Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

President Obama Meets Judy Shepard at White House

SHEPARD_OBAMAWashington, DC – President Barak Obama met Judy Shepard, mother of slain gay son, Matthew Shepard, in the Oval Office of the White House, according to Jon Barrett of The Advocate.  President Obama affirmed his support of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act still pending action in the United States Senate.  The House version of the bill has already passed by a wide margin.  While a Senator, President Obama voted in favor of the act, and told Mrs. Shepard that he would sign it once it reaches his desk.  Though brief, the meeting was a significant indication of the support of this president for justice for LGBT people and their families and friends.  The Obama administration has been criticized for moving slowly on LGBT issues.  Former White House aide to President Bill Clinton, David Mixner, for example, is calling for a march on Washington to pressure the president to follow through on his support for the LGBT community, such as the repeal of DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) and of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).  Critics point out that other groups who helped elect President Obama have already received significant support and legislation, such as women, blacks, and hispanics.  The LGBT vote went heavily in favor of the president in the November general election, playing a significant role in swinging states into the Democratic column in the case of Florida, Indiana, and North Carolina, where slim margins suggest the necessity of the queer vote.  Shepard counseled patience with the president today.  “We are victims of our own hope,” she says. “These bills are going to get passed, it’s just going to take time and work.”  For now, Shepard is calling on citizens to call their Senators to urge them for passage of the Shepard Act when it comes to floor of the Senate.  She also calls on friends of anti-LGBT Hate Crimes legislation across the country to discourage Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada from attaching the Shepard Act to a Defense Department Appropriations Bill, which she believes will hurt its chances of passage.

May 20, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Washington, D.C., women | , , , | Comments Off on President Obama Meets Judy Shepard at White House

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

    Next Entries »