Hate Attacks Up Against LGBT’s, Blacks, and Jews in 2008: FBI Reports
Washington, D.C. – The annual FBI report on bias-related hate crimes in the United States notes increases in violent attacks against LGBT people, African Americans, and Jewish people. Mandated by the 1990 Hate Crimes Statistics Act, the collection and publication of these data received voluntarily from law enforcement organizations almost always underestimate the number of incidents and victims of hate crime attacks because of gaps in reportage, lack of funding to support local law enforcement compliance with FBI requests for this information, and the reluctance of persons to identify themselves as targets of hate violence. CBS News analysis of the 2009 FBI report notes that though the numbers of attacks is up only slightly over the previous year, 7,783 criminal incidents involving 9,168 offenses in 2008 as opposed to 7,624 criminal incidents involving 9,006 offenses reported in 2007, the rise in violence against these three vulnerable groups is particularly worrying. Anti-black attacks accounted for 72.6% of all racially-motivated violence, which in aggregate amounted to 51.3% of all hate crimes in the United States in 2008. Anti-religious bias accounted for 19.5% of the total, with anti-Jewish attacks representing the vast majority of these incidents, 65.7%. Violent crimes motivated by sexual orientation ranked third among all bias-motivated crimes, at 16.7%. Of these anti-LGBT attacks, a full 11% higher in 2008 than in 2007, most by far were perpetrated against gay men, 58.6% of all hate crimes against people because of homophobia and heterosexism. Here in Texas, according to the Dallas Voice, hate crimes against LGBT people were up a full 20% over the previous year. The entire FBI report for 2008 may be accessed in .pdf form here. Human rights leaders across the nation were quick to call for swift and decisive action to prosecute perpetrators of hate violence, and to reduce the alarming increases among blacks, Jews, and LGBT people. Joe Solmonese, speaking for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization released this statement on Monday: “These numbers are unacceptable. While it is so important that we have the new federal hate crimes law, it is critical to ensure that we continue working with the Department of Justice to ensure the safety of LGBT citizens. We have to prosecute each hate crime to the fullest extent of the law, but we also need to get at the roots. When we don’t know each other as human beings, ignorance breeds misunderstanding, which breeds hate, which too often this year led to violence. We have to keep fighting the prejudices and stereotypes that underlie these acts.” Roger G. Sugarman, National Chair of the Anti-Defamation League, noted for the Ha’aretz Service “While the increase in the number of hate crimes may be partially attributed to improved reporting, the fact that these numbers remain elevated – particularly the significant rise in the number of victims selected on the basis of religion or sexual orientation – should be of concern to every American.”
Mother of Slain Gay Puerto Rican Teen Speaks Out; Protests and Vigils Break Out Worldwide
Miriam Mercado and Pedro Serrano show Jorge's Signature Gesture (Nueva Dia photo)
San Juan, Puerto Rico – The mother of brutally murdered gay teen, Jorge Steven López Mercado, has broken her silence concerning the social and religious environment in Puerto Rico that led to the loss of her son (see Nueva Dia photo, left). In a statement issued to the press, Miriam Mercado said, “When my son told me he was gay, I told him, ‘Now, I love you more’. I want to tell the world that hatred is not born with human beings, it is a seed that is planted by adults and is fostered creating a climate of intolerance and violence. We must change our ways and understand that anyone… could have been my son. And I want everybody to know that Jorge Steven was a very much loved son.” Meanwhile, the investigation into López Mercado’s murder continues, even as protests and vigils spring up on his home island and around the world, condemning the violence that took his life. After Juan A. Martínez Matos confessed to the beheading, dismemberment, and burning of young López Mercado, his home was intensively searched. Forensics experts recovered a knife believed to have been used in the murder that had been thrown into a septic tank. Statements Matos has made about the events leading up to his savage crime make it likely that he will plead a form of the “gay panic defense,” claiming temporary insanity after ‘discovering’ López Mercado’s sexual identity. Matos is being held in San Juan on $4 million bail. At a large protest on the grounds of the Puerto Rican capitol on Thursday, Pedro Julio Serrano, a leading LGBT activist, called out political and religious leaders who have characterized gay and lesbian people as “perverts,” condemning their hate speech for contributing to lethal violence against members of the sexual minority. Serrano also decried the refusal of these same leaders to extend condolences to López Mercado’s mother and family. On Sunday, vigils took place around the United States, Latin America, and Europe in memory of the 19-year-old Puerto Rican and another gruesomely slain gay teen, African American Jason Mattison, Jr., who died within days of López Mercado, making last week one of the most shocking in recent anti-LGBT hate crime history. Thousands of mourners gathered to remember the teens in Anchorage, Alaska, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, CA, San Francisco, Chicago, Terra Haute, IN, San Antonio, Dallas, Abilene, Lubbock, New Orleans, Atlanta, Durham, NC, Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia and New York City, as well as in San Juan and at others sites in Puerto Rico.
