Discrimination and the New Inclusive America: Bake me a cake or go to Jail!

[koshergrl]

Emily is going with her feelings, not the law.

????

Dear JakeStarkey can you explain why INCLUDING both sides of religious debates EQUALLY
when making a law that affects BOTH their beliefs is NOT OBJECTIVE?

Let me answer that, if I may.

Because the Constitution prohibits the government from making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, or impeding the free exercise of religion.

Dear orogenicman
I agree! That's what I am SAYING!
by taking one side's beliefs over the other, the govt is establishing a bias based on beliefs that not all the public shares.
EXACTLY!

Excuse me, but being gay is not a belief any more than having Down's syndrome is a belief. The bias is in believing that one has a right to justify discrimination based on one's religion.

Er..it's not a religion either, though honestly, it should be.

 

[FA_Q2]

If you're a Christian..commit sacrilege and renounce your faith..or go to jail.

That's not really the way it is, but if that's what you have to tell yourself so you know to obey the law, I don't have a problem with it.

It's Christians you can have whatever belief you want but you can't practice it if some faggot gets offended by it.

Right right. Supporters of slavery, segregation, and interracial marriage bans all invoked the religious defense too. Just substitute your pejorative.

See above. The 2 instances are not even remotely similar. We had to enact laws against racial discrimination not because such things should be forced but because to not do so would have rendered equal life impossible for blacks and other minorities. It was a major problem that required governmental involvement or people would have been treated as less than whites. Gays are not facing the same thing or anything even remotely close.

The similarities are there. Racial discrimination was also justified with a freedom of religion defense. Gay folks are tired of discrimination and being treated less than straight folks.

Treated less than straight folk because a dozen wedding cake places would not bake them a cake.
The ONE place they were really discriminated against in a meaningful way has been rectified in most places and will be everywhere very soon. Now they are just pining for special treatment.

 

[BlindBoo]

That's not really the way it is, but if that's what you have to tell yourself so you know to obey the law, I don't have a problem with it.

It's Christians you can have whatever belief you want but you can't practice it if some faggot gets offended by it.

Right right. Supporters of slavery, segregation, and interracial marriage bans all invoked the religious defense too. Just substitute your pejorative.

See above. The 2 instances are not even remotely similar. We had to enact laws against racial discrimination not because such things should be forced but because to not do so would have rendered equal life impossible for blacks and other minorities. It was a major problem that required governmental involvement or people would have been treated as less than whites. Gays are not facing the same thing or anything even remotely close.

The similarities are there. Racial discrimination was also justified with a freedom of religion defense. Gay folks are tired of discrimination and being treated less than straight folks.

Treated less than straight folk because a dozen wedding cake places would not bake them a cake.
The ONE place they were really discriminated against in a meaningful way has been rectified in most places and will be everywhere very soon. Now they are just pining for special treatment.

In Indiana, a gay person can still be fired from a job or denied a job, simply for being gay.

 

[Edgetho]

Treated less than straight folk because a dozen wedding cake places would not bake them a cake.
The ONE place they were really discriminated against in a meaningful way has been rectified in most places and will be everywhere very soon. Now they are just pining for special treatment.

It won't be long until dimocrap scum's favoritist most favorite people on the planet, goat-fucking islamists, start treating gays like they see fit.

Here. In this Country.

Count on it.

Here's a taste of the treatment you can expect, butt-rangers and carpet munchers....

(I am NOT amazed at how much dimocrap filth embrace these people.... I mean the goat-fuckers. People, if it's scummy, you can expect to find dimocrap filth hanging out. Like flies to shit....)

Anyway, without further ado --

Religion Of Peace: Islamic State Stones Man To Death For Being Gay…
OMG! Did you hear some random pizzeria in Indiana said they won’t cater gay weddings even though they’ve never catered a wedding!?

Via Express:

BRUTAL Islamic State (IS) fighters have released new footage of the moment they stoned to death a man accused of being gay.

The blindfolded victim is led into a field in Homs, Syria before a group of more than a dozen men hurl rocks at him from just a few metres away.

The man was accused of bestiality and “having a homosexual affair”, according to reports.

The savage attack was revealed in images published by the terror group on social media, a method increasingly used by fighters to spread their evil message.

A second series of photos shows the beheading of a man said to have been caught spying on behalf of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Surrounded by IS fighters holding AK47 rifles and with faces obscured by baklavas or scarves, the victim is shown screaming in agony as he is decapitated.



Edge:
I deleted one of the pics, thinking it might a little too gruesome.

Don't worry dimocrap scum, when ISIS comes for you and you're on your knees pleading for help from people like me who have weapons and who know how to use them (you fail on both counts)........

Hold your breath and count to 10 trillion -- Slowly

Go get that ACLU Lawyer to protect you. Go get that protester or that race-baiter or Code Pink or the College perfesser.

It's coming, dimocrap scum. Next seriously major breakdown in this Country and it's coming. Of that, you can be certain.

 

[Edgetho]

In Indiana, a gay person can still be fired from a job or denied a job, simply for being gay.

Please forgive me for doubting you but since we all know what lying scum dimocraps are, can you provide a link to the last person to be fired for being gay in Indiana (or anywhere else).

There are still laws on the books that require a man to walk in front of an automobile at night carrying a gas lamp, too.

I'm smarter than you. Give it up

 

[koshergrl]

That's not really the way it is, but if that's what you have to tell yourself so you know to obey the law, I don't have a problem with it.

It's Christians you can have whatever belief you want but you can't practice it if some faggot gets offended by it.

Right right. Supporters of slavery, segregation, and interracial marriage bans all invoked the religious defense too. Just substitute your pejorative.

See above. The 2 instances are not even remotely similar. We had to enact laws against racial discrimination not because such things should be forced but because to not do so would have rendered equal life impossible for blacks and other minorities. It was a major problem that required governmental involvement or people would have been treated as less than whites. Gays are not facing the same thing or anything even remotely close.

The similarities are there. Racial discrimination was also justified with a freedom of religion defense. Gay folks are tired of discrimination and being treated less than straight folks.

Treated less than straight folk because a dozen wedding cake places would not bake them a cake.
The ONE place they were really discriminated against in a meaningful way has been rectified in most places and will be everywhere very soon. Now they are just pining for special treatment.

Excuse me, but declining a request to attend a fake homo marriage is NOT treating someone "less than straight folk". They could have declined to endorse a meth dealer's wedding, or the wedding of the family of a known pedophile, as well, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

[BlindBoo]

In Indiana, a gay person can still be fired from a job or denied a job, simply for being gay.

Please forgive me for doubting you but since we all know what lying scum dimocraps are, can you provide a link to the last person to be fired for being gay in Indiana (or anywhere else).

There are still laws on the books that require a man to walk in front of an automobile at night carrying a gas lamp, too.

I'm smarter than you. Give it up

Yeah that was tough to find.

Marriage Rights Won t Save Gays From Being Fired in Most States - Bloomberg Politics

Yet Indiana and Arkansas already were among the 28 states, primarily in the South and middle of the country, where gays can be denied private-sector jobs or housing purely on the basis of sexual orientation. In 29 states, gays can be refused service in retail stores.

