local, state and national action, starting in the streets, with gay folk taking their message of equality to the people.
The large crowd moved up Cedar Springs Road to TMC, The Mining Company, a popular gay bar on the strip with a large, street side patio, where the rally heard a number of powerful speeches protesting “separate but equal,” second-class status for LGBT Americans.
Dallas Queer LiberAction protest at the Legacy of Love column (Dallas Voice photo)
California Senate Approves “Harvey Milk Day,” May 22
By a bipartisan vote of 24-14, the California Senate has approved May 22 as Harvey Milk Day, according to Advocate.Com. Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the United States, was slain on November 27, 1978 by jealous San Francisco City Supervisor, Dan White, along with Mayor George Moscone. Milk’s murder rocked the gay rights world, and secured a martyr’s respect for the affable politician whose advice to all LGBT activists was “You gotta give ’em hope!” Milk would have been 79 this coming May 22, the choice of his birthday a deliberate effort to preserve his story and legacy for generations to come.
Harvey Milk Day will be a “Day of Significance” throughout the Golden State. The designation differs from a state holiday in that state employees will not be given the day off, and state offices will not close. Nonetheless, the action of the state Senate is unprecedented in recognizing the importance of Milk’s contribution to the struggle for human rights in general, and for LGBT rights in particular. In view of the controversy surrounding same-sex marriage and Proposition 8, this first annual commemoration becomes even more timely.
Among those testifying in favor of the Harvey Milk Bill was Dustin Lance Black, who received an Academy Award for his screenplay of the film Milk, starring Sean Penn in the title role. Black expressed his debt to Harvey Milk who kindled hope in him as a Mormon boy in Texas who was isolated and hedged in by anti-gay sentiment. The sole Republican to join the Senate’s 23 Democrats to vote for the creation of Harvey Milk Day, Senator Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, credited Black’s testimony before the Senate Education Committee with causing him to flip his vote from “no” to “yes.” “I rarely get swayed by testimony,” Maldonado said.
Ohio Hate Murder Revisited After Six Years: Justice for Gregory Beauchamp
Jerry Jones, 28, indicted for 2002 New Year's Eve Murder of Gregory Beauchamp
On New Year’s Eve 2002, a dark blue Cadillac pulled up to the corner of West Liberty and Vine Streets in Cincinnati beside two cross-dressed friends as they walked to a party. Taunts erupted from the car at the two homosexual men, “Fuckin’ faggot-assed bitches!” Then somebody in the Caddy pulled a trigger, and Gregory Beauchamp, 21, fell fatally wounded in the chest. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
Hate Murder Victim Gregory Beauchamp, 21, wanted to be a fashion designer.
Now, thanks to the work of the Cincinnati Cold Case Unit, Jerry Jones, 28, has been indicted for Beauchamp’s murder. Jones was already in custody at a Dayton, Ohio detention facility on unrelated charges. In 2003, though he had been arrested for killing Beauchamp, the grand jury failed to indict him. The years have not dimmed the pain Beauchamp’s friends still feel for his loss. His friend Dontae refuses to forgive Jones: “This is so sad what they did to Gregory. I miss him so much! The guy who took his life don’t think how much he meant to us. He took my best friend [away from me] that night.”
Curtis Johnson holds photo of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp. (Steven Heppich photo)
Gregory Beauchamp was the 65th homicide of the year in Cincinnati, and the last one for 2002. Curtis Johnson remembers the night as if it were yesterday. He told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he was on his way to meet Beauchamp at the party. “He just died in the street–it’s just terrible. I just want people to know he’s more than just the 65th victim. He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person. Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough.”
Beauchamp’s brutal murder sparked a movement in Cincinnati that culminated in the passage of a municipal hate crime statute. Now his friends may get to see justice done for the gentle man who loved to wear women’s clothing and dreamed of studying fashion design in California.
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…
-
Where are our readers?
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
Follow Unfinished Lives on Facebook
Box Turtle Bulletin- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- HRC Back Story
- Know About The Gender Identity Movement
- Why Is There A Need For Human Rights?
- Kinds Of Human Rights
- Human Rights Purposes And Violations
- Human Rights For Every Human Incident
- 8 Reasons Human Rights Are Important
- Everything About Human Rights
- Human Rights Issues Education & Law
- We Need To Stand Up For Our Rights And Those Of Others
- Coca-Cola Receives Perfect Score On Human Rights
- The Advocate: Daily News
- ACIP government vaccine panel meeting postponed after judge voids RFK Jr.’s appointments
- Judge hints at federal class action, orders DOJ evidence in trans military ban case
- Judge blocks RFK Jr.’s dangerous vaccine policy changes. Ex-CDC leader calls it ‘big news’
- Trans editor sues DreamWorks over harassment on ‘Bad Guys 2’
- Trump reveals GOP congressman’s ‘terminal’ medical diagnosis at Kennedy Center meeting
- Trans tech executive could become first out officeholder in western Tennessee
- White House press secretary ties voting bill to unrelated anti-trans Trump agenda in Fox News appearance
- Advocate newsletter 3/16/26
- How a teacher and her students are bringing queer equality to Wikipedia
- Trump says Iran throws gays off buildings after trying to deport same-sex couple there
- Dallas Voice: Instant Tea
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Unfinished Lives 