Gay Latino Teen Beheaded, Dismembered, and Burned
Caguas, Puerto Rico – Reports just making the wires confirm that Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, a gay teenager from Puerto Rico, was found brutally murdered in an anti-gay hate crime on November 14. According to a CNNi item, the dismembered body of the 18-year-old was found on the side of a road in Cayey, partially burned and decapitated. Mercado’s arms and legs were severed from his torso. Christopher Pagan, who made the initial report to CNNi, related that Mercado was “was a very well known person in the gay community of Puerto Rico, and very loved.” Associated Content reports that the police investigator in charge of the case made a televised statement to the press to the effect that “people [like young Mercado] who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen.” The response in the Puerto Rican LGBT community has been swift and intense. Pressure is being brought to bear upon authorities to remove the investigator on the grounds that his prejudice hampers the pursuit of justice in the case of an anti-LGBT hate crime murder such as this. The blog Towelroad quotes gay Puerto Rican activist Pedro Julio Serrano, “It is inconceivable that the investigating officer suggests that the victim deserved his fate, like a woman deserves rape for wearing a short skirt. We demand condemnation of this investigator and demand that Superintendente Figueroa Sancha replace him with someone capable of investigating this case without prejudice.” Today, November 17, a 28-year-old suspect has been arrested in conjunction with the Mercado investigation, according to Primiera Hora. Intensive interviews with Mercado’s friends pointed to the suspect, alleging that he had offered Mercado money in exchange for sex. In further developments today, the police superintendent has dismissed allegations of homophobia against the police investigator who expressed his negative opinion about members of the gay community. Serrano has issued this statement in response to the arrest and the innuendo swirling around this case: “Even when everyone is innocent until proven guilty, it is hopeful that they have arrested a suspect. We’re grateful for the Police work that has acted promptly and we trust that the investigation digs into the hate crime angle and if it is proven that it was indeed bias-related, that the criminal is processed to the full extent of the law….We urge the media and the authorities not to judge the victim, but the criminal who committed this horrendous crime. Even if there are particular circumstances in which this crime was committed, we have to keep the attention where it deserves to be: a young gay man was brutally murdered by someone who did not have any compassion or respect for the dignity of a human life.” Associated Content evaluates the situation for LGBT persons and the memory of young Mercado: “Puerto Rico has a conservative religious climate, being strongly influenced by Roman Catholicism and socially conservative Protestantism. Puerto Rico is also a United States territory. As a result the brutal murder of George Steven Lopez Mercado is a hate crime under the hate crime legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama of the United States. To date no murder has yet been classified as a hate crime in Puerto Rico. Homosexuality in Puerto Rico is not illegal and George Steven Lopez Mercado deserves as much protection under the law as any other Puerto Rican citizen.” The FBI is monitoring the situation, and has expressed willingness to assist in the investigation.
U.S. House Approves Matthew Shepard Act
Washington, DC – In a vote that marks the first major expansion of protection under the law in 40 years, the House of Representatives voted to approve the Matthew Shepard Act on Thursday. The Shepard Act, attached as an amendment to a Defense Appropriations Bill, extends protection to LGBT people from bias-related physical violence. A similar provision faced the threat of a veto from President Bush in a recent Congress, even though it passed the House by a comfortable majority. This time around, President Obama has signaled his eagerness to sign the Shepard Amendment into law, as soon as it receives a favorable vote in the U.S. Senate. That vote is expect soon. Protections from hate violence for LGBT Americans have been opposed by congressional Republicans and their allies, usually on the pretext that the addition of the Shepard Act to a defense bill is inappropriate “social engineering,” a “poison pill,” and that the provisions of the Act would serve as a sort of Trojan Horse, making LGBT behaviors “normative.” Some religious critics have argued that the Shepard Act would gag ministers and priests who oppose homosexuality on moral or doctrinal grounds, abrogating their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and to the free exercise of religion, making vocal opposition to LGBT behaviors criminal. Proponents of the legislation counter that the language of the Shepard Act has been carefully crafted to criminalize only acts of physical violence, leaving all First Amendment rights fully intact. The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and openly gay Congressman Jared Polis (D-Colorado) hailed the passage of the Act in the House. Pelosi said, “It’s a very exciting day for us here in the Capitol,” noting that attempts to pass such a law had gone on for her 22-year tenure in the House of Representatives. Polis argued that critics of the Shepard Act seem not to understand the impact of anti-LGBT hate violence beyond the individual victims. “What makes these crimes so bad is they are not just crimes against individuals; they are crimes against entire communities,” he said during the debate on the defense bill. The measure passed the House by a vote of 281 to 146. 237 Democrats and 44 Republicans voted in the affirmative. 131 Republicans and 15 Democrats opposed the bill. “We are closer than ever before to protecting Americans from hate violence thanks to today’s action by the House,” said Joe Solmonese, head of the Washington, D.C.-based LGBT advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign. “The day is within sight when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will benefit from updating our nation’s hate crimes laws.”
