Susan Sarandon is Trevor Project’s 2012 Hero Award Winner
Susan Sarandon, The Trevor Project’s 2012 Hero Award honoree [New York Daily News photo].
Sarandon, famed for her artistry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show [“Dammit, Janet!”], The Hunger, and Thelma & Louise, is being honored for her forthright advocacy for marriage equality, publicly opposing homophobia in the media, speaking out to save the lives of LGBTQ teens from bullying and suicide, and her gifts to HIV/AIDS research and treatment. Speaking for the Trevor Project, Abbe Land, Trevor’s Executive Director and CEO, said: “The Trevor Project is proud to honor Susan Sarandon with the Trevor Hero Award. As a straight ally, Ms. Sarandon has a long history of working to raise awareness of the importance of treating everyone fairly and ensuring same basic civil and human rights for all.” Ms. Land continued, “Our honorees know through their work with The Trevor Project that it only takes one resource – one friend, one ally, one parent – to help save a life. We are proud to honor Susan Sarandon with the Trevor Hero Award.”
Responding to the news she was Trevor’s 2012 Hero honoree, Ms. Sarandon said: “It is truly an honor to be recognized by The Trevor Project as a Trevor Hero. All people deserve respect, and young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender deserve to know that there are people who care for them and who are fighting to make this world a better and more accepting place for them.” When she accepts the award, Ms. Sarandon will join the company of other celebrity advocates such as Daniel Radcliffe, Lady Gaga, and Neil Patrick Harris.
Every day, the Trevor Project saves the lives of young LGBTQ people struggling to reconcile their authentic selves with a world that is often hostile and rejecting. The Trevor Helpline is the premier 24/7 online and phone counseling service dedicated to saving the lives of youth from suicide. An innovator in suicide prevention, The Trevor Project has been recognized by President Obama as a Champion of Change. For more information, go to the Trevor Project’s website, accessible here.
Lesbians Targeted in Hate Crime Vandalism; 5 Teenagers ID’ed As Perps
Lesbian family SUV defaced by anti-gay slurs in hate crimes vandalism spree in Arlington, Texas.
Arlington, Texas- At least 13 persons and businesses were vandalized on June 10 in what police are calling hate crimes. Acting Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson, five suspects ranging in age from 16 to 18 years of age have been identified in the hateful spray painting spree that singled out at least one lesbian family with homophobic slurs. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the eldest suspect, Daniel Damian Sibley, 18, of Arlington, was arrested on Tuesday and is being held on a $2,500 bond in the Arlington City Jail. Sibley, a fresh-faced youth, posted that he is a Texas Christian University (TCU) physical therapy major. Attorneys for the other four suspects have told police that they will be turning their clients over to authorities immediately. The suspects are being charged with graffiti defacement, valued at between $1,500 and $20,000, crimes that are considered felonies in Texas. The hate crimes enhancement, should it be added to the charges, will increase the penalties of suspects who are found guilty.
Acting Chief Johnson told reporters from CBS 11 News that the nature of the slurs used to deface homes, vehicles, and at least one business prompted investigators to treat the cases as hate crimes from the beginning. Vulgarities concerning racial groups were also employed by the perpetrators. What broke open the case was a surveillance video showing clearly the five suspects spray painting their hate speech on a business early on the morning of June 10. “We are committed in Arlington to prevent all crime especially crime that was committed for no other reason than possibly toward hatred,” Chief Johnson told CBS 11. “We want to send a strong message to the community that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.”
A gay family constituted by a lesbian couple and their child were targeted by the words “Faggot Queers” painted on the rear of their late model Subaru SUV. Police speculate that a decal on the rear window depicting two women holding each other’s hands, as well as the hand of a child, and a dog, probably prompted the vandalism.
Gay advocacy groups were swift to praise the Arlington Police Department for the professionalism and timeliness of the arrests. Thomas Anable of Fairness Fort Worth, a local LGBT rights group formed in the wake of the 2009 police raid on the Rainbow Lounge, a major gay bar in the city, commended the action of the police as “textbook perfect.” Chad Griffin, the new President of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, cheered the Arlington Police for “responding swiftly and thoroughly.”