 

[Edgetho]

Yeah that was tough to find.

Marriage Rights Won t Save Gays From Being Fired in Most States - Bloomberg Politics

Yet Indiana and Arkansas already were among the 28 states, primarily in the South and middle of the country, where gays can be denied private-sector jobs or housing purely on the basis of sexual orientation. In 29 states, gays can be refused service in retail stores.

Find me a link to a Gay person being fired because he or she was Gay in the last decade.

Go for it, douche.

You're just another lying dim

You're talking hypothetical bullshit

 

[JakeStarkey]

Ensuring LGBT rights is not limiting anyone else's rights, because no has a right to discriminate against LGBTs in public association.

The socons ar asserting rights they themselves do not have.

 

[BlindBoo]

Yeah that was tough to find.

Marriage Rights Won t Save Gays From Being Fired in Most States - Bloomberg Politics

Yet Indiana and Arkansas already were among the 28 states, primarily in the South and middle of the country, where gays can be denied private-sector jobs or housing purely on the basis of sexual orientation. In 29 states, gays can be refused service in retail stores.

Find me a link to a Gay person being fired because he or she was Gay in the last decade.

Go for it, douche.

You're just another lying dim

You're talking hypothetical bullshit

Are you misinformed, pretending to be stupid, or just stupid?

Overcoming Misinformation

Proponents of expanded discrimination protections will have to overcome misinformation as well as opposition. In the YouGov poll, only 14 percent correctly responded that it is legal under federal law to fire someone based on sexual orientation. Sixty-two percent wrongly said it is illegal.

That lack of understanding is one reason gay-rights advocates say they expect the fight over anti-discrimination laws will take time.

Marriage Rights Won t Save Gays From Being Fired in Most States - Bloomberg Politics

 

[Theowl32]

If you're a Christian..commit sacrilege and renounce your faith..or go to jail.

Nothing new. Ancient Rome, the Middle East, and Obamerica.

 

[Edgetho]

Are you misinformed?

I know it's illegal in Civil Service jobs and in my town so.........

Yes. Misinformed.


I am totally against discrimination due to sexual orientation.

Shit. 2nd time in two days I've been wrong.

What are the odds?

 

[orogenicman]

Let me answer that, if I may.

Because the Constitution prohibits the government from making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, or impeding the free exercise of religion.

Dear orogenicman
I agree! That's what I am SAYING!
by taking one side's beliefs over the other, the govt is establishing a bias based on beliefs that not all the public shares.
EXACTLY!

Excuse me, but being gay is not a belief any more than having Down's syndrome is a belief. The bias is in believing that one has a right to justify discrimination based on one's religion.

as a supporter of gay marriage I feel the need to counter your argument by saying the bias can ALSO be not allowing the freedom of belief by those that are guided by their religious faith.

Not so. You can believe whatever your heart desires as long as it doesn't adversely affect other believing or non-believing human beings. For instance, you can no longer require African Americans to use separate bathrooms and water fountains in ANY business in the country, EVEN if you claim to do it based on some religious belief. Using the Bible to justify discrimination against gays is the same heinous use of it that slave owners used to justify slavery, and just as morally and ethically ambiguous.

No one is using the bible to justify discrimination of gays.

Oh really? Well, you've apparently been asleep at the wheel if you believe that:

Google

 

[orogenicman]

You are repeating yourself. Discriminating against a class of people based on a religious belief when conducting public commerce is NOT protected behavior.

Behaviors are not protected - they are restricted or not restricted. You are also incorrect - there is nothing inherently illegal in discriminating at all. You can discriminate for a whole host of reasons and there is nothing legally stopping you from doing so. The only time that you are not allowed to discriminate is when it falls under specifically enumerated protected classes. The question has never really been weather or not you can discriminate but weather or not sexual orientation should fall under a protected class. The idea that it should I believe is sorely misguided. It relies heavily on the incorrect comparison with racial discrimination - a comparison that you even reached for:

Not so. You can believe whatever your heart desires as long as it doesn't adversely affect other believing or non-believing human beings. For instance, you can no longer require African Americans to use separate bathrooms and water fountains in ANY business in the country, EVEN if you claim to do it based on some religious belief. Using the Bible to justify discrimination against gays is the same heinous use of it that slave owners used to justify slavery, and just as morally and ethically ambiguous.

THe comparison is completely incorrect. Racial discrimination was not half a dozen bakers throughout the nation refusing to bake cakes for blacks. It was the entire fucking nation beating them down. They were less than whites even after they were freed. To compare that to the 'plight' of gays borders on insane. There is no real impact for gays in thew small number of bakeries and photographers that do not want to attend to their weddings. The real discrimination was the right of marriage being removed. That has been addressed. Violating some people's rights of free association is simply a piss poor solution to a problem that really does not exist. gays have no issues getting cakes and pictures - they are completely free in this society. To make them a protected class is just asinine.

Dude, gays have been beaten, stabbed, shot, run over, lynched, murdered, etc, for millennia, and it is still going on today, even in this country. So when you belittle the fact by saying "Racial discrimination was not half a dozen bakers throughout the nation refusing to bake cakes for blacks" as a comparison to what is happening today with gays, I just have to ask wtf are you babbling about? A religious bigot refusing to make a cake for a gay wedding is a symptom of a much larger problem that has been going on in this country since it was first founded. You know it, and I know it. So don't be obtuse.

No I dont 'know it' because it is bullshit. Christians, Muslims, Whites, Blacks, Asians, Germans, Japanese and any other specific group you can think of has been attacked because they are different than the group attacking them. Gays have not had a particularly hard time about it other than the inability to get married and receive the benefits from it. MANY other minority groups have had things FAR FAR worse (particularly blacks) so your false equivalency is utter bullshit. I would say don't be obtuse yourself but I have a feeling that you plan on continuing the asinine comparison.

The reality is that the widespread discrimination against gays because of their sexual orientation is simply not there.

If you don't know it, then you either haven't been paying attention, or else you simply don't care.

History of violence against LGBT people in the United States - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Federal hate crime statistics[edit]
In 2004, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes reported to police were founded on perceived sexual orientation. Sixty-one percent of those attacks were against gay men, 14% against lesbians, 2% against heterosexuals and 1% against bisexuals, while attacks against LGBT people at large made up 20%.[2] Violence based on perceived gender identity was not recorded in the report.

