The Republic of T.

What he said. In solidarity with the Day of Silence, I’m not posting anything else today.

If you’ve come here looking for something to read, I invite you to spend some time reading the stories collected in the LGBT Hate Crimes Project. (Which I’ve decided needs to be taken up again.)

Update: It’s encouraging to hear that so many schools in Montgomery County, MD, are participating, including the school our boys will eventually attend.

[Hat-tip to Kip for the reminder.]

When it comes to blogging these days, when I come across something I want blog about days — even weeks or months — go by before I get around to actually blogging about it. Half the time, I let it go because it’s not news anymore, and I can just imagine people asking, “Why’s he blogging about that? It’s so, like, last week.” (As a result, I have tons of half-written draft posts sitting in queue, most of which will never see the light of day.)

The up side is that almost everything comes around again, and when it does I’ve got something partially written, and maybe even a few links already in hand. So, when I read Billy Wolfe’s story in The New York Times, and how he and his parents finally dealt with bullying, I knew exactly what wanted to say; even though I’m still a couple of days late in saying it.

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It’s an old cliché, but nonetheless true: even a broken watch is right twice a day. The same can be said for even the most bigoted organizations of the religious right. (Maybe it’s just that if you keep moving to the right, you eventually meet up with the left?) The American Family Association is that broken watch right about now.

I don’t remember the last time I thought the AFA was right about anything, and I don’t ever remember saying the AFA was right about anything. Ninety-nine and nine tenths of the time, they’re not. But their response to the Day of Silence this year, actually had me nodding my head and thinking they might have gotten a couple of things right this time.

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I didn’t mean to go off, really. But I had just had enough. It was one of those moments when you mutter to yourself, “That’s all I can stand. I can’t stand no more.”

We were out grocery shopping yesterday. It’s not unusual for one group or another to have a table set up outside the grocery store. Sometimes it’s the Girl Scouts, selling cookies. Sometimes it’s people raising money for charity. Sometimes It’s people protesting property taxes in Montgomery County (Usually people who don’t have children in public schools, because they’re retired or just don’t have kids. So it doesn’t matter to them that we have some of the best schools in the area, and even in the country.)

Someone was setting up a table when we went in, but I didn’t look to see what it was. We were too busy getting the kids situated and getting into the store. But on the way out I saw this guy sitting at the table, with a sign asking for signatures to repeal a law that would “allow men in women’s restrooms.”

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It’s been a while since I did a round-up based on the “What I’m Reading” column. With work stacking up to fill out the rest of my day, now seems like as good a time as any. And there’s plenty of great stuff out there. Like this post by Aundi over at QueerCents on small towns and “big religion.” I’m planning to include it in a post I’m writing about religion and politics.

There’s a sentence in Aundi’s post that I think I’ll be returning to and quoting again and again, as I return to the topic of religion and politics, religion in politics, religious politics, political religion, etc. You can guess which one it is.

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When Chanelle Pickett was working at NYNEX in Brookline, MA, I was working at HRC in Washington, DC. While Chanelle Pickett was being harassed and fired for being transgender, I was working on ENDA, among other things. While Channelle Pickett was unable to find work and turning to prostitution as a means of survival, I was working at HRC, trying to pass a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that did not include gender identity. But that’s a historical matter now.

That was over 10 years ago. I don’t know what I was doing on November 19, 1995, the night that Pickett met with her killer, William C. Palmer. They already knew each other, and Pickett’s sister said Pickett liked Palmer, and thought of him not just as a “trick” but as potential relationship material. I don’t know what I was doing the moment Palmer strangled Pickett death, apparently consensual sex that resulted in Pickett’s semen and Palmer’s saliva being found on his jeans afterward. Do the math and you’ll probably guess that Palmer clearly knew Pickett was transgender.

I don’t know what I was doing the exact moment that Palmer “sat on” Pickett for 10 minutes, strangled and struck her, and stuffed part of a comforter down her throat (no doubt to stifle her screams). I don’t know what I was doing that exact night, while Palmer slept for six hours with Pickett’s body in his bed before he called his lawyer, who then called the police; or what I was doing the morning after, when the police arrived to find Pickett lying in a pool of blood.

