How Did Your Senators Vote on the Matthew Shepard Act Amendment Last Night?
Follow this link to see how your Senators voted on the Matthew Shepard Act Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill. Then let your voices be heard by them:
Charlie Howard Remembered on the 25th Anniversary of His Murder
Charles O. "Charlie" Howard's High School Annual Picture
Charles O. “Charlie” Howard, thrown off a downtown Bangor bridge and drowned in 1984 by young hoodlums intent on terrorizing a gay person, is being remembered all week in Maine with lectures, events, and church services. After 25 years, a monument to him is finally in place near the State Street Bridge beneath which he died. His death was terrifying and hard. According to the autopsy report revealed at the trial of his murderers, he died of a combination of asphyxia from drowning, and from a severe attack of asthma. Professor Marvin Ellison of Bangor Theological Seminary remembers how his killers were lauded as celebrities when the news got out. Young toughs rode through the streets of Bangor, spewing anti-gay hate speech and brandishing shotguns. Even so-called “decent people” adopted a wait-and-see attitude that masked their private belief that somehow the flaming gay boy with the man bag and the painted nails got what was coming to him. The only religious groups in town who spoke out against the hatred were the Unitarian Universalists and the Jews. It is hard to remember these things, hard on the self-image of a proud city. But it has to be done, lest something like this happens again, and Charlie will have died in vain. As Professor Ellison said recently to the Bangor Daily News,
“Now years later, it’s a healthy sign that many more people register embarrassment, outrage and, yes, even shame that such an event happened in their city, their state and their country. For those of us who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, we’ve learned the value of claiming the goodness of our lives and the healing power of pride. We’ve come to realize that we can honor Charlie Howard and others who have lost their lives by living our lives openly with self-respect and with determination to make the world safer for difference.”
Finally, in 2009, Maine has finally recognized same-sex marriage. Many see this as a vindication in some small way of the pain and suffering of a young gay man ‘way back in the Reagan Era.
Rest in peace, Charlie.
Mother of Sean Kennedy, Slain South Carolina Gay Man, Lobbies Congress for Matthew Shepard Act
Elke Kennedy, here with Unfinished Lives Project Director, Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, lobbies Congress for the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, May 5, 2009. For more information on the advocacy done in Sean’s name, be sure to visit Sean’s Last Wish on the web,http://www.seanslastwish.org/.
Elke Kennedy and Steve Sprinkle on Capitol Hill for HRC Clergy Call 2009
U.S. House of Representatives Passes Fully Inclusive Hate Crimes Act
The Matthew Shepard Act, fully inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity, passed the House of Representatives April 29 by a large majority, 249-175. Judy Shepard, mother of slain University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, lobbied hard today for passage. Now, on to the U.S. Senate where the measure needs a super majority of 60 to get it to President Obama’s desk.
Fight Hate Crimes Campaign Launches Effort to Pass Matthew Shepard Act
The Human Rights Campaign has launched its big federal legislative push to enact the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also called the Matthew Shepard Act, named in memory of the most widely recognized LGBT hate crimes victim in American history. Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by two Laramie, Wyoming men in October 1998. Both pled guilty, and are serving life sentences for their crime. Visit the HRC site for more information: www.hrc.org/sites/hatecrimes/index.asp.
Martinez casket header for Denver Post article on F.C.'s murder
Fred C. Martinez, Jr. (1985-2001), a sixteen-year-old Navajo, is featured in the HRC campaign. He was one of the first subjects of research for the Unfinished Lives Project, and will figure prominently in Dr. Sprinkle’s forthcoming book, Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memory of LGBT Hate Crimes Murder Victims. The book is still in the writing stage at this point, with a projected completion date of September 2009.