Anti-Gay Racism Hits New Low; Pastor Lynches President Obama In Effigy For Supporting Gay Equality
Racism and homophobic bigotry on display in a Florida church’s front yard.
Gainesville, Florida – President Barack Obama hangs in effigy from a gallows with a gay flag in his hand in the front yard of a Florida church in a blatant grab for publicity–but Pastor Terry Jones is flirting with incitement to violence against blacks and gay people. The Smoking Gun blog says that the Obama effigy is also holding a baby doll in its other hand. A trailer emblazoned with the motto, “Obama is Killing America” sits facing the road in front of the Dove World Outreach Center. In an interview with Huffington Post, Jones said that the flag was to protest the President’s support for LGBTQ people, and the doll symbolized Mr. Obama’s position “on abortion.” As USA Today reported, Jones came to international attention for his “Burn a Koran” campaign in 2010 and 2011 which inflamed anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S., imperiled the lives of American service members stationed around the world, and ignited Islamic protests against this nation throughout the world. After Jones oversaw the burning of the Muslim holy book in 2011, three days of riots broke out in Afghanistan, with over 21 homicides including seven dead United Nations workers. Now, seeking the glory days of his past buffoonery, Jones is making a visual statement he says is protected by the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech.
Disavowing the obvious threat implied in the gallows installation, Jones says he only wishes President Obama to “die politically” for what he is “doing to America.” While some constitutional scholars may agree, taking a cue from the 2011 legal victory of Westboro Baptist Church protecting the Topeka, Kansas church’s protests at military service members’ funerals, Jones is hypocritically cloaking his violent symbology in freedom of speech language. Local Floridians are not buying his diversionary tactics, however. WCJB TV-20 interviewed Gainesville neighbor Mary Mamatsios who said of the controversial pastor, “He’s just over the edge and he has nothing better to do. He’s a total screwball.” This view is widely held throughout the Sunshine State.
The extreme violence portrayed by Jones’s church by including a gallows and a hangman’s noose disturbs the peace of African Americans and LGBTQ folk alike. Symbols matter, and the incitement to violence conjured up in the collective consciousness of the black community by the threat of lynching and the noose threatens to cross the legal line. The U.S. Secret Service is not only aware of the controversial installation in the Dove Center’s yard, but are actively investigating Jones and the church for threatening the life and wellbeing of the President, according to the Broward Palm Beach New Times. As Dr. James Cone, pioneer Black theologian, shows in his award-winning book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Orbis Books, 2011), nooses and lynching haunt the Black community due to the extermination by lynching of black men throughout the South during the “Strange Fruit” period of the 20th century. Stephen G.Ray Jr. of the Christian Century Magazine says Cone’s book “is a theological meditation on a dimension of the lethal oppression experienced by African Americans that has been formative for both the faith and civic posture of the black community for a very long time.”
But the LGBTQ community also has legitimate concerns about security and safety, too. The suffering of blacks and gay people as marginalized communities runs on parallel tracks in this latest controversy. Since the Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by the President in October 2009, murders of LGBTQ people have risen sharply, this year reaching the highest number of hate crime homicides every seen in the USA. Gays and blacks are targeted by people who believe queer executions are justified by the Bible and the authority of church leadership. Like the African American fear of what a noose represents, the hanging of an effigy holding a rainbow flag in its hand conveys what bigots like Jones surely have in mind for LGBTQ people.
A parable: When a dog owner neglects to secure the pet pen, allowing a snapping dog to run free in the neighborhood, who is to blame if the dog digs up the rose beds, urinates on someone’s shoes and socks, kills two pet cats, and mauls a little girl? The dog? No! It was in the dog’s nature and conditioning to bite and tear. The person who unleashed a dog he knew was likely to bite on the other hand sets up the condition by which injury and death may occur–and the dog owner is legally responsible for the damage his pet causes to life, limb and property. When demagogues like Jones and his more practiced homophobe, Rev. Fred Phelps, breathe out their hatred of LGBTQ people, they are also potentially inciting “whosoever will” to violence against gays, lesbians, bisexual people, and transgender people. The incitement to commit a bias crime is a crime of violence in its own right, as Rev. Dr. Mel White has pointed out time and again–and it has to be stopped.
