“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.”
WaPo: Anti-Latino/a and Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes Spiral Upward Together
Washington, DC – The Washington Post reports in a late-breaking story that incidents of bias-related crimes against Latino/a people and LGBT people are rising sharply on seemingly parallel tracks, according to FBI findings. In a June 16 article entitled “Hate Crimes Rise as Immigration Debate Heats Up,” Spencer Hsu, reporter for WaPo, writes that officials are concerned about the abrupt rise in violent crimes against both groups: “The FBI reported in October that the number of [total] hate crime incidents dropped in 2007 by about 1 percent, to 7,624. But violence against Latinos and gay people bucked the trend. The number of hate crimes directed at gay men and lesbians increased about 6 percent, from 1,195 to 1,265, the FBI reported.” It should be noted that the actual rise in hate crimes against LGBT people is actually in excess of 28% in the last year, according to the more comprehensive statistics reported by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. Shrill voices in the media and organization of xenophobic hate groups on the internet are contributing to this alarming trend. Most recently, as Mariela Rosario writes for http://www.latina.com, Minutemen stand accused of the murder of a Latino immigrant family. In a May 30th home invasion attack just now being shared widely in the national media, three members of the anti-immigrant group Minutemen American Defense (MAD) allegedly burst into the Arivaca, AZ house of Raul Junior Flores, 29, and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, and shot them dead. Flores’ wife using a shotgun returned fire, repelling the attackers, and wounding one of them. Shawna Forde, 41, Jason Eugene Bush, 34, and Albert Robert Glaxiola, 42, stand accused of the crime. The stated mission of the Minutemen American Defense is summed up in Forde’s own words, “We will expose and report what we know and find, we will recruit the serious and train the revolutionist, time for words have passed the time for bravery and conviction are now.” The Pima County (AZ) Sheriff’s Department is still investigating. The murder of Flores and his young daughter has sparked outrage among Latino/a rights groups. As The Unfinished Lives Project has previously reported in numerous stories over several months, the tragic
Romel and Diego Sucuzhañay at Brooklyn DA's Press Conference
victimization of Latino and Latina folk, gay, bi, transgender and straight often converges in a terrible way. José Sucuzhañay, and his brother, Romel, Ecuadorans visiting the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, NY were brutally assaulted on the night of December 7, 2008. Hakim Scott, 25, and Keith Phoenix, 28, beat the Sucuzhañay brothers with a beer bottle and an aluminum ball bat shouting slurs at them for their ethnicity and their perceived sexual orientation. The savage attack was apparently motivated by a toxic combined hatred of Latino immigrants and gay people. The brothers, huddled together against the cold, were walking arm-in-arm from a party. Ironically, José, who died from his wounds, and his brother Romel, are both heterosexual. José leaves behind a 10-year-old son, Brian, and a 5-year-old daughter, Joanna, who is living with Down Syndrome. As an attorney for the Sucuzhañay family told the New York Post, “The family has suffered tremendously. It was a brutal murder.” Scott and Phoenix have been indicted for second-degree murder as a hate crime by the Brooklyn District Attorney, and await trial. Often set at odds by “common wisdom” and the media, the Latino/a immigrant community and the LGBT community share a truly common need for unity in the face of irrational hatred of “the other.” The Ecuadoran media covered the crime widely, putting an important face on anti-LGBT hate crimes in the United States.
Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes the Highest Since 1999
Anti-LGBT violence is up 28% in one year
As Stonewall 40 approaches next week, a New York-based coalition of anti-violence programs reports that bias crimes against LGBT people rose 28% from 2007 to 2008. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) confirms the grim trend Unfinished Lives has been reporting for months: hate crimes against members of the sexual minority are not only higher than at any time in a decade, but the degree of brutality in the execution of these crimes has also intensified. Marcus Franklin of the Associated Press notes for the Huffington Post that the 29 confirmed bias-related murders of queer folk in 2008 reported by the NCAVP matches the number of similar killings it registered in its 1999 report. The Unfinished Lives Project has noted dramatic increases in anti-LGBT murders and assaults since the latter part of 2008 in California, Michigan, Minnesota, and Tennessee, and has highlighted the extreme savagery of these attacks as in the case of 45 stab wounds in U.S. Army veteran Michael Scott Goucher’s murder in East Stroudsburg, PA, and Duanna Johnson’s shooting death in Memphis, TN. The Huffpost article issued today quotes Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which co-ordinates the NCAVP nationally with pointing to an increase of violence during the presidential campaign last fall, as well as ominous increases during the high-profile national debates over same-sex marriage, the possible passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and the proposed repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell (DADT). “The more visibility there is the more likely we’re going to see backlash, and that’s exactly what we see here,” Stapel said. Since the NCAVP reports anti-Transgender hate crimes in distinction from the annual FBI’s hate crimes report that does not, Stapel is able to reference a more accurate picture of the landscape of peril in which LGBT Americans find themselves. Even so, organizations from only 25 of the 50 states report to the NCAVP, indicating that the
Duanna Johnson, Transwoman, murdered in Memphis
actual number of bias-related hate crimes against LGBT people may be much higher. Additional factors arguing for higher numbers of these crimes than are reported by either the NCAVP or the FBI are the stigma and despair often associated with violent crimes against queer women and men. Local law enforcement agencies tend to skew their investigations away from anti-gay or transgender motives as a reflection of the bias rampant in their home locales. Victims often fear exposure and media scrutiny for themselves and their loved ones, and therefore do not report crimes against their persons. LGBT victims are often discredited as sources of reliable information and are routinely blamed somehow for their own misfortune. Finally, as the Unfinished Lives Project has noted in repeated instances, American heterosexism and homophobia have created a climate for LGBT people such that their lives and deaths are valued less than those of other people, causing reports of attacks and murders against them to be far less likely to gain attention.
The high-profile events surrounding Pride 2009 will be a tempting target for hate groups around the country. At no time since the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998 has the public presence of LGBT people and their allies been more significant than this season.
Hanging Tough On Hate Crime Charge in Syracuse
Onondaga County, NY – Lateisha Green, 22, an African American M-to-F transwoman, was shot to death in November 2008 with a .22 calibre rifle in Syracuse, NY. Her brother, Mark Cannon, 18, who was also shot, managed to drive their car home. Mark told reporters, “I was like oh my lord! This is not true!. This is not true, and Moses told me that he loved me on the way home.” Ms. Green, née Moses Cannon, died of what authorities called a hate crime, because the motive for the shooting allegedly was that she and her brother were “gay.” Dwight DeLee was arrested and charged. Subsequently, his attorney entered a plea of not guilty, and challenged the hate crime charge as unconstitutional, citing that the charge is too vague and general. The judge in the case entertained the motion on behalf of the defense, but made the determination that the charge will go forward as entered. If Mr. DeLee is found guilty, it will be the first time in Onondaga County history that the hate crime statute will have been successfully applied in a murder case. Based on evidence the state says it has, Ms. Green was selected for this fatal attack because of her sexual orientation. Her father, Albert Cannon, spoke to the press about his grief and anger: “I’m hurt. Angry. Upset. Am I mad at the kid? Yes. Mostly, I’m upset with society. How do we let our kids get this angry this young? This was hatred.” The trial is scheduled for mid-July of this year.
Epidemic of Transphobic Violence Breaks Out in Memphis Again
Terron Taylor, accused of shooting transwoman Kelvin Denton
Memphis, TN – For the fifth time since 2006, a transgender woman of color has been shot in the streets of Memphis, Tennessee on May 27. Authorities report that Kelvin Denton, an African American transitioning from male to female, was shot in the neck and face by an assailant who did not like the way she presented her gender identity. Ms. Denton is in critical condition as of this writing. After being shot, Ms. Denton managed to run from the scene of the shooting at the Peppertree Apartments, until finally collapsing near the Whitehaven Community Center. Police arrested Terron Taylor for the crime, who said that he felt he had been “misled” about the gender identity of his victim. Such early testimony indicates that the defendant will be using some version of the trans-panic defense to justify his violent attack on Ms. Denton. Taylor is being held on $500,000 bond in Shelby County on two charges: attempted second degree murder and using a firearm to commit a felony. The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition is urging the swift and aggressive prosecution of Taylor for the crime. Tiffany Berry was shot and killed in Memphis in 2006, as well as Ebony Whitaker and Duanna Johnson in 2008. Leeneshia Edwards was also shot in 2008, but survived. The ferocity of these attacks calls for renewed action on the part of the Metro Memphis authorities to put a stop to the violence against transgender people, especially trans people of color.
