Gays, Lesbians, Transgender People in the Crosshairs This Election Season: Brite Divinity Bible Event Speaks Out for Justice
Speakers at The Bible, Politics, and Sexuality event at Brite Divinity School (l-to-r): Dr. Shelly Matthews, Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, Dean Joretta L. Marshall.
Fort Worth, Texas – A gay and a straight professor speak out for sexuality justice in an upcoming forum on the role of the Bible in the political discussion this election year. Brite Divinity School faculty members, Dr. Shelly Matthews, Associate Professor of New Testament, a straight scholar, and Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle, Professor of Practical Theology, a gay scholar, will speak at the Bass Conference Center at 7 pm on the divinity school campus, Monday, October 22. The event will be introduced and moderated by Dean Joretta L. Marshall. The public is invited.
Dean Marshall, in announcing the event, said, “In the highly charged political arena, the Bible is often used in conversations about gender identity and sexual orientation. The Carpenter Initiative in Gender, Sexuality, and Justice is pleased to host Brite scholars, Dr. Shelly Matthews and Dr. Steve Sprinkle, who will offer perspectives on how the Bible is used in positive and negative ways, as well as strategies for moving conversations of sexual justice forward.”
Dr. Matthews, educated at Harvard, is a New Testament expert on many topics. She was the founder and served for six years as co-chair of the Violence and Representations of Violence Among Jews and Christian section of the Society of Biblical Literature and currently serves on steering committees for the SBL Sections on Early Jewish Christian Relations and the Book of Acts. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Biblical Literature and a member of the Westar Institute. Her research interests include feminist biblical interpretation, feminist historiography, early Jewish Christian relations, and Paul in the second century. Dr. Matthews has authored several books and monographs, including Perfect Martyr: The Stoning of Stephen and the Construction of Christian Identity (Oxford, 2012).
Dr. Sprinkle, the first openly gay scholar in Brite history, also serves as Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry. He is an ordained Baptist minister, and received his Ph.D. at Duke University in systematic theology. He holds membership in the Association of Theological Field Education and the Academy of Religious Leadership. Widely recognized as an expert in anti-LGBTQ violence, Dr. Sprinkle is the author of many articles and three books, the most recent of which is the award-winning Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memories of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims (Resource Publications, 2011). Dr. Sprinkle is also the founder and director of the Unfinished Lives Project, and serves as Theologian-in-Residence at Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Texas, the world’s largest liberal Christian church with a predominant outreach to LGBTQ people
The Bible, Sexuality, and Politics event has a Facebook page where essential information may be found, including directions to Brite Divinity School, and a way to register attendance. The evening is free and open to everyone.
Matthew Shepard’s Fatal Beating, 14 Years Ago
Matthew Wayne Shepard, (1976 – 1998).
Laramie, Wyoming – October 7 marks the 14th anniversary of the fatal beating of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old gay man who became the icon of the movement to stop anti-gay hate crimes in the United States and around the world. Shepard was bludgeoned senseless with a .357 Magnum pistol and tied to the foot of a buck fence on a cold Wyoming night. Two local men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, picked Shepard up from the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, abducted him to a high ridge outside of the university town, and brutally attacked him. They stole his shoes. Blood spatter at the scene covered a fifty foot radius. Drag marks investigators found indicate that Shepard had to be bodily forced out of the pickup truck cab by his victimizers. After he was discovered nearly dead the next morning, Shepard was rushed first to Laramie’s emergency facility, and then to Fort Collins, Colorado where he lingered a full five days before dying on October 12, 1998. He never recovered consciousness.
Rather than leave Matthew as a two-dimensional icon, no matter how compelling, this anniversary, the Unfinished Lives Project offers a video of him taken two years before his death while he was attending Catawba College, a small United Church of Christ affiliated school in Salisbury, North Carolina. Ironically from our present time, Matthew was interviewed briefly along with his then-boyfriend, Lewis Krider, about the anti-gay policies of North Carolina U.S. Senator, Jesse Helms. For a brief moment, we see and hear the young man whose death raised the world’s consciousness to the horror of hate crimes. Today, the Matthew Shepard Foundation continues the work Matthew surely would have longed to see done for the sake of peace, justice, and human freedom to love and be loved. An award winning book authored by the founder and director of the Unfinished Lives Project, Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle, Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memories of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims, opens with a chapter on the struggle to maintain Matthew’s legacy and witness against the forces of right wing revisionism. Matthew lives on in the hate crimes prevention act that bears his name and the name of James Byrd Jr. His memory is strong in the LGBTQ community, and he is a continuing inspiration to everyone who loves peace and justice in a violent world. Rest in peace, Little Brother. Rest in peace.