The FBI reported that for 2006, hate crimes against gays increased to 16% from 14% in 2005, as percentage of total documented hate crimes across the U.S.[3] The 2006 annual report, released on November 19, 2007, also said that hate crimes based on sexual orientation are the third most common type, behind race and religion.[3]

In 2008, 17.6% of hate crimes were based on the victim's perceived sexual orientation. Of those crimes, 72.23% were violent in nature. 4,704 crimes were committed due to racial bias and 1,617 were committed due to sexual orientation. Of these, only one murder and one forcible rape were committed due to racial bias, whereas five murders and six rapes were committed based on sexual orientation.[4]

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney (DDA) Jay Boyarsky attributed a surge in anti-gay hate crimes, from 3 in 2007 to 14 in 2008, to controversy over Proposition 8. However, the DDA cautioned against reading too much from small statistical samples, pointing out that the vast majority of hate incidents do not get referred to the District Attorney's office.[5]

In 2011, the FBI reported 1,572 hate crime victims targeted based on a sexual orientation bias, making up 20.4% of the total hate crimes for that year. Of the total victims, 56.7% were targeted based on anti-male homosexual bias, 29.6% were targeted based on anti-homosexual bias, and 11.1% were targeted based on anti-female homosexual bias.[6]

Violent acts against LGBT persons[edit]
1970–1979[edit]

• March 1970 – Howard Efland, a gay man who had checked into the Dover Hotel, under the pseudonym J. McCann, was beaten to death by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.[7]
• June 24, 1973 – An arsonist burned the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans, a gay bar, killing 32 people.[8]
• June 21, 1977 – Robert Hillsborough was stabbed to death in San Francisco by a man shouting "faggot".[9]
• July 5, 1978 – A gang of youths armed with baseball bats and tree branches assaulted several men in an area of Central Park in New York City known to be frequented by homosexuals. The victims were assaulted at random, but the assailants later confessed that they had deliberately set out to the park to attack homosexuals. One of those injured was former figure skater Dick Button, who was assaulted while watching a fireworks display in the park.[10][11]
• November 27, 1978 – Openly gay San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk, along with Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated by political rival Dan White at San Francisco City Hall. Outrage over the assassinations and the short sentence given to White (seven years) prompted the White Night riots.[12]
• January 1979 – Tennessee Williams was beaten by five teenage boys in Key West. He escaped serious injury. The episode was part of a spate of anti-gay violence inspired by an anti-gay newspaper ad run by a local Baptist minister.[13]
• June 5, 1979 – Terry Knudsen was beaten to death by three men in Loring Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[14]
• September 7, 1979 – Robert Allen Taylor was stabbed to death near Loring Park in Minneapolis. A local reporter interviewed the murderer from jail and was told, "I don't like gays. Okay?"[14]
• October 7, 1979 – 17-year-old Steven Charles of Newark was beaten to death in New York City by Robert DeLicio, Costabile "Gus" Farace, Farace's cousin Mark Granato, and David Spoto. They also beat Charles' friend, 16-year-old Thomas Moore of Brooklyn. Moore was critically injured but managed to get help at a nearby residence. Moore identified the four men via a lineup four days after the incident. Farace, the leader of the attack, pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was paroled after eight years, in 1988. He, himself was murdered on November 17, 1989.[15]

1980–1989[edit]

• 1984 – Charlie Howard was drowned in Bangor, Maine for being "flamboyantly gay".[16]
• May 13, 1988 – Rebecca Wight was killed when she and her partner, Claudia Brenner, were shot by Stephen Roy Carr while hiking and camping along the Appalachian Trail. Carr later claimed that he became enraged by the couple's lesbianism when he saw them having homosexual relations.[17]
• May 15, 1988 - Tommy Lee Trimble and John Lloyd Griffin, two gay men, were harassed and later shot by Richard Lee Bednarski in Dallas, Texas. Bednarski is later convicted of the two murders but is sentenced to 30 years rather than life in prison. The judge who issued the sentence, Jack Hampton, said later that he did so because the victims were homosexuals who wouldn't have been killed if they "hadn't been cruising the streets" for men. Hampton's comments cause controversy and he is later censured for his remarks. He loses a judicial re-election in 1992.[18][19]

1990–1999[edit]

• 1990 – James Zappalorti, a gay Vietnam veteran, was stabbed to death.[20]
• July 2, 1990 – Julio Rivera was murdered in New York City by two men who beat him with a hammer and stabbed him with a knife because he was gay.[21]
• 1991 – Paul Broussard, a Houston-area banker, was murdered. He was attacked by 10 young men along with Clay Anderson and Richard Delaunay, who survived. All ten of the attackers were eventually convicted, with sentences ranging from a probation and fine for the respective hospitalization and funeral bills to the 45-year imprisonment of Jon Buice, who confessed to inflicting the fatal stab wound.[22]
• October 27, 1992 – U.S. Navy Petty Officer Allen Schindler was murdered by a shipmate who stomped him to death in a public restroom in Japan.[23] Schindler had complained repeatedly about anti-gay harassment aboard ship.[23] The case became synonymous with the gays in the military debate that had been brewing in the United States culminating in the "Don't ask, don't tell" bill.[24]
• 1993 – Brandon Teena, a trans man, was raped and later killed when his birth gender was revealed by police to male friends of his.[25] The events leading to Teena's death were depicted in the movie Boys Don't Cry.[26]
• March 9, 1995 – Scott Amedure was murdered after revealing his attraction to his friend Jonathan Schmitz on a The Jenny Jones Show episode about secret crushes. Schmitz purchased a shotgun to kill Amedure and did so after Amedure implied he still was attracted to him; Schmitz then turned himself in to police.[27][28]
• November 20, 1995 – Chanelle Pickett, 23, an African American trans woman, died at the home of William C. Palmer after a fight that ensued after Palmer discovered that she was transgender and he demanded she leave his home.
• December 4, 1995 – Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill, a lesbian couple in Medford, Oregon, were murdered by a man who said he had "no compassion" for bisexual or homosexual people.[29] Robert Acremant was convicted and sentenced to death by lethal injection.[30]
• January 4, 1996 – Fred Mangione, a gay man, was murdered in Texas by two Neo-nazi brothers. His partner, Kenneth Stern was also attacked, but survived. One of the attackers, Ronald Henry Gauthier, later received at 10-year probation sentence.[31]
• May 1996 - Julianne Williams, 24 and Lollie Winans, 26 were murdered at their campsite along the Appalachian Trail on Virginia's Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. They were bound and gaged and their throats were slit. To date, there has been no conviction in the murders.
• August 1, 1996 – Nick Moraida, a 34-year-old Latino gay man, was murdered during a robbery. His murderer, Richard Cartwright, was sentenced to death penalty.
• February 21, 1997 – The Otherside Lounge, a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta, was bombed by Eric Robert Rudolph, the "Olympic Park Bomber;" five bar patrons were injured. In a statement released after he was sentenced to five consecutive life terms for his several bombings, Rudolph called homosexuality an "aberrant lifestyle".
• October 7, 1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student, in Laramie, Wyoming was tortured, beaten severely, tied to a fence, and abandoned; he was found 18 hours after the attack and succumbed to his injuries less than a week later, on October 12. His attackers, Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney, are both serving two consecutive life sentences in prison.[32]
• February 19, 1999 – Billy Jack Gaither, a 39-year-old gay man, was brutally beaten to death in Rockford, Alabama. His attackers, Steve Mullins and Charles Monroe Butler, were found guilty of murder and were both sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.[33]
• July 1, 1999 – Gay couple Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder were murdered by white supremacist brothers Matthew and Tyler Williams in Redding, California. Tyler Williams was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in prison, to be served after his completion of a 21-year sentence for firebombing synagogues and an abortion clinic.[34] Benjamin Williams claimed that by killing the couple he was "obeying the laws of the Creator".[35] He committed suicide in 2003 while awaiting trial. Their former pastor described the brothers as "zealous in their faith" but "far from kooks".[36]
• July 6, 1999 – U.S. Army Pfc. Barry Winchell was murdered in Fort Campbell, Kentucky by fellow soldier Calvin Glover. Winchell was beaten to death with a baseball bat after rumors spread on base of his relationship with transgender author Calpernia Addams. Glover was sentenced to life in prison.[37] The events that lead up to Winchell's death are depicted in the movie Soldier's Girl.
• September 1999 – Steen Fenrich was murdered, apparently by his stepfather, John D. Fenrich, in Queens, New York. His dismembered remains were found in March 2000, with the phrase "gay ****** number one" scrawled on his skull along with his social security number. His stepfather fled from police while being interviewed, then committed suicide.[38]
• October 15, 1999 – Sissy "Charles" Bolden was found shot to death in Savannah, Georgia. Police arrested Charles E. Wilkins, Jr., in July 2003; he admitted the killing, and was charged in two other homicides, according to the Savannah Police Department.