"Dance to the Berdache," George Catlin, ca. 1830
Martinez was a Two-Spirit person, also called a berdache. F.C., as his friends called him, suffered harassment in the Cortez, CO public schools for his transgender identity. In June 2001, on the night of the Ute Mountain Carnival and Rodeo, Shaun Murphy, a resident of Farmington, NM, lured F.C. into a narrow, deep canyon cut diagonally through the south part of Cortez, and cracked open his skull with a 25 pound rock. Murphy left him to die of exposure and blood loss, bragging the night of the murder that he had “bug-smashed a joto,” slang for “fag.” At the time F.C.’s body was discovered by small boys playing on the canyon floor five days after the homicide, his remains were so decomposed that his mother could identify him only by the blue bandana he wore when he left her home.
Shaun Murphy, F.C.'s killer
Murphy, 18, was sentenced to 40 years for F.C.’s murder. There is little to indicate that F.C., the most famous person ever to live in Cortez, had ever existed. Neither Colorado nor the United States has enacted anti-hate crime legislation. His mother, Pauline Mitchell, still works as an advocate for LGBT people and for the memory of her son. She visits his grave often, kneeling on the grass, talking to him in Navajo and English, thanking him for understanding that things are taking so long to change.
F.C. and his mom, Pauline Mitchell
There is strong medicine in the F.C. Martinez, Jr. story. As a nadleeh, as Navajo people refer to their Two-Spirits, he was a sign of the balance between the feminine and the masculine in us all. He walked the Way of Beauty. As the Navajo Blessingway Chant says:
Earth’s body has become my body
by means of this I shall live on.
Earth’s mind has become my mind
by means of this I shall live on.
Earth’s voice has become my voice
by means of this I shall live on.
Remembering Ryan Keith Skipper
Ryan Keith Skipper
April 28, 1981 – March 14, 2007
Wahneta, Florida
This is the second anniversary of Ryan’s murder. In the deep of night, as March 13 bled into March 14, two attackers savaged him as he sat in his car. The Polk Country Associate Medical Examiner testified that his autopsy revealed 19 stab and slash wounds, probably from two knives. The killing stroke was a 3.5-inch-deep cut into his neck, severing his jugular.
Though nothing can bring Ryan back to his family and friends, Joseph Eli “Smiley” Bearden, now 23, was found guilty on all counts. He is now serving a life sentence for Ryan’s murder. William David “Bill Bill” Brown, Jr., now 22, will stand trial for first degree murder in October of this year.
Sheriff Grady Judd has not yet apologized for filling the airwaves with misinformation about Ryan’s life, his character, and the events on the night of the murder. Every allegation he repeated to the press has been disproven. Judd should have been drummed out of office. Instead, he was re-elected by the citizens of Polk County this past November.
Ryan’s life is cherished, and his memory is a powerful force for winning equality for LGBT Americans. The manner of his death is a strong incentive for all people of good conscience to urge Congress and the President to enact the Matthew Shepard Act and the Transgender inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act into law, as well as abolish the military’s infamous Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
Second Annual Billy Jack Gaither Humanitarian Award
Second Annual Billy Jack Gaither Humanitarian Award
Sunday, February 15, 2008
Vickie Saltsman, Billy Jack Gaither's Sister
Montgomery, AL: Ten years after the brutal slaying of 39-year-old Alabamian Billy Jack Gaither, the award bearing his name was presented by Equality Alabama to activist George Olsson. Hundreds of supporters gathered at the capital steps in Montgomery for the Vigil for Victims of Hate and Violence. Vickie Saltsman, Billy Jack’s elder sister, spoke of the love all her family have for their brother, who was murdered in 1999 for being a gay man: “Not a day goes by without our thinking of him,” she said.
Talana Kreeger
Talana Kreeger
September 25, 1957—February 22, 1990
Wilmington, NC
“In an expanding universe, time is on the side of the outcast.
Those who once inhabited the suburbs of human contempt find that without changing their address they eventually live in the metropolis.“
~ Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant
Law enforcement told leaders of the Wilmington, NC LGBT community that it would not be in their interest to be too visible in the days following the murder of Talana Quay Kreeger by manual disembowelment. Fearing reprisals, a quiet funeral was planned for Talana at a church in nearby Ogden. Forbidden to post signs directing mourners to the church, organizers tied bunches of white balloons along the route up Market Street, leading out of town.