Author of Gay Hate Crimes Book Wins International Silver Medal
Stephen V. Sprinkle receives the Silver Medal for excellence in Gay/Lesbian Non-Fiction at the 16th Annual IPPY Awards.
New York, New York – June 4th, Dr. Steve Sprinkle received the international Silver Medal for Gay/Lesbian Non-Fiction at the 16th Annual Independent Book Publishers Awards Gala in New York City. The Director of the Awards, Jim Barnes, praised Unfinished Lives for being a “brave book,” and “the only such book of its kind.” Barnes asked Dr. Sprinkle to say a few words about his motivation for writing it–the only author he asked to speak to the gathering all night. A photo album of the event are accessible on Facebook by clicking on this link. Dr. Sprinkle expressed his gratitude for increasing interest in the book: “Thanks to everyone for your continuing support of Unfinished Lives and the blog Of the Unfinished Lives Project, https://unfinishedlivesblog.com/.”
In a press release by the Independent Book Publishers Awards, sponsored the the Jenkins Group, the international reach of the IPPYs is evident: “Independent publishers are extremely diverse, in both style and geography. This year’s IPPY competition attracted 5,200 entries, and the 372 medalists represent 44 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, seven Canadian provinces, and ten countries overseas. Launched in 1996 as the first unaffiliated awards program open exclusively to independent, university, and self-published titles, the IPPY Awards contest rewards winners in 74 national, 22 regional, and five e-book categories with gold, silver and bronze medallions and foil seals for their book covers.” The Independent Publisher, a blog featuring the avant guard role independent presses play in launching distinctively different books annually, made this observation about the 16th Annual Awards for 2012: “This year’s entry totals are the biggest ever, with 4,813 print book entries, 390 e-book entries, and an average category size of 50. The largest category was Memoir, with 213 entries; the smallest was Classical Studies, with just 8 entries. IPPY medals go to entrants from 44 U.S. states plus D.C., 7 Canadian provinces, and 10 countries overseas.”
“Independent publishers are growing in number, and the quality of their work is increasing,” says awards director Jim Barnes. “One element driving the high rate of excellence is participation from university presses. This year, 29 medalists came from university presses and 9 came from museums. Their elevated level of writing, editing, design and production raises the bar and inspires us all.” E-Books were recognized in five categories this year, as well. Author and publisher enthusiasm for this publishing medium means that more categories of E-Book awards will be featured in next year’s IPPYs.
Sprinkle said that he owed the night to the ongoing memories of the 13,000 queer folk whose hate crimes murders have been documented since 1982, and especially to the memories of the fourteen women, men, and youth who lost their lives to unreasoning hatred just because of who they loved and how they presented their existential understanding of gender. Unfinished Lives may be accessed on the Unfinished Lives Blog, on Amazon.com, and Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Murders Skyrocket; Highest Hate Crime Murder Rate Ever Recorded
Burke Burnett, 26, of Paris, Texas narrowly missed being murdered in an October 2011 anti-gay hate crime (Dallas Voice photo). Two of the three persons who assaulted him have received long prison sentences with hate crimes enhancements.