Gays Terrorized by Panhandle of Texas Hate Crime
Anti-gay death threat painted on the porch of a gay couple in Clarendon, Texas on October 1.
Clarendon, Texas – A gay couple have been put on notice that they are in danger by vandals in a small community an hour from Amarillo. Two weeks after an anti-gay diatribe by a local Church of Christ pastor appeared in the community newspaper, Joshua Harrison and Jeremy Jeffers found their front porch defaced by the scrawled warning, LEAVE OR DIE FAGS. The gay couple, partnered for better than a year, say they have never been so afraid for their lives.
Pronews 7 reports that the Donley County Sheriff, Charles “Butch” Blackburn, is calling the vandalism “a hate crime.” The Donley County Sheriffs Department is investigating who painted the ominous warning on the gay couple’s property. Harrison and Jeffers are arranging to leave Clarendon because of the threat to their lives.
In late September, Minister Chris Moore, spiritual leader of the Clarendon Church of Christ, published his provocative advertisement in the Clarendon Enterprise, condemning gays and lesbians for an “agenda” that included compromising the “values” of ordinary American citizens, and making their children “prey for pedophiles” (full ad available for viewing here). Moore based his screed upon a “platform” published “sometime back” by a group known as the National Coalition of Gay Organizations, a short-lived group convened in Chicago in 1972, but which has not been in existence for over 40 years. Moore apparently dredged up his “factual” claims from this old, extremist chestnut, and sought to incite anti-gay discussion in the Panhandle. Moore is surely aware that charges of pedophilia incite strong negative reactions against gay people, though they are not grounded in any truth. Moore defends his ad in the paper, but has gone on record denouncing the vandalism and violence threatened against Jeffers and Harrison as “unChristian.” As of October 8, readers of the Pronews 7 report of this hate crime said by a two-to-one majority that Moore’s anti-gay ad and the subsequent hate crime against the gay couple are directly connected.
Chuck Smith of Equality Texas condemned the atmosphere created in Clarendon by the Church of Christ ad: “No Texan should ever have to live in fear of violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.“ While Smith affirmed Chris Moore’s freedom of speech, he went on to say, “It is a fact that when people teach or preach homophobia and anti-gay rhetoric, it can inflame people to the point of violence.”
Rev. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, Professor of Practical Theology at Fort Worth’s Brite Divinity School and ordained Baptist minister, says that there must be zero tolerance for hate speech in the Christian community, whether the group is conservative or progressive. “There is an undeniable link between religious leaders’ intolerant speech and acts of physical violence against LGBTQ people in this country,” he said. “Minister Moore’s hate speech ranks high on the anti-gay incitement scale, right along beside violence permitting statements by extremist ministers who favored Amendment One in North Carolina this year.” Noting that the online blog of Clarendon Church of Christ has carried anti-gay postings for better than two years, Sprinkle went on to say, “While Moore’s speech is protected under law,” Sprinkle went on to say, “Moore would be quick to deny responsibility for the fear, destruction of property, and physical harm such statements incite, but he must bear some indirect responsibility for this crime. This is unbecoming of a Christian minister.” Sprinkle called upon people of good conscience in all communities of faith to express their intolerance of all expressions of hate speech coming from pulpits everywhere.
Meanwhile, Harrison and Jeffers are still in fear for their lives because of irrational hatred against them, and their intimidators are still at large in the Texas Panhandle.
Remembering the 16th Street Baptist Church Martyrs: A Special Comment on Religion and Violence
Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Denise McNair. They did not die in vain.
Birmingham, Alabama – Today (September 15) marks the 49th anniversary of the senseless murder of four little girls attending Sunday School at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama: Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins who were 14, and Denise McNair who was 12. The church was bombed on September 15, 1963 by a Ku Klux Klan related group in a vain attempt to terrorize the African American community. The nation was stunned by the news, and virtually overnight, these four young innocents became the leading figures in a renewed non-violent Civil Rights movement led by Christian clergy. Non-violent outrage over their deaths, arguably, became the impetus for the greatest achievement of the black liberation movement in the United States: the Voter Rights Act of 1965.