2000–2009[edit]
On April 29, 2009, The U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend federal law to classify as "hate crimes" attacks based on a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity (as well as mental or physical disability).[39] The U.S Senate passed the bill on October 22, 2009.[40] The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009.[41]

• July 3, 2000 – Arthur "J.R." Warren was punched and kicked to death in Grant Town, West Virginia by two teenage boys who reportedly believed Warren had spread a rumor that he and one of the boys, David Allen Parker, had a sexual relationship. Warren's killers ran over his body to disguise the murder as a hit-and-run. Parker pleaded guilty and was sentenced to "life in prison with mercy", making him eligible for parole after 15 years.[42] His accomplice, Jared Wilson, was sentenced to 20 years.[43]
• September 22, 2000 – Ronald Gay entered a gay bar in Roanoke, Virginia and opened fire on the patrons, killing Danny Overstreet, 43 years old, and severely injuring six others. Ronald said he was angry over what his name now meant, and deeply upset that three of his sons had changed their surname. He claimed that he had been told by God to find and kill lesbians and gay men, describing himself as a "Christian Soldier working for my Lord;" Gay testified in court that "he wished he could have killed more fags," before several of the shooting victims as well as Danny Overstreet's family and friends.[44]
• June 16, 2001 – Fred Martinez, a transgender and two-spirit student was bludgeoned to death near Cortez, Colorado by 18-year-old Shaun Murphy, who reportedly bragged about attacking a "fag".[45][46]
• June 12, 2002 – Philip Walsted, a gay man, was fatally beaten with a baseball bat. According to prosecutors, the neo-Nazi views of Walsted's assailant's, David Higdon, led to what was originally a robbery escalating to murder. Higdon was sentenced to life in prison, plus an additional sentence for robbery.[47]
• August 6, 2002 – Rodney Velasquez, a 26-year-old Latino gay man was found murdered in the bathtub of his Bronx apartment.[48]
• October 3, 2002 – Gwen Araujo, a trans woman, was murdered by at least three men who were charged with committing a hate crime. Two were convicted of murder, the third manslaughter; however, the jury rejected the hate crime enhancement.
• December 24, 2002 – Nizah Morris, a 47-year-old black trans woman, was possibly murdered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[49]
• December 12, 2002 – Terrianne Summers, a 51-year-old trans woman and activist for transgender rights, was shot and killed in her front yard in Florida. No arrests were made and police did not investigate her murder as a hate crime.[50] Terriane's high visibility as a trans woman due to her activist role has led her to be included in lists of anti LGBT hate crimes, although lack of police interest in her murder means the motives behind the killing may never be known.
• May 11, 2003 – Sakia Gunn, a black 15-year-old lesbian, was murdered in Newark, New Jersey. While waiting for a bus, Gunn and her friends were propositioned by two men. When the girls rejected their advances, declaring themselves to be lesbians, the men attacked them. One of the men, Richard McCullough, fatally stabbed Gunn. In exchange for his pleading guilty to several lesser crimes including aggravated manslaughter, prosecutors dropped murder charges against McCullough, who was sentenced to 20 years.[51][52]
• June 17, 2003 – Richie Phillips of Elizabethtown, Kentucky was killed by Joseph Cottrell. His body was later found in a suitcase in Rough River Lake. During his trial, two of Cottrell's relatives testified that he lured Phillips to his death, and killed him because he was gay.[53] Cottrell was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison.[54]
• July 23, 2003 – Nireah Johnson and Brandie Coleman were shot to death by Paul Moore, when Moore learned after a sexual encounter that Johnson was transgender.[55] Moore then burned his victims' bodies. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 120 years in prison.[56]
• July 31, 2003 – 37-year-old Glenn Kopitske was shot and stabbed in the back by 17-year-old Gary Hirte, a straight-A student, star athlete and Eagle Scout,[57] in Winnebago County, Wisconsin. Prosecutors contended that Hirte murdered Kopitske to see if he could get away with it.[58] Hirte pleaded insanity, claiming he killed Kopitske in a murderous rage after a consensual sexual encounter with the victim, because he felt a homosexual act was "worse than murder". The 'temporary insanity' mitigation plea was not upheld, he was found guilty, and received a life sentence.
• August 2003 – Emonie Spaulding, a black 25-year-old trans woman, was shot to death in Washington DC by Derrick Antwan Lewis after he discovered she was trans.[59]
• July 22, 2004 – 18-year-old Scotty Joe Weaver of Bay Minette, Alabama, was murdered. His burned and partially decomposed body was discovered a few miles from the mobile home in which he lived. He was beaten, strangled and stabbed numerous times, partially decapitated, and his body was doused in gasoline and set on fire.
• October 2, 2004 – Daniel Fetty, a gay man who was hearing-impaired and homeless was attacked by multiple assailants in Waverly, Ohio. Fetty was beaten, stomped, shoved nude into a garbage bin, impaled with a stick, and left for dead; he succumbed to his injuries the next day. Prosecuters alleged a hate crime. Three men received sentences ranging from seven years to life.[60]
• January 28, 2005 – Ronnie Antonio Paris, a three-year-old boy living in Tampa, Florida, died due to brain injuries inflicted by his father, Ronnie Paris, Jr. According to his mother and other relatives, Ronnie Paris, Jr., repeatedly slammed his son into walls, slapped the child's head, and "boxed" him because he was concerned the child was gay and would grow up a sissy. Paris was sentenced to thirty years in prison.[61][62]
• On February 27, 2005, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 21-year-old James Maestas was assaulted outside a restaurant, then followed to a hotel and beaten unconscious by men who called him "faggot" during the attack. Although all of his attackers were charged with committing a hate crime, none was sentenced to prison.[63]