New York, New York – LGBTQH hate crimes murders in 2011 reached the highest number in recorded United States history, according to the annual report of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP). The frightening statistics of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender persons, and HIV-affected persons brutally murdered in homophobic hate crimes was released to the press on May 31. Among the highlights of the disturbing 2011 report:
- The number of murders of LGBTQH people ROSE a full 11 per cent
- 30 murders recorded; the highest number since the NCAVP has kept records
- Transgender women, people of color, and gender variant youth are experiencing the most severe assault of violence against them
- 87 per cent of these murders befell LGBTQH people of color
- This high murder rate is the third year in a row (2009, 2010, and now 2011) that shows hate crimes killings rising
- Youth and Young Adults were 2.41 times more likely to have been physically attacked in bias-related crimes than the general LGBTQH population
- Transgender women comprised 40 per cent of the murder totals, making the second year in a row that Transwomen faced violence in outsized proportions to their numbers in the LGBTQH community
Even though the report shows a 16 per cent decrease in bias-related acts of violence against the LGBTQH community, an encouraging trend, the decrease is overthrown by the alarming jump in hate crimes murders. Detroit, Michigan, for example, showed a major increase in violence against transgender people, prompting Nusrat Ventimiglia of Equality Michigan to note that much of their budget was being consumed in response to the hike in the murder rate in the queer community. Rebecca Waggoner of OutFront Minnesota said that the outrage of youth murders and suicides demands more money and staff on the part of anti-violence programs nationwide to address the epidemic of death among gender variant young people.
Since the Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by President Obama in October 2009, the incidence of homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic murder has increased year by year, indicating that vigorous prosecution of killers is demanded by the U.S. Justice Department, the FBI, and all branches of state and local law enforcement. NCAVP’s New York City Anti-Violence Co-ordinator, Chai Jindasurat, said to the media: “NCAVP’s findings are a call to policymakers, advocates, and community members that the prevention of violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected individuals needs to be a priority.” The report includes specific policy changes that may reduce the increasing trend of these murders, including an increase in funding for LGBTQH anti-violence support and prevention, and a concentrated effort to bring an end of the homophobic, transphobic, and biphobic culture that fuels hate violence.
18 states do not currently include sexual orientation in their hate crimes statutes, and 22 states do not include gender identity or gender expression. This lack of state concern for LGBTQH victims of hate crime allows the suspects of anti-gay or anti-transgender acts to believe they can carry out their bias crimes against the queer community with impunity. Even when a state has a hate crimes law on the books, like Texas, the rarity of its use by local law enforcement and district attorneys emboldens homophobic killers to carry out their irrational violence without fearing prosecution.
Remembering Sakia Gunn (1987-2003): A Special Comment on Her Birthday
Sakia LaTona Gunn, murdered by a male homophobe as she defended her friends from him. She was not yet 16 when she died.
Newark, New Jersey – On Saturday, Sakia LaTona Gunn would have been 25 years old–but instead, she was murdered by a homophobe on the make for young lesbians. Sakia’s story never got the press attention other LGBTQ hate crimes murder victims did. She was a young, black, poor girl from the wrong side of the Hudson River. But among those who know her story, there is great power for change still waiting to be released until justice finally comes for Sakia–and for all queer youth caught in the national nightmare of violence against young people of color that just won’t seem to go away.
The narrative of her last night is chilling. Sakia and her friends returned from a great day at the Chelsea Piers over in the Big Apple. They laughed, joked, sneaked drinks, and held each other in a blissful freedom they did not know back home. Late, late–or early, depending on how you keep time–Sakia and her friends stood waiting for a bus to pick them up at one of the busiest bus stops in Newark, when two older, much more powerful men drove by cat-calling at them, trolling for something young and vulnerable. They recognized that the girls were Aggressives–gender non-conforming youth who lived the hip hop life as fully as they could. And something snapped within Richard McCullough when his blandishments were rejected by Sakia.
When McCullough, much larger and stronger than any of the girls he attacked, moved against her friends, Sakia defended them with her life. McCullough stabbed her in the chest with a switchblade knife, later lamely claiming that she had “run” onto the knife he somehow was wielding in self defense. Neither the jury nor the judge bought his story, and he was convicted of manslaughter in a plea bargain and sentenced to 20 years (rather than face a murder charge and be subject to far more prison time).