Wesley, Robertson, Collins, and McNair should, of course, be remembered perpetually for the loss of their young lives to race hatred in the great Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s. But this year, their loss, and the response of the African American Christian community to their outrageous murders at the time, is a lesson the world needs most acutely. In the wake of violence throughout the Muslim world over a blasphemous online video defaming the Prophet, and the mounting death toll of American diplomats and Muslim demonstrators, the world needs to pause, take a deep breath, remember the 16th Street children, and choose better ways of protest.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a movingly personal speech Thursday in the aftermath of attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in the Middle East, calling on religions of the world to affirm non-violence rather than bloodshed. ABC OTUS News reports that Secretary Clinton, speaking at an Eid ul-Fitr reception marking the end of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, decried both the “inflammable and despicable” anti-Islamic film circulating on the internet, and the violence that took the lives of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. While all religions inevitably face insults and defamation, she said, the way in which believers choose to respond to these affronts is what separates people of true faith from pretenders who use such events as excuses to lash out with violence. “When Christians are subject to insults to their faith, and that certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence. When Hindus or Buddhists are subjected to insults to their faiths, and that also certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence,” Clinton said. “The same goes for all faiths, including Islam.”
Speaking out of her own faith as a United Methodist Christian, Secretary Clinton went on to say, “I so strongly believe that the great religions of the world are stronger than any insults. They have withstood offense for centuries. Refraining from violence, then, is not a sign of weakness in one’s faith; it is absolutely the opposite, a sign that one’s faith is unshakable.” Rather than take the path of violence, she said, when one person acts with violence, a million should respond with deeds of religious tolerance and reconciliation. Instead of amplifying hatred, she concluded, each of us must commit ourselves to acts of religious tolerance in our own communities of faith.
Reflecting on the lessons of the 16th Street martyrs, the verdict of history is that only the power of love can conquer senseless hatred–the sort of love typified by the non-violent Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the wake of irrational hate crimes like the murders of four little girls nearly fifty years ago. Hate crimes are brutal teachers, but the precepts they teach can lead toward justice and hope, and away from hatred and fear. The difference is the choices we make and the deeds we do. When confronted with savagery, African American Christians and their allies answered with courage and a greater love–love for what is best in faith, what is best in society, and what is supreme in human experience: the power of reconciliation and hope.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his eulogy for the four little girls on September 18, 1963, said to the grieving city of Birmingham:
“These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience. And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here, that in spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.”
Never has the challenge to true hearts been greater than today. The lessons of our forebears and the martyrs who preceded us point away from fear and violence and toward justice and love. The Unfinished Lives Project Team, then, offers this simple prayer for a better world: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”
Blessed Rosh Hashanah from Unfinished Lives
L’Shana Tovah! This year, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, commences with sunset on September 16 and continues through nightfall of September 18. The beauty of this great festival is that it celebrates the total human race. Rosh Hashanah, meaning “The Head of the Year,” begins on 1 Tishrei, the first day of the Jewish calendar, and commemorates the anniversary of the creation of womankind and mankind–all males and females, commencing with the mythological First Woman and First Man, Eve and Adam.
Sam Meyer, our Friend on Facebook, reminds us that Rosh Hashanah accentuates the special relationship between G-d and humankind: our dependence upon G-d as Creator of Heaven, Earth, and the whole creaturely Cosmos, and the dependence of G-d upon humanity to make the works and ways of G-d known in the world.
Every remembrance of the fallen in the LGBTQ community we offer on this website, and every call for social justice we make is framed within this great story, in which all are the children of God, all are worthy of life and love, and all have their share in the dignity and co-creativity of creation. So, the Unfinished Lives Project Team sounds the rams horn of hope as the New Year begins, and prays for your health and prosperity in the days and weeks to come! L’Shana Tovah!
Transgender Murder in Cincinnati Part of Alarming National Trend
Kendall L. Hampton, 26, gender variant person killed by gunshots in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati, Ohio – A 26-year-old gender-nonconforming person was found shot to death late last Saturday night. Transgender and anti-violence advocates are drawing attention to the brutal murder of Kendall L. Hampton as they highlight the alarming increase in transgender and gender non-conforming violence in the country, especially against people of color.
Your Black World says that the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) has identified nine gender non-conforming or transgender homicides this year so far. Of the 30 documented murders of LGBTQ people registered by the NCAVP, 87% are either transgender or gender variant people of color.
WXIX TV 19 reports that Hampton, an alleged sex worker, was found fatally shot in a parking lot between a McDonald’s fast food restaurant and a Dairy Mart. He was transported to nearby University Hospital where he was pronounced dead later that night. Police say that Hampton was shot twice by an unknown assailant.
