Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Harvey Milk Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

supervisormilk1Washington, DC – Jennifer Vanesco of 365gay.com reports that Harvey Milk, slain San Francisco City Supervisor, will be among 16 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on August 12, according to the White House.  Milk, gay human rights icon, was shot to death by disgruntled former city supervisor Dan White along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978. Milk will be recognized along with Billie Jean King, lesbian tennis great, and a stellar list of others whom the White House calls “agents of change”: Nancy Goodman Brinker, the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s leading breast cancer awareness organization; Stephen Hawking, the internationally-recognized theoretical physicist; Sen. Edward M. Kennedy; Desmund Tutu; Chita Rivera; Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland; and Sidney Poitier.  Harvey Milk’s profile has risen steadily in the nation since the release of the major motion picture, Milk, directed by gay film maker Gus Van Zandt, and written by gay screen play author Dustin Lance Black.  The timing of the film’s release, during the heat of the marriage equality battle in California over Proposition 8, introduced Milk to a whole new generation of emerging LGBT human rights Presidential-medal-of-freedomadvocates.  Milk’s refusal to “blend in,” his demand that gay people come out openly as a tool of social change, and his willingness to hold accommodationist gay and lesbian leaders as well as straight lawmakers accountable to the gay liberation movement has inspired street activism today on a scale not seen since the 1980s protests over the AIDS crisis during the Reagan Administration.  Now, Cleve Jones, a close associate of Milk’s who is also portrayed in the film, is organizing a national LGBT march on Washington, set for October 10-11, 2009, the first major queer march on the nation’s capitol since 1993.   The Presidential Medal of Freedom, along with the Congressional Gold Medal, are the highest awards that may be given to a civilian in the United States of America.  It is awarded to persons who in the estimation of the President have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”  Milk will be the first victim of an anti-LGBT hate crime murder to be awarded this honor, a significant gesture on President Obama’s part as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act moves toward enactment into law this fall.

July 30, 2009 Posted by | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, California, gay men, Hate Crimes, Lesbian women, Marriage Equality, Matthew Shepard Act, Media Issues, Politics, Social Justice Advocacy, Washington, D.C. | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Harvey Milk Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

Senate Passes DOD Bill with Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Amendment Attached

Senate hate crimesWashington, DC – Last night the U.S. Senate passed the mammoth Department of Defense Appropriations Bill with the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act attached as an amendment.  HRC Backstory explains the process of reconciliation that this version of the bill will undergo in the Senate-House Conference Committee.  According to HRC Senior Policy Analyst David Stacy, “During the month of August, while the Congress is in recess, House and Senate staff will work out differences between the House and Senate bills. Most of these decisions are unrelated to hate crimes and can be worked out at the staff level. Key decisions will be made by Senators and Representatives when they return in September. Most important among these will be the final decision about whether to keep the Matthew Shepard Act. Beyond that threshold question, which we fully expect will be an emphatic “YES,” decisions will have to be made about the amendments passed by the Senate this week.”  This is great cause for celebration since LGBT people are very close to having federal protection in an unprecedented way in our history.  Not only does this legislation honor Matthew Shepard, for whom it is named.  It also remembers and honors thousands of other LGBT hate crimes victims for whom this legislative act is a vindication of sorts.  But while there is reason for rejoicing, the ultimate passage of anti-LGBT hate crimes legislation is not a done deal yet.  The DOD bill did attach other amendments, such as the Sessions Death Penalty amendments, designed to make the Matthew Shepard Act less palatable to sponsors and the public.  The protections provided in the bill for LGBT people are limited, if still important and historic.  Hate crimes against us are on the rise, and the old bromide activists rehearse, that as the younger generations take the reins of culture and government, the war against LGBT people will be over, is just not borne out by the facts.  If younger Americans are more open statistically toward LGBT people and our relationships, then why is the profile of the people who actually kill us men from teenage to mid-30s, for one thing?  So, we must keep at this work.  Those of us who believe in justice cannot rest.  Those of us who believe in justice cannot rest until it comes. [Illustration thanks to Advocate.com].

~  Stephen Sprinkle, Director, Unfinished Lives Project

July 24, 2009 Posted by | Hate Crimes, Legislation, Matthew Shepard Act, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Special Comments, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. | , , , , , , | Comments Off on Senate Passes DOD Bill with Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Amendment Attached

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