Two Dead, Many Wounded in Tel Aviv Anti-LGBT Rampage: Special Comment
The scope of this blog, LGBT hate crimes murders in the U.S. notwithstanding, the attack of a masked gunman on an LGBT youth nightclub in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday night merits special attention. The Unfinished Lives Project express our deepest sympathy to the family, friends, and entire LGBT community of Tel Aviv, and join all those outraged by this act of naked hatred and unreasoning prejudice against people because they are different. Like the United States, Israel has a heritage of cultural diversity, and values tolerance. This outbreak of raw anti-LGBT bias flies in the face of everything both countries stand for. Nitzan Horowitz, the only openly gay member of the Knesset, described the killings as a “hate crime.” Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres have condemned the attack. Unfinished Lives supports the efforts to bring the gunman to justice, and prosecute him to the full extent of the law. We also support any efforts within the law to root out this lethal prejudice. Israel has had violent clashes over LGBT expression before. In 2005, a radical ultra-orthodox critic of a Jerusalem gay pride march attacked and stabbed three marchers. Incitement to violence prepared the way for both attacks, and though members of the ultra-orthodox Shas party have condemned the attack, their anti-gay hate rhetoric played a part in the toxic atmosphere that made a killer decide to act on prejudice. The Shas party, and all other purveyors of hate speech in the State of Israel, need to take a step back, refrain immediately from inciting rhetoric, and make amends to the LGBT community. But we at the Unfinished Lives Project are not holding our breath. Meanwhile, LGBT youth in Israel have received a message written in the blood of three murdered young people: you are not safe. It is up to the leaders and the people of the nation to insure that something like this will never happen in Israel again.
“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.”
Triangle of Terror: Gays On Their Guard
![Police in body armor outside US Holocaust Museum [Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto]](https://unfinishedlivesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/euro-pressphoto1.jpg?w=300&h=180 "Euro Pressphoto")
Police in body armor outside US Holocaust Museum (Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto)
Steven Domer murdered by white supremacist
Steven Domer of Edmonton, Oklahoma, was brutally murdered in October 2007 by Darrell Madden, a white supremacist recently released from prison. Madden, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, garroted Domer with a wire clothes hanger after binding him with duct tape. Domer’s body was found in a ravine in McClain County. Investigators believe that Madden’s motive was to earn his “patch” from the Aryan Brotherhood, a sign of distinction awarded to a member who murders a Jew, a black, a homosexual, or anyone deemed to be an “enemy” by the group. In October 2008, Madden was found guilty of first degree murder and abduction, and sentenced to four consecutive life terms. The Domer murder and others like it offer a warning to the LGBT community in a time when hostility is clearly on the rise against same-sex marriage, the Matthew Shepard Act, ENDA, and the proposed repeal of both DOMA and DADT. Hate crime statistics demonstrate an upward spiral of violence in Michigan, Tennessee, Minnesota, and California. LGBT Americans share the vulnerability of other targeted groups, and decry the violence perpetrated by religious bigotry, misguided nationalism, racial hatred, and misogyny. The need for the passage of a sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression hate crimes law has never been greater, given the rising tide of bias-related hate crimes chilling whole segments of the American population. Fear may isolate and paralyze people. Resolve to face hate and fear with justice and hope can unite people, as well. Now is the time for coalition building, rejection of irrational hatred wherever it arises, and a mutual commitment to the health and safety of all Americans. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people already know how important vigilance and solidarity in the face of terror are. So do women, Jews, and Blacks, all of whom have been affected by these deplorable killings in recent weeks. Perhaps this time those targeted by the radical right will learn how to stand together, and rally the country to repudiate these senseless acts of violence. We at The Unfinished Lives Project devoutly hope so.