Whatever I was doing, it wasn’t enough to help protect Pickett from the workplace discrimination that helped put her on the path to Palmer’s fatal embrace. I don’t know what I was doing, either, on May 3, 1997, when a jury acquitted Palmer of murder and merely convicted him of assault and battery. Nor do I remember what I was doing on May 15, 1997, when the judge sentenced Palmer — after acknowledging the brutality of the “beating” meted out to Pickett — to 2 1/2 year in prison, and then suspended the last six months of the sentence.

Most of us probably don’t remember what we were doing that long ago. But we’re still debating ENDA and gender identity, ten years later. Are we we much closer now to preventing stories like what happened to Chanelle Pickett from happening today.

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In honor of Transgender Remembrance Day, this week I am updating The LGBT Hate Crimes Project with transgender or trans-related hate crimes.

Amancio Corrales had only just come home. He was living in Phoenix, AZ, when his mother asked him and his sister to move back home to Yuma, because she was concerned for their safety. Corrales was born in Mexico, but had grow up in Yuma and graduated from Yuma High School before going on to work as a cosmetologist. He also worked as a female impersonator, and under the stage name “Dalia” had performed in Phoenix, Mexicali, and Tijuana, with an act that paid homage to his favorite female artists, including Jennifer Lopez and Thalia.

But on May 2, 2005, he moved back to Phoenix, mostly to ease his mother’s mind, as she worried for his safety. She had reason to worry. Within days of moving back to Phoenix, Amancio Corrales was found dead; beaten, stabbed and floating in the Colorado River.

current events, gay bashing, gay rights, gender, hate crimes, homophobia, politics

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It looks that way. In a more-than-a-little-ironic twist so soon after the ENDA debate, it looks like the hate crimes bill may get hung-up in Congress, because it would include anti-gay hate crimes.

The fate of a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill was called into question this week when gay-supportive members of the House of Representatives threatened to vote against a defense authorization bill to which the measure is attached.

As many as 20 House Democrats who are strong gay rights supporters indicated they might vote against the National Defense Authorization Act because it includes provisions that support President Bush’s efforts to continue the Iraq war, Capitol Hill sources said.

At the same time, as many as 180 House Republicans and conservative Democrats who voted against a freestanding version of the hate crimes bill in May threatened to vote against the Department of Defense authorization measure this week unless the hate crimes provision were taken out,

congressional insiders said.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was expected to join Senate Democratic leaders Thursday morning in announcing a postponement of a vote on the entire bill until at least Dec. 1, when Congress returns from its Thanksgiving holiday recess, according to a knowledgeable congressional source.

The House and Senate were scheduled to vote on a final version of the combined hate crimes-DOD authorization bill by Friday after a House-Senate conference committee made last-minute changes.

In my mind, this calls a few thins into question.

anti-gay violence, bush, current events, gay bashing, hate crimes, homophobia, politics

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I’ve been researching and writing about anti-LGBT hate crimes since July, and it hasn’t gotten any easier. Perhaps that’s because, as I said before, sometimes it means spending days with a particular story. And not just with the details, but with the victims and their experience of the brutality visited upon them. And even though intellectually I know the motivation behind the crimes, I find myself asking the same question I imagine the victims asking themselves and their attackers, sometimes silently and sometimes screaming: Why?

Reading and writing about so much brutality has changed me, I guess. Much in the same way being a parent has changed me. For example, it’s difficult for me to hear or see anything about violence done to children. When a news story or television show about a crime committed against a child comes on, my instinct is to change the channel. I guess it’s because I can’t help but imagine the same thing happening to my child. I know how a child reacts to pain, from a simple “boo-boo” to accidentally bumping a knee or an elbow or a head so hard that crying is preceded by almost silent screaming.

I’ve held and comforted my son through many of those “boo-boos” that are part of being a healthy, happy child who sometimes plays a little to hard or with less care than I as a parent would prefer. I’ve kissed “boo-boos” and put bandages on them. I’ve dried tears and rocked him until the pain subsided and he was ready to play again. But my son is confident of something that some children are not; that the hands that are supposed to care for him will not harm him, and that his parents are there to make sure he’s safe. That makes Parker a little different from little Mikey Vallejo-Seiber.

anti-gay violence, child abuse, children, courts, crime, current events, gay bashing, gay rights, gender, hate crimes, homophobia, masculinity, parenting, politics

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Today is a big day for the hate crimes act, according to Congressional Quarterly.