Sakia’s funeral was huge. Over 2,500 people attended the wake, though it was only slightly covered in the gay media, and virtually not at all in the mainstream press–a fact that has been controversial ever since her story broke. Racism and sexism played their part in dampening the story, as did Sakia’s self identification as a lesbian Aggressive, effectively rendering her a minority within a minority. A courageous filmmaker, Chas Bennet Brack, worked tirelessly to bring Sakia’s story to the big screen as a documentary. “Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project” became an award winner at film festivals around the country. Sakia’s story became a subject of research, scholarship, and artistic interest, with plays, articles, and books dedicated to her memory. Among them is the IPPY Award winning Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memories of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims (Resource Publications, 2011), by Stephen V. Sprinkle, the founder and director of the Unfinished Lives Project.
Against the odds, Sakia Gunn intended on being a basketball star. She found love and friendship in plenty during her woefully shortened life. But her story persistently clamors for attention, crying out for justice for youth of color, queer people, and economically disadvantaged persons of all races and backgrounds. Though she never wished it, she has become an ongoing inspiration–a brave young woman unafraid to be who she was in a hostile world, one who defended her friends. What greater love can anyone have than that?
Dallas Gay Community Rallies for Marriage Equality
Senior Pastor of Cathedral of Hope Dallas, Dr. Jo Hudson and GET EQUAL Texas Regional Director, Daniel Cates speak out for human rights and marriage equality (Dallas Voice photo).
Dallas, Texas – A swiftly gathered crowd of nearly a hundred people converged on the crossroads of the LGBTQ community in Dallas on Wednesday to speak out in support of President Barack Obama who publicly declared his decision to endorse same-sex marriage in the United States. Called together at the Legacy of Love Monument by Daniel Cates, Regional Director of GET EQUAL Texas to protest the victory of the anti-gay marriage amendment to the North Carolina state constitution, events in Washington, D.C. caused Cates to recast the rally in support of President Obama’s endorsement of Marriage Equality for all Americans.
The crowd was a rainbow cross-section of the LGBTQ and Allied community in North Texas: activists and organizers, clergy and lay leaders from churches and synagogues, journalists and television reporters, enthusiastic gays, lesbians, transgender and bisexual people, straight allies, and some plainly curious about what all the flag waving, speeches, and homemade signs were all about. Messages were strong. Cates read the words of slain gay San Franciscan Harvey Milk, to rally the crowd to recruit others to the cause of “100 percent equality” for LGBTQ people. Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson, Senior Pastor at Dallas’s Cathedral of Hope, set the tone for this historic day, declaring that for the first time in history, a sitting United States President has declared his support for same-sex marriage. Dr. Hudson quoted the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying today the “long arc of history” had bent a significant distance toward justice.
The Dallas Voice reports that Dallas Stonewall Democrats President Omar Narvaez thanked President Obama, saying he was proud “to say that President Obama has evolved.” Narvaez encouraged the crowd to become politically involved in support of progressive Democratic candidates up and down the slate this November. Rafael McDonnell of the Resource Center of Dallas, called by Cates “the most important and effective rights activist in North Texas,” said that this day was a “rainbow-colored, neon-lighted, star spangled, red letter day” in the struggle for human rights. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, Professor at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth and Theologian-in-Residence at Cathedral of Hope, told the cheering rally that President Obama’s public declaration of support was the most powerful reply to the victory of Amendment One in North Carolina that he could imagine. Citing his admiration for the amazing campaign of the NC NAACP to defeat Amendment One in his home state, Sprinkle called upon the crowd to reach out to African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, Asian Americans, women, and other marginalized groups in the nation who are the LGBTQ community’s “natural allies.” “We need to let President Obama know that when the extremist right wing strike out at him, which they surely will, we in the LGBTQ community will have his back!” he declared.
Other speakers, including leadership from Equality Texas, local bloggers, and members of the crowd who had a word to speak, called upon Texans to remember that they have much to do in the Lone Star State to win equality here at home. Dr. Hudson said, “There will come a time when Lesbian couples and Gay couples will marry each other in justice of the peace offices, courthouses, and churches right here in Texas!” As the Dallas Voice reports, “Many [attendees] shared stories of losing loved ones and not having any rights to keep their things or claim their true relationship, while others shared stories of progress in uniting an anti-gay neighborhood and overcoming their own struggles for equality.” The gathering sang the great Civil Rights theme song, “We Shall Overcome,” holding hands as the Dallas traffic sped by.