What the Matthew Shepard Act Does: Rachel Maddow Comments
Attacks against LGBT people in the U.S. are increasing alarmingly
Violent crimes against LGBT people have increased in the U.S. population in the last two years at an alarming rate, especially among Latino and Black racial/ethnic groups. The California Department of Justice, for example, noted 263 hate crimes based on sexual orientation in 2007. Commenting on these statistics, Jason Bartlett, a California-based spokesman for the National Black Justice Coalition, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocacy group, said, “We have a disproportionate amount of African-Americans being targeted that are LGBT, and we have a huge disparity where transgender people are attacked due to gender expression. Within the Black or Latino community there is more stigma attached to being gay or lesbian or transgender. It’s not talked about as much and within our religious institutions. We have ministers that speak homophobia from the pulpit. Those kind of messages filter down.” The same is true throughout the country, as the brutal murders of Angie Zapata, Latina transgender woman from Greeley, CO, and Lateishia Green, African American transgender woman from Syracuse, NY, show.
Latiesha Green, transwoman murdered in Syracuse, NY
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act, would expand current hate-crimes laws and authorize the Attorney General “to provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or other assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution” of any crime “motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or is a violation of the state, local, or tribal hate crime laws.”
Misleading anti-Shepard Act flyer, aimed at U.S. Congress
Against critics, supporters of the Act note that this is not a “hate speech act,” or a “hate thought act,” as detractors have charged. This Act specifically preserves all First Amendment rights of speech and assembly. Instead, this Act targets crimes perpetrated against LGBT people because of bias motivation against their sexual orientation or gender expression and identity.
Rachel Maddow, MSNBC News Commentator
Nobody seems to have gotten the rationale for the Matthew Shepard Act more clearly than MSMBC’s commentator, Rachel Maddow. In her discussion of the controversy surrounding the Act since its passage in the U.S. House of Representatives, she put it this way on The Rachel Maddow Show of 4/30/09:
MADDOW: “The concept behind this kind of legislation is often misconstrued but here’s the deal as I understand it. The idea is that the federal Justice Department can get involved in a case to help local authorities or even to take the lead on a case if need be, in prosecuting individual serious violet crimes and murders in which the victim was selected on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability – the idea that crimes like that are intended not only to hurt or murder an individual, but to terrorize an entire community, and so there is a national interest in ensuring that those crimes are solved and prosecuted, particularly if local law enforcement doesn’t want to because they are blinkered by the same prejudice that led to the crime in the first place.”
Special Comment on the Proposition 8 Protest Movement: “Now is Our Time”
by Stephen V. Sprinkle
One step too far: that is the step opponents of civil rights for LGBT people, the LDS Church and the Knights of Columbus, took in their all-out effort to repeal same-sex marriage in California. I do not contest the freedom of church organizations to voice their opinions about court decisions in America. But the desperate over-reach of Mormons and Roman Catholics to strip same-sex couples of the right of civil marriage the California Supreme Court had vouchsafed to them has awakened millions of LGBT people and allies to the power of a movement whose time has come. Pouring millions of church dollars and thousands of radio/TV advertisements into the struggle over Prop 8 has rebounded upon those who briefly celebrated beating back the high court’s decision on same-sex marriage. The agents of heterosexist theocracy may have won a single battle at the ballot box, but in doing so they have set in motion a war for public opinion they cannot win.
Our opponents managed one thing by their desperation and arrogance: they have galvanized the grassroots power of the millions of LGBT folk and allies who surged to the polls on November 4 to elect Barack Obama president. With the internet as the vehicle for equality, 300 protest events sprang up in less than twelve days. No other civil rights movement in American history has been launched in cyberspace before, and as the presidential campaign of 2008 demonstrated, the internet has vast potential to rally millions and to fund a national movement. As a witness to the No On 8 Protest at the Austin, Texas Town Hall, I can report the zeal and determination of 3,000 mostly first-time protesters to seize this time as our time, the long-deferred time for a true LGBT Civil Rights moment. As a marcher myself, I can testify to the thrill of taking it to the streets as a 50-something gay man in a new way. I was too closeted and too far removed from the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 to take to the streets then. But this is today, and Prop 8, no matter what LGBT people may privately think of marriage for ourselves, is a thumb in our eye. Myriads of young Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender people built up their electoral muscle in Obama Pride, and now are ready to infuse new life, energy and possibility into the struggle for sexual and gender expression equality. The rally organizers did a fine job at the Austin Town Hall Plaza for the thousands who came out. All the usual advocacy groups were there, lending leadership and direction to the surging crowds of neophytes straining at the bit to do their part for justice. But closing the proceedings and urging protesters to sign up on contact lists or to buy tee shirts could not shut off the electricity generated by restless youth. When a movement goes viral, it cannot be shut down with the flip of a switch.