The NCAVP and the Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization are calling on lawmakers and law enforcement officials to investigate Hampton’s murder for signs of gender, race, and sexual orientation bias. An increasing chorus of advocates and everyday citizens is calling for better enforcement of hate crimes statutes, especially the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, signed into law by President Obama in October of 2009. Social Justice activists note that since increased publicity has been focused on LGBTQ people since the Shepard Act became law, the rate of violence has increased each year. Some are calling for the passage of tougher anti-queer legislation to protect the vulnerable LGBTQ community.
Often news reports of prostitution are published by the media in gender variant homicide cases, not because gender non-conforming people are apt to be sex workers, but rather because the sensational titillation associated with the murder of prostitutes sells more copy. The effect of such reports is to downplay the public’s sympathy for the victim, and to lessen the impact of the news of a murder on a wider readership or listening audience. It is a sometimes no-so-subtle means of blaming the victim for his own demise. Whether Kendall Hampton was actively working in the sex industry is beside the point. He was a human being of worth, perceived to be different enough that someone acted out of hatred and killed him. Whether the killer gets to own the story of his victim’s death will be up to a more informed public, and a media establishment less interested in sensationalism and more intent on stopping violence against Americans.
Gay Affirming Ohio Church Burned to the Ground: A Hate Crime?
Ruins of South Bloomingville Christian Church. Was the arson a hate crime against a gay-friendly church?
South Bloomingville, Ohio – Arson investigators are keeping mum about the motive for the destruction of South Bloomingville’s LGBTQ-affirming church on August 17, but Pastor Scott Davis is not. Davis, a clergyman affiliated with the Old Catholic Rite, a group noted for its acceptance of gay people, says that he has no doubt the open and affirming stance of the South Bloomingville Christian Church cause the congregation to be targeted by arsonists. “It’s a hate crime,” the Rev. Davis told Athens News. “In April we received death threats.” Davis is concerned that personnel in the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office, named as an investigating agency in the case, may have been involved in the arson, based on phone texts threatening the congregation earlier in the year. A county sheriff’s deputy, said Davis, “called me a faggot, said he would snipe me and throw me in a ditch,” and then ominously threatened to burn down the church building to put it out of business. Davis contends that other county law enforcement officials have extremely negative attitudes toward a faith community they identify as “the gay church.”
As far as the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office is willing to go at this time is to issue a short statement remaining neutral on the claims of homophobia being made by Davis and members of the church. The Fire Marshal’s Office, among other agencies investigating the total destruction of the church’s picturesque white frame building, issued this press release: “Investigators were able to eliminate all accidental causes and determined the fire was intentionally set. Because this is an ongoing criminal investigation, specific details about how and where the fire was started will not be released at this time.”
Church members and some local residents of the South Bloomingville area have rallied to the support of the congregation, affirming the welcoming policy of the church for gays and lesbians. 10 TV reports that a moving vigil was held on the charred floorboards of the building that once housed the congregation. Several members and friends of the church spoke to the press, owning the pro-inclusion stance of the pastor and his flock, reminding Ohioans that the Christian message is one of all-inclusive love of neighbor. A story developed by ABC 6 reports that a “Blue Ribbon Arson Award” of up to $5,000 is being offered to anyone giving information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the alleged hate arsonist.
It remains to be seen if mainstream media beyond local affiliates will pick up this story and give it the nationwide attention it should have. Worship center burnings by bigots are a favorite tactic of hate groups seeking to intimidate blacks, Muslims, Jews, and now gay people. Will the media report the news, or quash it? This act of terror has, as of yet, not been reported outside of Ohio to any significant degree. Meanwhile, the South Bloomingville Christian Church may be burned, but they are not broken.
North Texas LGBTQ Community Grieves the Passing of Thomas Anable
Thomas Anable, 59, President of Fairness Fort Worth.
Benbrook, Texas – Thomas Anable, President of Fairness Fort Worth, an LGBTQ advocacy and education agency dedicated to the transformation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Texas, has died, according to the report of The Dallas Voice. Anable, 59, was a leading voice in the significant advances for LGBTQ people in the wake of the 2009 Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s largest gay and lesbian bar. Anable, who found himself caught up in the swirl of events around the Raid, was a founding member of Fairness Fort Worth. On the night of June 28, 2009, he was working in the office of the Lounge when police and officers of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission raided the establishment, and began arresting patrons. According to his own often-repeated testimony, Anable’s life underwent a significant change that fateful night. As he said in the official trailer for the documentary film, Raid of the Rainbow Lounge, “Those officers took something away from me that I may never get back–they took my sense of safety and security. And they had no right to do that.” He was transformed from a bystander to a passionate activist, bringing his persuasive voice and considerable skills to bear on challenges facing gay folk in the aftermath of the historic Raid.