The news organizations such as the local Fox News affiliate, NBC Channel 5, and CW 33 Dallas/Fort Worth News covered the event with video cameras rolling. Their presence shows the far-reaching significance of the news made by President Obama and the LGBTQ community of North Texas.
Gay Hate Crimes Book Receives National Independent Publishers Award
New York, New York – Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memories of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims by Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle has been awarded the national Silver Medal from the Independent Book Awards for outstanding excellence in Gay/Lesbian Non-Fiction. The IPPY Awards, created 16 years ago by the Jenkins Group, honors independently published books throughout the United States. Jim Barnes, Awards Director of the IPPYs for the past 14 years, made the announcement of Dr. Sprinkle’s groundbreaking book on May 2. For Dallas Voice coverage of the award by David Taffet, click here.
Unfinished Lives is Dr. Sprinkle’s labor of love, telling the stories of 14 LGBTQ hate crimes murder victims throughout the U.S., representative of over 13,000 women, men, and youths who have lost their lives to unreasoning hatred since 1980. It took four-and-a-half years to research and write the book. Dr. Sprinkle traveled throughout the country, meeting family members, law enforcement officers, journalists, brokenhearted lovers, and friends who told the stories of their loved ones so that their memories would not be lost. “I set out to change the conversation on hate crimes in this country,” Dr. Sprinkle said, “to put a human face on the outrage of homophobia and transphobia robbing us of so many so brutally.” In regard to the IPPY Award Silver Medal, he said, “I am grateful to the judges and to my publisher, Wipf and Stock–but most of all to the women related to the victims who have become my teachers during the struggle to write this book. These mothers, sisters and aunts became courageous human rights advocates by tragic happenstance. In their names I gratefully accept this award.”
Known as the “Oscars of Independent Publishing,” the IPPY Awards were launched in 1996 as “the first unaffiliated book awards program open exclusively to independents.” Awards Director Barnes says: “Even today, authors choose to publish independently to break free of the rules and constraints of conglomerate publishing, and this rebellious attitude still influences the Awards’ mission today, ‘To reward those who exhibit the courage, innovation, and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing.’” Over 4,000 titles compete for the honors each year in over 72 categories. Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals are awarded in each category. “As far as we know,” Barnes went on to say, “it’s the largest book awards contest in the world.”
Award winners gather this year on June 4 for the awards ceremony at Providence NYC, in the Midtown West area of New York City, a venue where the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Jimi Hendrix, and John Lennon recorded their music. The IPPYs are given in conjunction with the mammoth annual BookExpo America convention to insure the greatest exposure possible for award winners.
Unfinished Lives was published in January 2011 by Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon. Stephen V. Sprinkle is Professor of Practical Theology and Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry at Brite Divinity School, on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He also serves as Theologian in Residence of Cathedral of Hope (United Church of Christ) in Dallas, Texas, the largest congregation in the world with a predominant outreach to the LGBTQ community.
Gay Utah Teen Bullied To Death: Emergency Community Summit Called
Jack Reese, 18, latest victim of school bullying against LGBT students.
Ogden, Utah – Last Monday, another gay teenager from Utah took his life in response to intolerable bullying because of his sexual orientation. Q Salt Lake reports that Jack Reese, 18, of Mountain Green is the latest casualty in the war on gay teenagers taking place in the nation’s schools. With heartbreaking coincidence, Reese’s boyfriend, Alex Smith, spoke on Reese’s experiences with school bullying to a community event focused on the problem of bullying–without the knowledge that the love of his life had already taken his own life earlier that day. Details of Reese’s death have not been released to the public at this time.
According to Ogden OUTreach, a local LGBT youth service organization, the rate of gay teen suicide in Utah is fully 8 times the national average. A North Utah mother of a gay son appeals to parents in the community the community in the wake of Reese’s bullycide to wake up and take action against the epidemic of suicide sweeping so many queer youth away. Allison Black writes to her fellow parents, in part: “Our local community and churches do not always make it easy to openly accept our LGBT (lesbian, gay, transgender, and bi-sexual) friends, family members, and loved ones. The bullying and suicides need to stop. Parents please do not let outside influences tell you that your gay child is evil or broken. Follow your heart.”
