Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

With sorrow and sympathy

We at the Unfinished Lives Project convey our deepest sympathy to the Rev. Chris Buice and the members of Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. We are concerned especially for the children of the congregation who were putting on their stage version of “Annie, Jr.”, and for the families of Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, who have both died as a result of gunshot wounds. Our prayers and thoughts are with the six other members of the church who were wounded in this senseless attack.

Tennessee Valley UU has been courageously advocating for LGBT people and for other social justice causes since the 1950s. In grief at the loss they have endured, and in hope for a better world, we stand together with them.

Stephen V. Sprinkle
Director
The Unfinished Lives Project

 

View an Associated Press video reporting the violent incident:

July 28, 2008 Posted by | Condolences, gun violence, Hate Crimes, multiple homicide, religious intolerance, School and church shootings, Tennessee | , , , , | Comments Off on With sorrow and sympathy

Father assaults gay son with baseball bat

[NOTE: The veracity of the teen’s claims are now under investigation.  See this July 23, 2008 update to the story.  – The Unfinished Lives Project team]

 

An article in the Anderson Independent-Mail (South Carolina) reports that a father assaulted his own son for having attended a gay pride parade last Sunday.

The article says “the teen’s 49-year-old father yelled, cursed, swung a baseball bat, prayed and tried to ‘cast the demon of homosexuality out of him,’ according to the teen’s version of events.”  A second incident occurred when the son returned home to collect some clothing.

Both occurrences are under investigation by deputies in Anderson County.

July 18, 2008 Posted by | Beatings and battery, Domestic Violence, gay men, Hate Crimes, religious intolerance, South Carolina, Uncategorized | , , , | Comments Off on Father assaults gay son with baseball bat

As Ebony Whitaker laid to rest, hate crime concerns continue in Memphis

According to a July 8 Out & About Newspaper article, the murder of transgender woman Ebony (Rodney) Whitaker has raised concerns about anti-gay violence in Memphis, Tennessee.  As Whitaker’s body was laid to rest on Monday, the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC) called upon the Memphis Police Department to be more responsive when it comes to crimes committed against the transgender community.

Whitaker’s murder is considered the latest in a string of violent crimes against transgendered persons in Memphis.  TTPC president Marisa Richmond said that the unsolved murder of Tiffany Berry and the police beating of Duanna Johnson point to an unacceptable trend of violence.  “The lack of response by the Memphis Police Department,” says Richmond, “has set a tone in the community that the lives of transgender people, especially African-American, are irrelevant.”

 

Watch the video of Duanna Johnson’s beating by Memphis Police in February.

 

For more information about Ebony (Rodney) Whitaker, read a related article at the Memphis Eyewitness News website.

July 11, 2008 Posted by | African Americans, Hate Crimes, police brutality, Tennessee, transgender persons | , , , , | 1 Comment

Murdered transgendered woman a possible hate crime victim

Memphis police are investigating the death of Rodney Whitaker, age 20, an African American transgendered woman who was found on July 1, 2008, in Memphis, Tennessee.

While police are currently investigating the circumstances of the crime, says Tennessee Equality Project President Christopher Sanders, there is reason to believe that Whitaker’s murder was a hate crime fueled by “transphobia.”

Whitaker’s murder is the latest in a string of hate crimes against the Memphis transgender community.  This week’s murder follows the February 16 murder of African American transgendered woman, Tiffany Berry.

Read the original article at the Out & About online newspaper.

Read a related article at the Memphis Eyewitness News website.

July 3, 2008 Posted by | African Americans, Hate Crimes, Tennessee, transgender persons | , , , | Comments Off on Murdered transgendered woman a possible hate crime victim

A Welcome Message

Stephen V. Sprinkle

Welcome to the Unfinished Lives Project, a place to remember and honor LGBT hate crime victims.

Our mission is to reveal the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation; to make anti-LGBT hate crime statistics available to our communities; to educate about the nature of hate crimes and how it affects LGBT and other communities; and to eliminate hate crime through social justice and awareness activities. On our website, we’ve dedicated pages and posts to achieve our mission:

A near brush with anti-gay hate crime in the late 1990’s in Fort Worth, Texas, shocked me awake to the reality of violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people across America. As a graduate school professor, my pursuits are usually quiet ones, preparing for class, and doing my research. But my quest to understand the effects and causes of hatred against people because of their difference has made me stare into the face of radical evil: the sort that kills.

Because of my work and research, I have learned how much all of us need each other–especially all of us who are members of racial/ethnic, religious, differently-abled, female, and LGBT communities. I have learned how vital the work of advocacy is. I have learned how precious life itself is, and how fragile. For this project, I have interviewed relatives, bereaved lovers, co-workers, neighbors and friends, journalists, and law enforcement officers who had direct knowledge about the women and men who died so brutally because of ignorance, prejudice and fear. It has been the journey of a lifetime, and in a strange way, though I am a teacher, these deceased LGBT people have become my teachers.

I want to convey to anyone who will listen that it is possible by hope to bring something beautiful and meaningful out of the ugliest realities of American life. Every time I meet a mother or lover, a friend or an advocate of one of these murdered LGBT people and share their stories, the intentions of the killers and the haters are frustrated, and the hope for a better, more just society somehow springs to life from the ashes.

I dedicate this website to the victims and to all those working for a better world. Thank you for visiting with us, and for joining us in our pursuit for a world free of violence and fear.

I hope you will visit us often.

Sincerely,

Stephen V. Sprinkle
Director
The Unfinished Lives Project

June 28, 2008 Posted by | A Welcome Message, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, gay men, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Popular Culture, Protests and Demonstrations, religious intolerance, transgender persons, Uncategorized, women | 23 Comments

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