The conference report on the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill (HR 1585) is expected to be released as early as Tuesday, and members of the Armed Services panels hope to clear the measure before heading home for the Thanksgiving Day recess.

That means the hate crimes act will be heading for the president’s desk soon. So, it seemed like a good time to post a list of all the cases I’ve researched and written up thus far for the LGBT Hate Crimes Project.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’m researching and writing up cases of anti-trans or anti-trans-related hate crimes between now and the Transgender Day of Remembrance. I’ll have two new cases up in the next couple of days. But for now, here’s a full list of the cases compiled thus far, by last name of victims where known and/or appropriate.

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With the bruising battle over ENDA still stinging some of us, and the Transgender Day of Rememberance approaching on November 20th, it seems appropriate to continue the LGBT Hate Crimes Project by adding as many new transgender-related cases as I can research and write up between now and November 20th.

It seems appropriate because, as I pointed out before, a combination of anti-trans bigotry and employment discrimination often puts some transgender women in position of doing what some trans activists have called “survival sex work”; something that puts many of them in danger of being targets for anti-trans hate crime, often stemming from “trans panic”, a close cousin of “gay panic”.

Alfred Dibble, who worked as a registered nurse, may not have done sex work out of economic necessity, but — like Bella Evangelista, and Emonie Spaulding — that’s likely what led to him being a victim of “trans panic,” found beaten unconscious only to die several days later without ever regaining consciousness.

blogs, courts, crime, current events, gay rights, gender, hate crimes, homophobia

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Update: Per the comments below, I have edited this post and updated the entry on that LGBT Hate Crimes Project to correct the error concerning Owen’s race.

Have you ever heard of Sean Ethan Owen? You’ve heard of Matthew Shepard. You’ve heard of Brandon Teena. You’ve probably even heard of Sakiah Gunn, Scotty Joe Weaver, and Sean William Kennedy. But you probably haven’t heard of Sean Ethan Owen, even though he died just one state north of Sean William Kennedy, and about three years earlier. I won’t speculate as to why, though I find it interesting that I can find all kinds of images of Sean William Kennedy, but not a single one of Sean Ethan Owen (though images of Owen’s killers are available online). It’s almost as if he not only died, but disappeared.

One of the reasons I started the LGBT Hate Crimes Project, was to tell the stories of people like Sean Ethan Owen, who were targets and/or victims of violence because they were LGBT, but whose names never made headlines. And it’s the reason I moved this project from Wikipedia to its own domain, because it’s likely that Sean Ethan Owen’s death would not be notable enough for Wikipedia. It wasn’t covered much outside of North Carolina, except for some gay publications. Sean Ethan Owen’s murder did not make national headlines. It didn’t inspire widespread protests. It didn’t inspire new legislation, let alone legislation that bears his name, not did it result in landmark court rulings. Probably the only people who even wept for him were his family and those who knew him personally. In my research, I didn’t read about candlelight vigils or public outpourings of emotion from perfect strangers, as happened in response to previous cases.

But Sean Ethan Owen was black gay man who was targeted for robbery by a man he met on a chat line; a man who wasn’t gay himself, thought that gay men on the chat line were easy targets for crime (maybe because he thought they’d be less likely to resist, less likely to report the crime, or that police would be less likely to pursue it). He was lured into meeting, and when he arrived found two other men there with the man he came to meet. He gave all three of them a ride, and then returned with them to a park where the men intended to smoke marijuana. Owen was shot in the head, but did not fall.

anti-gay violence, courts, crime, current events, gay bashing, gay rights, hate crimes, homophobia, politics, wikipedia

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When I started The LGBT Hate Crimes Project the Murder of Satendar Singh was one cases I wanted most to write about, because at the time I started the project it had just happened. But I decided to wait until more information about the case became available, as I wanted to avoid writing about the case as a hate crime only to have different information come out later.

But earlier this month, one of Singh’s attackers went to court, and that was the catalyst for starting to research the story.

One of the men accused in the beating death of Satender Singh was in court yesterday.

The the hearing, Aleksandr Shevchenko was told appear back in court next month.

Shevchenko is accused of being part of a group that allegedly used racial and homophobic slurs toward Satender Singh in July at Lake Natoma. A brawl ensued and Singh was severely beaten. He later died from head injuries.

Investigators say Shevchenko didn’t throw the punch that killed Singh but contributed to the crime.

What I found out made it even more convincing as a hate crime.
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