At the last minute, the service was called off in Ogden. Somebody had gotten to the pastor, and explained that Talana was a lesbian. Wilmington Police stopped the procession of cars, and told them to turn around. Scrambling to find any place for the better than 200 grief-stricken, frustrated mourners, someone contacted a sympathetic Episcopal priest in downtown Wilmington who opened his church for the memorial service.
Talana, 32, was well known and well regarded in the closely-knit lesbian and gay community. She was a skilled journeyman carpenter, and had volunteered her time to remodel the Park View Bar and Grill, a haven for coastal Carolina lesbians. Her murder by long haul trucker, Ronald Thomas, terrorized and enraged the entire LGBT population of New Hanover County. Talana’s gruesome death caused Eastern North Carolina queer folk to find their voices. They vowed never again to have to rely on straight people to lend them a church for the funeral of one of their own.
The result of that vow is St. Jude’s Metropolitan Community Church, www.stjudesmcc.org , a thriving congregation founded the year after Talana’s murder as a testimony to LGBT faith and resolve. Independent filmmaker, Tab Ballis, is documenting the story of Talana Kreeger with the film, “Park View,” www.parkviewproject.com. Few other LGBT hate crimes murder victims, if any, have not only a film dedicated to their memory, but also have a church that exists today as a living reminder that hatred does not have the last word. Rest well, sister. Time was on your side after all. You did not die in vain. We will not forget.
Joseph Eli Bearden Guilty on all charges for the murder of Ryan Keith Skipper–Life Sentence with No Parole imposed by Polk Country Florida Judge
Bearden reacts to life sentence for 2nd degree murder
Memorial Comment for Billy Jack Gaither
by Stephen V. Sprinkle
Billy Jack Gaither died like no one should ever have to die–in pain, in terror, and alone. Two unhappy, hate-filled young men took out their homophobia, and that of their community, state, and region upon a gentle, loyal, pious Alabamian. That was ten years ago.
For ten years now, members of his family, a small cadre of LGBT activists and scholars, and a group of brave citizens of Birmingham, have fought to keep Billy Jack’s memory alive. For the past few years, the Billy Jack Gaither Humanitarian Award, given annually, has sought to advance the cause of equality and justice for all people. This year, the Billy Jack Award will be conferred on its recipient in a ceremony at the state capital in Montgomery. He would have been surprised, pleased, and proud. I believe he would also be justly angry that ten years have come and gone since he was bludgeoned to death with a pick ax handle on the banks of Peckerwood Creek for no other reason than his sexual orientation, and Sweet Home Alabama still has not enacted an LGBT hate crimes law, nor has the United States of America.
I believe I know what he would have to say about the failure of his state and nation to act justly and protect all citizens–he would say, “It ain’t right!”
Since Billy Jack’s hate crime murder, hundreds of men and women have paid the ultimate price for being true to the way God made them. “It ain’t right!”
The stories of too many LGBT hate crimes victims have been forgotten, without tenacious friends and family to keep the flame of their memories alive. “It ain’t right!”
Too many law enforcement officers and officers of the court still harbor homophobic attitudes. Too many otherwise good church folk, white, black, brown and yellow, still deny that God cherishes LGBT people as much as straight people. Too many gay and lesbian folk around the nation are asleep at the wheel, unengaged in demanding their human rights, in denial that violence against them is on the rise. “It just ain’t right!”
Billy Jack still lives, so long as the struggle for human rights goes on, so long as we remember him. As the LGBT anthem goes, “What have you done today that makes you feel proud?” Isn’t it time to start getting things right?
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
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Schedule a Presentation
Dr. Sprinkle will gladly present his acclaimed presentation to your organization. To arrange an Unfinished Lives presentation for your organization or group, please contact us.
Dr. Sprinkle has given his Unfinished Lives presentation to these and other community groups and organizations. Read More…
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Publisher: Steve Sprinkle (Project Director)
Steve Sprinkle
Unfinished Lives: Remembering LGBT Hate Crime VictimsBrite Divinity School/Texas Christian UniversityFort Worth TXprofessor, minister, author, blogger, LGBTQ advocate
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