• March 11, 2005 – Jason Gage, an openly gay man, was murdered in his Waterloo, Iowa, apartment by an assailant, Joseph Lawrence, who claimed Gage had made sexual advance to him. Gage was bludgeoned to death with a bottle, and stabbed in the neck, probably post-mortem, with a shard of glass.[64] Lawrence was sentenced to fifty years in prison.
• October 25, 2005 – Emanuel Xavier, an openly gay poet and activist, was surrounded and brutally beaten by a group of fifteen to twenty teens on the streets of Bushwick which left him permanently deaf in his right ear.[65]
• February 2, 2006 – 18-year-old Jacob D. Robida entered a bar in New Bedford, Massachusetts, confirmed that it was a gay bar, and then attacked patrons with a hatchet and a handgun, wounding three.[66] He fatally shot himself three days later.[67]
• June 10, 2006 – Kevin Aviance, a female impressionist, musician, and fashion designer, was robbed and beaten in Manhattan by a group of men who yelled anti-gay slurs at him. Four assailants pleaded guilty and received prison sentences.[68]
• July 30, 2006 – Six men were attacked with baseball bats and knives after leaving the San Diego Gay Pride festival. One victim was injured so severely that he had to undergo extensive facial reconstructive surgery. Three men pleaded guilty in connection with the attacks and received prison sentences. A 15-year-old juvenile also pleaded guilty.[69][70]
• October 8, 2006 – Michael Sandy was attacked by four young heterosexual men who lured him into meeting after chatting online, while they were looking for gay men to rob. He was struck by a car while trying to escape his attackers, and died five days later without regaining consciousness.[71][72]
• February 27, 2007 – Andrew Anthos, a 72-year-old disabled gay man, was beaten with a lead pipe in Detroit, Michigan by a man who was shouting anti-gay names at him. Anthos died 10 days later in the hospital.[73]
• March 15, 2007 – Ryan Keith Skipper, a 25-year-old gay man was stabbed to death in Wahneta, Florida. Four suspects were arrested for the crime. The Sheriff is calling it a hate crime.[74]
• March 16, 2007 – Ruby Ordeñana, a 24-year-old Latina transgender woman, was found naked and strangled to death in San Francisco, CA at 5:40 am.[75][76] Donzell Francis, who was suspected of raping and strangling Ordeñana, was convicted on December 23, 2009 and sentenced to 17 years and 18 months in prison for forcible oral copulation, robbery, assault causing great bodily injury, and false imprisonment of another transgender woman.[77]
• May 12, 2007 – Roberto Duncanson was murdered in Brooklyn, New York. He was stabbed to death by Omar Willock, who claimed Duncanson had flirted with him.[78]
• May 16, 2007 – Sean William Kennedy, 20, was walking to his car from Brew's Bar in Greenville, SC when Stephen Andrew Moller, 18, got out of another car and approached Kennedy. Investigators said that Moller made a comment about Kennedy's sexual orientation, and threw a fatal punch because he didn't like the other man's sexual preference.[79]
• October 2007 – Steven Domer, a 62-year-old gay man, was murdered in Oklahoma.[80]
• December 8, 2007 – 25-year-old gay man Nathaniel Salerno was attacked by four men on a Metro train in Washington, DC. The men called him "faggot" while they beat him.[81]
• January 8, 2008 – Stacey Brown, a black 30-year-old trans woman, was found dead in her apartment. She had been shot in the head.[82]
• July 1, 2008 – Ebony Whitaker, an African American trans woman, was shot and killed in Memphis.[83]
• February 2008 – Duanna Johnson, a trans woman, was beaten by a police officer while she was held in the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center in Tennessee. Johnson said the officers reportedly called her a “faggot” and “he-she,” before and during the incident.[84] In November 2008, she was found dead in the street, reportedly gunned down by three unknown individuals.[85]
• February 4, 2008 – Ashley Sweeney, a trans woman, was shot in the head. Her body was found in Detroit, Michigan.[86]
• February 10, 2008 – Sanesha Stewart, a 25-year-old black trans woman was stabbed to death in Bronx, New York.[87]
• February 12, 2008 – Lawrence "Larry" King, a 15-year-old junior highschool student was shot twice by a classmate at E.O. Green School in Oxnard, California. He was taken off life support after doctors declared him brain dead on February 15.[88] According to Associated Press reports, "prosecutors have charged a 14-year-old classmate with premeditated murder with hate-crime and firearm-use enhancements".[89][90][91]
• February 22, 2008 – Simmie Williams Jr. was a black gender-nonconforming 17-year-old, who was shot dead on a street corner in Broward County, Florida.[92]
• March 16, 2008 – Police say Lance Neve was beaten unconscious in Rochester, New York because Neve was gay. A man attacked Neve at a bar leaving him with a fractured skull, and a broken nose. Jesse Parsons was sentenced to more than five years in prison for the assault.
• May 29, 2008 – Eighteen-year-old Steven Parrish, a member of the 92 Family Swans subgroup of the Bloods, was murdered by Steven T. Hollis III and Juan L. Flythe on orders from gang leader Timothy Rawlings Jr., in Baltimore County, Maryland after they found "gay messages" on his cell phone. The felt having a gay member would make their gang appear weak. Hollis III pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison; Flythe was given a life sentence with all but 30 years suspended; and Rawlings was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A fourth man, Benedict Wureh, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to time served, about 17 months.[93]
• June 9, 2008 – Jeremy Waggoner, an openly gay hairstylist from Royal Oak, Michigan, was brutally murdered in Detroit. His murder is still unsolved.[94]
• July 17, 2008 – Eighteen-year-old Angie Zapata, a trans woman, was beaten to death in Colorado two days after meeting Allen Ray Andrade. The case was prosecuted as a hate crime, and Andrade was found guilty of first degree murder on April 22, 2009.[95]
• August 20, 2008 – Nahkia Williams, a black trans woman, was shot to death in Louisville, Kentucky. Damon Malone was charged with her murder, robbery, and burglary, and sentenced to 35 years in prison.[96]
• September 7, 2008 – Tony Randolph Hunter, 27, and his partner were attacked and beaten near a gay bar in Washington DC. Hunter later died from his injuries on September 18. Police are investigating it as a possible hate crime.[97]
• September 13, 2008 – 26-year-old Nima Daivari was attacked in Denver, Colorado by a man who called him "faggot". The police that arrived on the scene refused to make a report of the attack.[98]
• September 21, 2008 – 22-year-old trans woman Ruby Molina's nude body was found facedown on the bank of a river in isolated and undeveloped area in Sacramento, California.[99]
• November 7, 2008 – The home of openly gay Melvin Whistlehunt in Newton, North Carolina was destroyed by arsonists. Investigators found homophobic graffiti spray-painted on the back of the house.[100]
• November 14, 2008 – 22-year-old Lateisha Green, a trans woman, was shot and killed by Dwight DeLee in Syracuse, NY because he thought she was gay.[101] Local news media reported the incident with her legal name, Moses "Teish" Cannon.[102] DeLee was convicted of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime on July 17, 2009, and received the maximum sentence of 25 years in state prison. This was only the second time in the nation’s history that a person was prosecuted for a hate crime against a transgender person and the first hate crime conviction in New York state.[103][104][105]
• December 7, 2008 – Romel Sucuzhañay, a 31-year-old straight Ecuadorean and his brother Jose, were attacked on a Brooklyn, New York street for appearing to be gay and for being Latino; they were walking arm-in-arm, which is normal for brothers in their culture. Romel later died from his injuries.[106]
• December 12, 2008 – A 28-year-old lesbian in Richmond, California was kidnapped and gang raped by four men who made homophobic remarks during the attack.[107]
• December 26, 2008 – Taysia Elzy, a 34-year-old trans woman, was shot to death.[108]
• December 27, 2008 – 24-year-old Nathan Runkle was brutally assaulted in Dayton, Ohio outside a gay nightclub.[109]
• January 2009 – Caprice Curry, a trans woman, was murdered.[110]
• February 15, 2009 – Efosa Agbontaen and Branden McGillvery-Dummett were attacked in New York City by four young men with glass bottles and box cutters who used anti-gay slurs during the attack. Agbontaen and McGillvery-Dummett both required emergency room treatment for their injuries.[111]
• February 18, 2009 – Two men were arrested in Stroudsburg, PA for the stabbing death of gay veteran Michael Goucher.[112]
• March 1, 2009 – Three men entered a bar in Galveston, Texas and attacked patrons with rocks. One of the victims, Marc Bosaw, was sent to the emergency room to have twelve staples in his head.
• March 14, 2009 – A gay couple leaving a Britney Spears concert in Newark, New Jersey were attacked by 15 teens. Josh Kehoe and Bobby Daniel Caldwell were called "faggots" and beaten. Caldwell suffered a broken jaw.[113]
• March 23, 2009 – Two gay men were attacked in Seaside, Oregon and left lying unconscious on a local beach. The men regained consciousness and were treated at a nearby hospital.[114]
• April 6, 2009 – Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old child in Springfield, Massachusetts, hanged himself with an extension cord after being bullied all school year by peers who said "he acted feminine" and was gay.[115]
• April 11, 2009 – A gay man in Gloucester, Massachusetts was attacked and beaten by as many as six people outside a bar. Justin Goodwin, 36, of Salem suffered a shattered jaw, broken eye socket, broken nose and broken cheekbone.[116]
• June 18, 2009 – Patti Hammond Shaw, an African-American trans woman, turned herself into a police station in Washington DC after receiving a letter saying there was a warrant for her arrest on charges of making a false police report. Despite producing documents supporting her right to be housed with other women, she was placed in a men's facility. According to her suit, officers “groped her breasts, buttocks and between her legs repeatedly and excessively”. She is now suing Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Marshals service for the treatment she received.[117]
• June 30, 2009 – Seaman August Provost was found shot to death and his body burned at his guard post on Camp Pendleton. LGBT community leaders "citing military sources initially said that Provost’s death was a hate crime."[118] Provost had been harassed because of his sexual orientation.[118] Military leaders have since explained that "whatever the investigation concludes, the military’s “Don't ask, don't tell” policy prevented Provost from seeking help."[118] Family and friends believe he was murdered because he was openly gay (or bisexual according to some family and sources);[119][120][121][122][123] the killer committed suicide a week later after admitting the murder, the Navy have not concluded if this was a hate crime.[124]
• October 25, 2009 – Dee Green, a trans woman, was found by police unconscious, stabbed in the heart, and bleeding on a street in Baltimore, Maryland. She was taken to a hospital where she died half an hour later. Larry Douglas was charged with first-degree murder in April 2010.[125]
• November 2009 – Jason Mattison Jr., an openly gay 15-year-old boy, was violently murdered and raped at his aunt's house by 35-year-old Dante Parrish, a family friend who had been in prison for murder previously.[126]
• December 9, 2009 – Mariah Malina Qualls' body was found in a San Francisco hotel.[127] She was a 23-year-old transgender woman who volunteered and was a member of the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center's TRANS:THRIVE community.