According to a press release from the Benbrook Police Department, Anable’s body was discovered in Dutch Branch Park at 8:26 a.m. Saturday morning. He died sometime late Friday or early Saturday morning, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The news spread swiftly on Saturday throughout the North Texas human rights advocacy community.
Rev. Carol West, Vice President of Fairness Fort Worth, and Jon Nelson, a co-founder of the organization, praised Anable in public statements and vowed to carry on the work that he had so wholeheartedly dedicated himself to accomplish. Plans for a memorial observance of his life have not yet been released at the time of this writing.
Tom Anable utterly dedicated himself to change Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and North Texas into a better place for all people to live, especially the LGBTQ community. A CPA by profession and training, he sold his practice in order to take up the tasks of advocacy full-time after the Rainbow Lounge Raid. Anable’s efforts most recently were centered on two major White House Conferences held on the campus of his alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington–the first on hate crimes and human trafficking, and the second on efforts to combat bullying in schools. In the past month, he was avidly working to support the Welcoming Schools Program of the Human Rights Campaign as a model for the Fort Worth Independent School District.
In response to the news of his passing, Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, Professor at Brite Divinity School, and Founding Director of the Unfinished Lives Project, said, “I am saddened and grieved by the passing of Tom Anable. No one has contributed more to the advancement of LGBTQ human rights in our area than he. Tom was a consummate networker, tirelessly striving to make our world a better place. As we miss him, the finest memorial to his memory will be to carry on his work until full equality is achieved for everyone in the Lone Star State.”
“Thomas Anable’s legacy will be a stronger, more confident, and much more politically savvy gay community,” Sprinkle went on to say. “We are far better for his work, and closer to the goal of equality because of his labors.”
Gay Montana Man Bashed On His Birthday: Updated with Breaking News
Joseph, 22-year-old hate crime victim, told by Missoula, Montana authorities that his injuries warrant only a misdemeanor charge.
Missoula, Montana – Breaking News: Joseph Baken, 22, aka “Joseph,” in this widely reported news story on the web, has pleaded guilty to filing a false police report in Missoula Municipal Court, and has been sentenced to jail time and a fine. His injuries were self-inflicted, and his gay bashing account was fabricated. See the new post on this development here. The Unfinished Lives Team retracts its previous story, which is posted below.
A 22-year-old gay man was invited outside a Missoula club Saturday night, and then ridiculed, called a “faggot,” and beaten by three men for asking where he could find a gay bar to celebrate his birthday. Missoula Police say that the young man, identified only as Joseph, did not have severe enough injuries to warrant more than a misdemeanor charge for the attack. The LGBTQ community in Big Sky Country and around the nation has arisen in outrage over the trivialization of what thousands are now calling a hate crime attack. In an angry comment posted on Wipe Out Homophobia’s Facebook page, a woman writes, “Nobody deserves this, especially not just because of your sexuality. Stay strong, Joseph! Half a million of us are on your side!”
The Missoulan reports that Missoula police are not treating this case as a hate crime, despite the anti-gay slurs, the gang-type attack, and the severity of the bruises Joseph received. According to investigators, Joseph reported the attack at 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning after managing to get back to his home. At least one Montana lawmaker is taking this attack seriously. Representative Ellie Hill, (D)-Missoula, said sexual orientation must now be added to the state’s legal code. “It’s time, regardless of what side of the aisle you sit on,” she said. “What occurred over the weekend in Missoula evidences it.” Rep. Hill pledged to introduce a bill to that effect in the 2013 session of the state legislature.
Missoula has an anti-bias statute on the books banning discrimination against gay people, but the state does not. Critics of the police say that any assault is a greater crime than a misdemeanor, and, in this case, indications are clear that the attackers assaulted their victim expressly because he said he was gay, and was seeking a place where other gay people congregated. KAJ18.com says authorities are soft-pedaling this crime, justifying their attitude by pointing to the time Joseph reported the assault–three hours after it occurred. They also say that his failure to call 911 at the time of the attack supports their misdemeanor decision.