Perhaps the organizers of the Austin No On 8 Protest tried to get a march permit, but couldn’t. Whatever the story, hundreds of fired up queers and allies took their signs and passion into the streets, and marched up to the Texas State Capital, where we demonstrated outside the gates in the shadow of the tallest governmental dome in America. “What do we want?” “Equality!” “When do we want it?” “Now!” ricocheted up and down Austin streets as dozens of cars and pickups sped by blaring horns and shouting encouragement. The citizens of Austin stepped back, some smiling, some scowling at the surging rainbow line marching up Congress Avenue. Two descriptors came to my mind as I marched along chanting with the others: Power and Peace. This was no flash-in-the pan afternoon protest, no lark by first-timers seeking to get their pictures in the paper. Others have seized their moments: the anti-war movement, African Americans, the Moral Majority, women. But this has the feel of our time, the time when the issue of same-sex wedlock changed from a political hot potato into a viral movement elevating marriage to the status of a civil right for all Americans.
There are serious problems to work out. Before the rift with people of color tears any further, African Americans and Latinas/Latinos must be appealed to directly. LGBT people and straight people of color have a stake in the fight for justice together, not apart, and LGBT people of color must lead white queer folk to avoid driving a wedge between natural allies and us. That is where LGBT people of faith and progressive religious leaders have a major role to play by giving a faith rationale for the marriage equality movement. One of the lessons of the defeat in California is that when church bigotry waves crosses and distorts the issues for the voting public, the most potent antidote is the public witness of queer and progressive faith leaders wearing all their ecclesiastical regalia. God must not be hijacked any longer by the radical right in the fight for equality. Further, from what I saw and heard, LGBT rallies need media savvy and speakers need coaching on how to call out the passion and motivation that will translate into effective action for change. It was clear that we haven’t learned how to do this ‘thing,’ yet. But we must learn how, and quickly, if we are to ride the tide of commitment building in our queer communities.
My work on LGBT hate crimes murder victims teaches me that our movement already has its martyrs. I cannot help thinking of Harvey Milk, wondering if after 30 years since his assassination in San Francisco we have finally become ready to realize his vision and to vindicate his death and the deaths of so many hundreds of others. As we march and protest, their stories can give us the drive to confront a society yet unwilling to see us as equals. Never again must LGBT people stay silent when some of us are killed for simply being who we are. And never again may we sit idle on the sidelines while others struggle to win our freedom and equality. I saw and felt a justice movement building in the capital of the Lone Star State this past Saturday. As one sign in the Austin No on 8 Protest proclaimed, “Our Love Will Outlast Their H8!” We who believe in justice cannot rest! We who believe in justice cannot rest until it comes!
Stephen V. Sprinkle
Director
The Unfinished Lives Project
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
- Los Angeles mayor blasts DOJ’s Don Lemon prosecution after judge frees journalist without bail
- When feminists feared the 'lavender menace' of lesbians — and how those lesbians fought back
- Don Lemon defiant in first remarks after arrest and release from federal custody
- Daily newsletter 1/30
- Catherine O'Hara's five most iconic roles
- The racist, homophobic, and frightening arrest of Don Lemon
- Don Lemon's arrest prompts Jane Fonda and LGBTQ+ rights group to rally for press freedom
- DOJ releases 3 million pages of Epstein files, taking in 180,000 images and 2,000 videos
- Breaking: Catherine O'Hara dies at 71
- What to know about Don Lemon, the gay journalist arrested by the Trump administration
- Dallas Voice: Instant Tea
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Unfinished Lives 
Protecting Wretches: Why Freedom of Speech Belongs to Fred Phelps, Too
Share this:
September 26, 2009 Posted by unfinishedlives | bi-phobia, Bisexual persons, gay men, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Kansas, Law and Order, Lesbian women, Matthew Shepard Act, military, Monuments and markers, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Politics, Popular Culture, Protests and Demonstrations, religious intolerance, Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy, Special Comments, transgender persons, transphobia | bisexuals, freedom of speech, gay men, harassment, Heterosexism and homophobia, Kansas, Law and Order, legal rulings, Lesbians, Maryland, Matthew Shepard Act, perpetrators, protests, religious hate speech, religious intolerance, Special Comment, transgender persons, transphobia | Comments Off on Protecting Wretches: Why Freedom of Speech Belongs to Fred Phelps, Too