2010–present[edit]

• January 18, 2010 – The half-naked corpse of Myra Chanel Ical, 51, a trans woman of color, was found in a vacant lot in Houston, Texas.[128]
• March 30, 2010 – Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar, a 29-year-old Latina trans woman, was found dead in her Queens, New York apartment. The autopsy found that her attacker, Rasheen Everett, had strangled her then doused her body with bleach.[129]
• April 3, 2010 – Toni Alston, a black 44-year-old transgender woman, was shot in the front door of her home in West Charlotte, North Carolina.[130]
• May 7, 2010 – Dana A. "Chanel" Larkin, a 26-year-old black trans woman who worked as a prostitute, was shot three times in the head by her client, Andrew Olacirequi, after she asked him if he was okay with them having sex despite her male genitalia. She was found dead on the pavement of a Milwaukee street.[131]
• June 21, 2010 – Sandy Woulard, a 28-year-old trans woman, was shot in the chest in South Side, Chicago. A passing motorist found her lying in the street, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital.[132]
• October 3, 2010 – A 30-year-old male known as "la Reina" (the Queen), Bryan Almonte, 17, and Brian Cepeda, 17, were kidnapped by a homophobic group of youths calling themselves the Latin King Goonies, sodomized by foreign objects including a plunger and baseball bat, burned with cigarettes, and tortured for hours. One of the teenage victims had wanted to join the gang the attackers were part of, but when members saw him with the 30-year-old, they later picked him up and took him to an abandoned apartment and asked him if the two had had sex. When the teenager responded positively, he was beaten and sodomized. The gang later picked up the second teenager whom they had also seen with the 30-year-old and repeated the process. They then lured the 30-year-old to the building with the promise of a party. When he arrived with alcohol, the gang tied him up and tortured him and made the 17-year-old burn him with cigarettes. They then robbed the man's 40-year-old brother, coercing him by putting a cellphone to his ear so he could hear his brother beg to pay them.[133][134][135]
• September 11, 2010 – Victoria Carmen White, a 28-year-old black transgender woman, died of bullet wounds in her New Jersey apartment. It is believed she was targeted by her killer, Alrashim Chambers, for her gender identity.[136]
• October 14, 2010 – Stacey Blahnik Lee, a 31-year-old black trans woman, was found murdered in her Philadelphia home by her boyfriend.[137]
• November 17, 2010 – 18-year-old Joshua Wilkerson was found dead in a field in Pearland, Texas, after being beaten to death and set on fire by a friend of 5 years, Hermilio Moralez. This was supposedly a retaliation to unwanted sexual advances.[138]
• January 11, 2011 – Chrissie Bates, a 45-year-old transgender woman, was stabbed to death in her downtown Minneapolis apartment. Arnold Darwin Waukazo was sentenced to 367 months in prison for the murder.[139]
• February 19, 2011 – Tyra Trent, a black 25-year-old trans woman, was found strangled to death in a vacant house.[140]
• April 2011 – Kevin Pennington, a gay 28-year-old male, was kidnapped and severely beaten in a Kentucky park by two men shouting anti gay epithets. David Jason Jenkins and Anthony Ray Jenkins face possible life sentences for anti gay hate crime.[141] On March 15, 2012, the Kentucky State Police assisted the FBI in arresting David Jenkins, Anthony Jenkins, Mable Jenkins, and Alexis Jenkins of Partridge, KY for the beating of Kevin Pennington during a late-night attack in April 2011 at Kingdom Come State Park,[142][143] near Cumberland. The push came from the gay-rights group Kentucky Equality Federation, whose president, Jordan Palmer, began lobbying the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky in August 2011[144] to prosecute after stating he had no confidence in the Harlan County Commonwealth's Attorney to act.[145] "I think the case's notoriety may have derived in large part from the Kentucky Equality Federation efforts," said Harvey, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.[146] Mable Jenkins, and Alexis Jenkins plead guilty.[146]
• April 22, 2011 – Chrissy Lee Polis,[147] a 22-year-old trans woman, was beaten in a violent struggle by two African-American women for entering the women's bathroom in Baltimore County, Maryland, which triggered her to have a seizure. A McDonald's employee, who was later fired, filmed the encounter and released the film on the internet; it since went viral. Teonna Monae Brown, 19, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and a hate crime in the beating, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison, plus three years of supervised probation. The other woman was charged as a juvenile and committed to a juvenile detention facility.[148] See: 2011 Rosedale, Maryland beating
• June 2011 – Rosita Hernandez, a Cuban trans woman, was stabbed to death in Miami.[149]
• June 5, 2011 – CeCe McDonald, a young African American trans woman, was attacked outside a tavern shortly after midnight in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[150] CeCe fatally stabbed her attacker with a pair of scissors.[151] She was subsequently convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 19 months in a men's prison.[152]
• July 20, 2011 – Lashai Mclean, a 23-year-old African American trans woman, was shot to death in Northeast Washington DC.[153]
• August 11, 2011 – Camila Guzman, a Latina transgender woman, was found murdered in her apartment in East Harlem, Manhattan.[154]
• September 8, 2011 – Cameron Nelson, a 32-year-old gay man, was attacked at his place of employment in Utah.[155]
• October 11, 2011 – Shelley Hilliard, a black transgender teen who had been reported missing, had her burnt torso identified by police in Detroit.[156] Her killer, 30-year-old Qasim Raqib, was sentenced on March 6, 2012 to 25–40 years in jail.[157]
• November 15, 2011 – Danny Vega, a 58-year-old Asian-American gay man who worked as a hairdresser in Rainier Valley, Seattle was beaten and robbed as he was taking a walk. The beating left Vega in a coma from which he later died.[158]