Gay activists around the nation are ginning up pressure on local and state authorities, reminding them that hate crimes by their very nature leave victims terrified and disoriented. Joseph had to get himself to the safety of his home despite his injuries, before he felt safe enough to call the police. Instead of supporting a young man who was only looking to have a good time on his birthday, something straight people do all the time, the Missoula police seem to think the minimum of response is allowable for a gay person in their town. Back 2 Stonewall, a widely-read LGBTQ activist web site, responds, “We do not deserve to be second-class citizens…even in Missoula f***ing Montana!”
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…
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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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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 
Anti-Gay Violence with a Side of Waffle Fries: A Comment on Matthew Paul Turner’s “Five Reasons the Church Failed” on Chick-fil-a Appreciation Day
“Yesterday’s hoopla surrounding CFA did nothing to prove that Christians don’t hate gay people. Oh I know that most Christians will say, ‘I don’t hate gay people!!’ But did supporting CFA Appreciation Day prove that?” Matthew Paul then said, “Trust me, I understand that most people who ate chicken sandwiches at CFA yesterday did not do that as an act of hate. I get that. And that’s cool and all, but did the act of going out of your way to CFA prove that to be true? Do you think that the GLBTQ communities believe you? Would you, if you were gay, believe you?”
Yet, even as I read the good words on Matthew Paul’s blog, I still could not get the perpetual violence done the LGBTQ community in the name of God, the Bible, and the Church out of my mind. Nor could I remain silent about the specter of violence egged on by faith-based bigotry that lurks behind most every anti-gay hate crime in America. So, here is the short reflection on the “5 Reasons” post that I sent to Matthew Paul:
“Thought provoking and generative post, Matthew Paul. But the larger point to me is that the pogrom against LGBTQ people (many of them LGBTQ people of faith, too!) is going on all around the half-million or so ‘chicken Christians’ who are simply, idly standing by and letting it happen while they eat. 2011 saw the largest number of anti-gay murders in US history according the NCAVP (National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs) report. In Texas, in the space of barely six weeks, three lesbians of color have been violently attacked, and two of them are dead. The decimation of LGBTQ people is going on apace, with killers quoting the Bible and right wing religious leaders as they do it. And the good people (I really mean that, in regards to many CFA supporters) of the church are bystanders silently permitting the killings to go on, munching away. I am an ordained Baptist minister and a gay man. As I contemplate the complicity of the church in the slow rolling decimation of our fellow Americans, I believe I have a visceral understanding of the Gospel verse, ‘Jesus wept’ (John 11:35).”
Christians in Austin, Texas, have called on all their Facebook and Twitter friends to show their faith on August 8 by making a $10 donation to a local food bank. Hold the chicken, and hold the waffle fries, please. That seems to me to be in keeping with what Jesus would have us do to show some real Godly love in action, so I will be joining my faith-filled Austin friends by sending my bucks along to the Cathedral of Hope food pantry in Dallas. But I will also be pursuing a mission of conscience beyond that.
If you, gentle readers, believe you see an “agenda” in my response to CFA Appreciation Day, and in my addendum to Matthew Paul Turner’s “5 Reasons” post, then let me hasten to borrow the words of “our dear friend and prayer partner,” Dan Cathy of CFA, who famously said, “I plead guilty.” I do have an agenda, an authentic gay agenda, the only so-called “gay agenda” I know anything about, one that has been influenced and shaped by the simple WWJD faith of my youth. My agenda is that the faith-based bystanders who look idly on while women, men, and youths are bashed, bullied, and killed because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender variance will finally awaken, and take responsibility for their merciless silence–to the end that all Jesus’ followers raise their voices and act until the senseless violence stops!
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August 3, 2012 Posted by unfinishedlives | Anti-LGBT hate crime, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Brite Divinity School, Bullying in schools, Cathedral of Hope, Chick-fil-a, gay bashing, GLBTQ, Hate Crime Statistics, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Lesbian teens, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), religious hate speech, religious intolerance, Social Justice Advocacy, Special Comments, Texas, transgender persons, transphobia | Anti-LGBT hate crime, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Brite Divinity School, Bullying in schools, Cathedral of Hope, Chick-fil-a, Chick-fil-a Appreciation Day, Dan Cathy, gay bashing, GLBTQ, Hate Crime Statistics, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Lesbians, LGBTQ, Matthew Paul Turner, Mike Huckabee, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), religious intolerance, Social Justice Advocacy, Texas, transgender persons, transphobia | 2 Comments