Tennessee Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes Up Dramatically
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) released statistics on May 28 showing a massive spike in 2008 hate crimes in the Volunteer State, up 38% over 2007. While the largest number of bias-related crimes was against African Americans (a number actually slightly down from 2007), the second largest percentage of violent attacks was against members of the sexual minority–11.8% of the total for 2008. Reported acts of hate violence against LGBT people in Tennessee increased just a whisker shy of 13% over the previous year. The entire report in .pdf format may be viewed by going to the TBI website. The largest category of hate crimes in the 2008 report was bias crimes of unknown motivation. The numbers of anti-LGBT hate crimes almost certainly will rise when more of these crimes yield evidence about the class or group against whom they were perpetrated. The Unfinished Lives Project has previously highlighted the steep rise in attacks on transgender women of color in Memphis. Representative of these brutal crimes was the killing of Duanna Johnson of Memphis, who was murdered in November 2008 after lodging a $1.3 million dollar lawsuit against the city for a savage beating police gave her which was caught on a jailhouse camera earlier in the year.
Hate Crimes Victims Remembered at Dallas Day of Decision Protest
Hundreds gathered to hear speakers call for protests in the streets to show the determination of the LGBT community to have equal rights. The Dallas gayborhood rang with with voices of protesters in the largest street demonstration in years along Oaklawn and Cedar Springs. Blake Wilkinson of Queer LiberAction named Matthew Shepard whose death 10 years ago has not yet been vindicated by federal hate crimes legislation. He urged protesters to get angry that LGBT advocacy for hate crimes victims is so ineffective that a decade out from the Shepard murder, the queer community still does not have laws protecting LGBT people from being bashed and killed. Then Wilkinson called on the crowd to channel that anger into effective local, state and national action, starting in the streets, with gay folk taking their message of equality to the people.
The large crowd moved up Cedar Springs Road to TMC, The Mining Company, a popular gay bar on the strip with a large, street side patio, where the rally heard a number of powerful speeches protesting “separate but equal,” second-class status for LGBT Americans.
Dallas Queer LiberAction protest at the Legacy of Love column (Dallas Voice photo)
On Memorial Day, We Honor the Military Service of Our Gay Dead
Since time immemorial, Gay and Lesbian people have served their country with distinction. LGBT Americans pause to remember and honor the service and sacrifice of all American service members, especially the ones who faced battle on two fronts: the battle for freedom and security for our country, and the battle against unreasoning homophobia. This Memorial Day, The Unfinished Lives Project pauses to give thanks for the lives of three gay men who served their country, and died because their countrymen could not accept their sexual orientation: Petty Officer Third Class Allen R. Schindler, Jr., Chicago Heights, IL, sailor on the U.S.S. Belleau Wood; Private First Class Barry Winchell, Kansas City, MO, soldier at Fort Campbell, KY; and U.S. Army Veteran Michael Scott Goucher of East Stroudsburg, PA.
Schindler, who was mercilessly harassed on board his ship, was murdered in 1992 by shipmates in a public toilet while on leave in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan. His body was so ravaged by the attack that every major organ in his body was ruptured, his skull was crushed, and the medical examiner found sneaker tracks embedded in his chest and face. The only way his mother could identify her son’s body was by a tattoo he had inked into his upper arm. His main assailant, who openly declared that he was disgusted by homosexuals, said shortly after the murder, “I don’t regret it. I’d do it again. … He deserved it.” The Navy has never been forthcoming about the slaying, and has repeatedly refused to release the report of the Japanese police about the crime. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) was officially enacted soon after Schindler’s murder by President Clinton. SLDN has continued to represent his mother in the courts.