• November 17, 2011 – Cassidy Nathan Vickers, a 32-year-old black transgender woman, died from a fatal gunshot wound to the chest in Hollywood. Her killer, who is still unidentified, is suspected of also attempting to rob and non-fatally shoot another black transgender woman on the same day.[159]
• December 17, 2011 – Charlie Hernandez, a 26-year-old who was openly gay, was stabbed to death following a brawl that included anti-gay slurs that occurred with two men after he accidentally stepped on some sunglasses.[160]
• December 24, 2011 – Dee Dee Pearson, a 31-year-old transgender woman, died from bullet wounds in Kansas City, Missouri. Kenyan L. Jones was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Jones told police he paid to have sexual relations with Ms Pearson, believing her to be a cisgender woman, but hours after having sex with her, discovered she was not.[161] Angered by what he considered to be a deception, he got a 9mm-caliber handgun, found Ms Pearson, and killed her.[162] Kenyan L. Jones was arrested on suspicion of her murder.[163]
• December 29, 2011 – The body of Githe Goines, a black 23-year-old trans woman[164] who had been reported missing 2 weeks beforehand, was found in a scrapheap. An autopsy set that the time of her death as much as 2 days before her body was discovered, and that she had been strangled.[165]
• January 21, 2012 – Crain Conaway, a black 47-year-old trans woman, was found dead in her home in Oceanside, California.[166] Tyree Paschall Monday was arrested in connection with her murder.[167]
• February 2, 2012 – JaParker "Deoni" Jones, a 23-year-old black trans woman, was stabbed in the head while waiting at a Metro bus stop in Washington DC.[168]
• February 2012 – Cody Rogers, an 18-year-old teenager, was brutally assaulted and targeted with homophobic slurs at a party after defending a female friend who was also attacked.[169]
• March 24, 2012 – Several transgender and crossdressing people were shot at and robbed in Florida by a man, suspected to be De Los Santos. 23-year-old Tyrell Jackson was fatally wounded in the shooting, which also injured 20-year-old Michael Hunter.[170]
• April 3, 2012 – Coko Williams, a black trans woman, was found murdered in East Detroit, Michigan. The homicide may have been related to Coko's involvement in sex work.[171]
• April 16, 2012 – Paige Clay, 23, a black trans woman, was found dead, with a bullet wound to her face in West Garfield Park, Chicago. The death was ruled as a homicide.[172]
• April 21, 2012 – Eric Unger, a 23-year-old gay man living in Illinois, was attacked by a group of men on the way home from a party, while they shouted anti-gay epithets at him. The investigation is ongoing.[173]
• April 29, 2012 – Brandy Martell, a 37-year-old trans woman of color, was murdered in Oakland, California.[174]
• May 2012 – Max Pelofske, a 21-year-old gay man, was beaten by a group of youths at a party in Minnesota. Pelofske claims it was a hate crime, but police disagree.[175]
• June 5, 2012 – Kardin Ulysse, a black 14-year-old boy, was attacked in the cafeteria of Roy Mann Junior High School by another group of boys. He was called anti-gay slurs and sustained damage to the cornea of one of his eyes, leaving him blinded. Ulysse's parents planned on suing the city for failing to supervise its students properly.[176]
• June 23, 2012 – Mollie Olgin, 19 years old, and her girlfriend, Kristene Chapa, 18 years old, were found shot in the head near Violet Andrews Park in Portland, Texas. Olgin died at the scene and Chapa survived. Law enforcement has said there is no evidence to suggest that the incident is a hate crime.[177] The Human Rights Campaign and Equality Texas urged a thorough investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and Portland police to find the shooter.[178]
• July 5, 2012 – Tracy Johnson, a 40-year-old black trans woman, was found dead from gunshot wounds in Baltimore, Maryland.[179]
• August 14, 2012 – Tiffany Gooden, a 19-year-old black trans woman, was found murdered on the second floor of an abandoned building in Chicago. An autopsy verified that she had been stabbed to death. Notably, the body of Paige Clay, another young black trans woman, was discovered in April 3 blocks away from where Tiffany was found. The pair were known as friends.[180]
• August 18, 2012 – Kendall Hampton, a 26-year-old black trans woman, died of gunshot wounds. Eugene Carlos Dukes was arrested in early September for her murder, and indicted later that month.[181]
• August 26, 2012 – Deja Jones, a 33-year-old black trans woman, was shot to death in Miami. No arrest has yet been made.[182]
• September 3, 2012 – The body of Kyra Cordova, a 27-year-old trans woman, was found in a wooded area in Frankford, Philadelphia.[183]
• November 15, 2012 – Janette Tovar, a 43-year-old trans woman was murdered by her partner, Jonathan Kenney, according to police, who beat her and slammed her head into concrete. He was later arrested for her murder.[184]
• March 1, 2013 – Sondra Scarber addressed a parent about her girlfriend's son being bullied at Seabourn Elementary School in Mesquite, Texas, and was beaten by him when he realized that she was a lesbian.[185]
• May 17, 2013 – Mark Carson, a 32-year old black gay man,[186] was shot to death by another man who trailed and taunted him and a friend as they walked down the street in Greenwich Village, New York. When the two friends ignored the assailant's questions, the man began yelling anti-gay slurs and asked one of them, "You want to die tonight?" Elliot Morales, 33, was arrested briefly after the shooting and charged with murder and weapons charges on May 19.[187] According to police, Morales said he shot Carson because he was "acting tough".[188] Morales pleaded not guilty on June 19, 2013.[189]
• November 4, 2013 - Sasha Fleischman, an agender (neither male nor female) 18-year-old, had their skirt set on fire while they were sleeping on an AC Transit bus in Oakland, California. Police arrested 16-year-old Richard Thomas and charged him as an adult with aggravated mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, and hate-crime enhancements. Thomas admitted to police that he had started the fire and that he did it because he was "homophobic."[190]

Any questions?