The Rev. Marian Edmonds, director of Ogden OUTreach, says that in an “off-the-record” comment by a local official, a gay teen takes his or her life at the rate of once a week, though it does not get reported that way to the press. In a statement to the media, Edmonds said: “The youth I work with all know either a victim of bullying, the loss of a friend to suicide, and most often, both. These youth are bright, creative and loving, yet too often face daily abuse from rejecting families, bullies at school and the loss of their church family. It is time for local schools to incorporate proven techniques for eliminating bullying and homophobia, for churches to preach love and acceptance, and for parents and families to love and accept their children. Each loss of life is a loss for all of us, and it must stop now.”
An emergency community summit aimed at stopping the spread of gay teen suicides due to bullying has been called in Ogden for May 1. Speakers will include parents from Ogden PFLAG, local opinion leaders, faith leaders, and active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the predominant religious influence throughout the area. At Alex Smith’s request, a candlelight vigil will be held at the end of the summit in memory of Reese. Rev. Edmonds decries the situation that is robbing Ogden and North Utah of its young people. “Each loss of life is a loss for all of us, and it must stop now,” she said. Liz Owen, director of PFLAG national, summed up the challenge facing us all: “Sadly, the death of Jack Reese is a reminder that there is still much work to be done.”
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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Communicate with the Unfinished Lives project team:
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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 
Hate Crimes Activist and Queer Theologian Gets Promotion
Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle, promoted to Full Professor (Phoebe Sexton photo, Cathedral of Hope)
Fort Worth, Texas – By vote of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle has been promoted to the rank of Full Professor in the Brite Divinity School faculty. Sprinkle, author of three books and many articles on anti-LGBTQ hate crimes, theology, practice of ministry, and liturgy is now Professor of Practical Theology and Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry in the Fort Worth seminary.
Sprinkle, a native North Carolinian, came to Brite in 1994. He has taught and directed the ministerial formation of thousands of students. In 2008, he founded the Unfinished Lives Project, an organization aimed at changing the national conversation on LGBTQ hate crimes murder. Dr. Sprinkle is a member of the Academy of Religious Leadership, where he serves on the Board of Directors, and he holds membership in the Association of Theological Field Education. In 2010, he received the Hero of Hope Award for his advocacy for LGBTQ equality from the Cathedral of Hope, the largest gay-predominant congregation of Christians in the world. In the same year, the Cathedral named him Theologian in Residence, a post which he still occupies. Texas Christian University’s 2012 edition of Image Magazine recognizes Sprinkle as “one of America’s prominent experts on queer theology–the exploration of man’s relationship with God through the LGBTQ experience.”
In the summer of 2009, Sprinkle took a leading role in the protests arising from the Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, a noted gay bar in Fort Worth. He is one of the few theologians who has integrated his work as an academic and church leader with social justice advocacy. Dean Nancy J. Ramsay, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Divinity School, said in a congratulatory email to Dr. Sprinkle that the motion to promote him “sailed through in committee and in the Board.”
The process leading to promotion at the Divinity School is a year-long round of applications, votes by the school’s Faculty Committee, the Tenured Senior Faculty, the Dean, and the President. Two outside scholars evaluate the academic work of the nominee for excellence in scholarship and national significance in the church and the academy. Dr. Sprinkle is a graduate of Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina, and received his M.Div. degree from Yale University Divinity School, and his Ph.D. degree in systematic theology from Duke University Graduate School. He and his partner Rob live in Dallas, Texas.
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April 29, 2012 Posted by unfinishedlives | Brite Divinity School, Cathedral of Hope, Social Justice Advocacy, Special Comments | Brite Divinity School, Cathedral of Hope, Social Justice Advocacy, Special Comment, Stephen V. Sprinkle, Unfinished Lives Project | Comments Off on Hate Crimes Activist and Queer Theologian Gets Promotion