Winchell, who had been singled out for anti-gay ridicule by his barracks mates at Fort Campbell, was bludgeoned to death in 1999 by a fellow soldier wielding a baseball bat at his head and body while he was asleep. Ironically, he was killed after an Independence Day celebration on base. His hate crime murder and trial exposed one of the most notorious cover-ups of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) era. His parents and SLDN contend that the Army betrayed him by violating its own DADT policies, failing to follow the best traditions of the Army in order to shield the chain of command, and exposing other gay soldiers to danger and dishonorable discharge. The anti-gay climate of Fort Campbell was never sufficiently addressed in the wake of Winchell’s killing, and the base commander, General Robert T. Clark, was promoted despite the protests of SLDN and other LGBT advocacy organizations around the country. His killer is serving a life sentence for murder in a federal military prison facility.
Goucher, who had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army after a tour of duty in Alaska where he served in transport, was ambushed by two young men who stabbed him to death over 45 times according to autopsy records in 2009, arguably the first anti-LGBT hate crime murder victim of the year. After returning to East Stroudsburg, Goucher worked as a high school janitor, captained the Neighborhood Watch in his area, and served as assistant organist at a local church.
These three represent many more loyal Americans who happened to be LGBT and have been stigmatized, drummed out of the service, and in the cases of these faithful guardians of our country, were killed because of deep-seated bias against members of the sexual minority. They neither betrayed their country nor themselves. For that, and for justice-sake, we cannot forget them. At the request of SLDN, Servicemembers’ Legal Defense Network, Chan Lowe drew this provocative tribute to homosexual Americans who have paid the supreme price to wear our nation’s uniform. We offer it for your consideration on this Memorial Day 2009.
Murdered Trans-teen Gwen Araujo Vindicated by CA Appeal Court Ruling
Newark, CA, May 13, 2009 – A California state court of appeal upheld the second degree murder convictions of two young East Bay men for their part in the strangling, beating, and murder of 17 year old male-to-female transgender Latina Gwen Amber Rose Araujo in 2002. Jose Merel and Michael Magidson had appealed their convictions on the grounds that the Alameda County trial judge had not defined the crimes properly to the jury at the time of the original trial in 2005, and that there had not been sufficient evidence for second degree murder convictions. The appeal court ruled 3-0 against the petition of the defendants, who will continue to serve out their 15-year sentences for the grisly murder.
The 2002 Araujo case drew national attention to the plight of transgender people in the United States, especially transgender people of color. Araujo, born biologically male and originally known as Eddie, had transitioned to being female by the time of the assault. After she died, her mother legally changed her name to Gwen as a sign of love and respect. Her killers, who knew her as “Lida” had known her for months, and Gwen believed they were fast friends. Both Merel and Magidson had sex with Araujo orally and anally. According to their defense, she had not revealed her biological identity to them. When her biological maleness was discovered, the defense went on to contend, the men attacked Araujo “in the heat of the moment,” and therefore deserved convictions for a lesser charge of manslaughter instead of murder. The prosecution successfully argued against this version of the “trans-panic defense,” and secured the murder convictions against them. Two other defendants in the case, Jaron Nabors and Jason Cazares pled guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 11 and 6 years respectively. They have not sought to challenge their convictions.
The Araujo case sharpened the national debate on the trans-panic defense. The outcome of the 2002 trial went a long way toward refuting the once widely held notion that trans people somehow brought on attacks against themselves. As Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center noted to reporters,the ruling of the court of appeal definitively rejected the claim that the murder of a young woman like Gwen should be reduced to a lesser charge just because she was transgender. “We are thankful that the Court of Appeal saw through this blatant prejudice, and upheld the convictions of Gwen’s killers,” she said.
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…
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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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Unfinished Lives 
Triangle of Terror: Gays On Their Guard
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.
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June 11, 2009 Posted by unfinishedlives | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Anti-Semitism, Arkansas, California, Kansas, Racism, religious intolerance, Social Justice Advocacy, Special Comments, Strangulation, Tennessee, Washington, D.C. | African Americans, Anglo Americans, Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT), gay men, gun violence, Hate Crimes, hate crimes legislation, Matthew Shepard Act, military, Neo-Nazis and White Supremacy | 3 Comments