Oh look - A wall of shit that has nothing to do with the point. They have suffered violence. Never said they did not.

Oh look, your words - "Gays have not had a particularly hard time about it other than the inability to get married and receive the benefits from it".

So has ANY group in this nation. What they are not experiencing is discriminatory practices that are so extreme that it warrants limiting others rights to combat them.

So, in your view, a repeated pattern of hate-motivate murder is not extreme enough? Really?

 

[emilynghiem]

"The reality is that the widespread discrimination against gays because of their sexual orientation is simply not there" is the inaccurate statement of the day so far.

Likewise JakeStarkey it is in denial to ignore the "widespread discrimination" against cultural traditions associated with Christianity, if not demonization. From Christmas trees, to saying "Merry Christmas" or praying as a group.

I brought up in another thread the disparity in treatment,
when there was a public school incident involving staff trying to cancel a Nutcracker field trip because a "Christmas tree" was on display that represented a religious bias. Instead of including diversity, this was rejected for "not representing people of all faiths."

But when it comes to gay marriage, this is not rejected for "not being accepted by all people of all faiths" but this is supposed to IMPOSED to FORCE people to INCLUDE DIVERSITY and not discriminate or REJECT because of differences in beliefs.

Why it is okay to push gay marriage, and force people of other beliefs to accept that,
but not have Christmas trees and expect people of other beliefs to accept that?
How much conflict is created over "having a Christmas display for a month"
versus PERMANENTLY "changing the definition of marriage" against the beliefs of other voters with equal rights to their beliefs?

Doesn't that show an extreme bias in forcing one on the public while rejecting the other which is MINOR imposition in comparison!

If all Christmas references must be REMOVED, because not all people believe in that,
while not REMOVE gay marriage from public institutions if not all people believe in that.

If you are expected to keep Christmas in private and not push this in public,
why not keep gay marriage in private, and just have secular civil unions in public.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Anyone saying gays have not had a difficult time are nothing more than winking assholes.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The comparison of

jakestarkey: "The reality is that the widespread discrimination against gays because of their sexual orientation is simply not there" is the inaccurate statement of the day so far.

with

Emily: "Likewise JakeStarkey it is in denial to ignore the "widespread discrimination" against cultural traditions associated with Christianity, if not demonization. From Christmas trees, to saying "Merry Christmas" or praying as a group."

To suggest the saying of Merry Christmas or Christmas trees or Christians praying together as the equivalent of discrimination against gays is to mistake both difference of kind and difference of degree.

You make Reason stare with such a statement, Emily.

 

[Edgetho]

Anyone saying gays have not had a difficult time are nothing more than winking assholes.

Who's saying gays haven't had a rough time? Lots of people have a rough time every day of their lives.

So what? Life's a bitch, doncha know...

What we're objecting to is gays demanding that we create a right, THAT HAS NEVER EXISTED, out of whole cloth and pretending that two gay men are just as 'married' as a Man and a Woman.

They're not.

They may want to spend their lives together, they may want to enjoy the same freedoms and perquisites as a Married Man and a Married Woman but they don't automatically get to demand that we create this right our of thin air when IT HAS NEVER EXISTED IN THE HISTORY OF MAN.

There has got to be a better way of accomplishing what they want as opposed to the way they're doing it now, which is just plain, old-fashioned bullying.

You/they are making yourselves VERY unpopular.

Very.

Better to try a little love and kindness as opposed to hatefulness, vitriol, viciousness and hate.

Because that's what you're doing by going after good people who don't know shit from apple butter about these things..... Like backwoods Pizzerias in BumFuck Indiana.

Otherwise, I'm telling you..... You're going to pay for your hubris. And the price you pay may be higher than you want to imagine.

You have no clue. You really don't

 

[JakeStarkey]

Edge writes, Stupidly, "What we're objecting to is gays demanding that we create a right, THAT HAS NEVER EXISTED, out of whole cloth and pretending that two gay men are just as 'married' as a Man and a Woman."

One, there has been same sex marriage in the past, and, two, if the law says same-sex are married like heteroseuxals are married, then, yeah, Edge, that are "as just as 'married' as a Man and a Woman."

Sux to b you, doesn't it?

 

[emilynghiem]

Emily is going with her feelings, not the law.

????

Dear JakeStarkey can you explain why INCLUDING both sides of religious debates EQUALLY
when making a law that affects BOTH their beliefs is NOT OBJECTIVE?

Let me answer that, if I may.

Because the Constitution prohibits the government from making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, or impeding the free exercise of religion.

Dear orogenicman
I agree! That's what I am SAYING!
by taking one side's beliefs over the other, the govt is establishing a bias based on beliefs that not all the public shares.
EXACTLY!

Excuse me, but being gay is not a belief any more than having Down's syndrome is a belief. The bias is in believing that one has a right to justify discrimination based on one's religion.

Er..it's not a religion either, though honestly, it should be.

Dear koshergrl and orogenicman
1. The BELIEFS about homosexuality (on both sides of debates) are EQUALLY FAITH BASED
2. so regardless what conditions homosexuality represents, which has NEVER been proven,
people can be treated equally under law by focusing on what we believe, and agreeing not to impose
these by law (either way, for any side or any policy), since anything to do with homosexuality is faith based and not proven
(and not agreed upon. Even if it is faith based, if people AGREE then there is no imposition)
3. I do not see how it would be fair to only interpret religion or creed to apply to CERTAIN beliefs and not others.

So orogenicman that is why I am saying the conflict in beliefs is mutual.
Because nothing about homosexuality has been proven by science and agreed upon,
the issues and arguments, beliefs and perceptions all remain faith based. Not necessarily FORMALLY religiously affiliated, but still "based on faith" regardless if that person is secular or religiously affiliated.

If you want people to be treated equally, whether gay or straight, whether secular or religiously affiliated with a group or not,
then people have to accept equal treatment on ALL levels, including treating secular beliefs equally as religious beliefs.

You can't have it both ways.

If Christians can't go around imposing their beliefs when others don't share that same faith,
then neither can secular people with beliefs about homosexuality impose those values when others don't share them either!

And if beliefs about homosexuality get imposed by state laws
OF COURSE it's going to invoke the equal and opposite reaction of people whose religious beliefs are penalized by that!

Because it is violating the very principle it seeks to challenge: and that is not imposing beliefs by law,
especially beliefs that other people don't share. If you expect Christians to keep their beliefs private, and out of public law,
it only makes sense to keep beliefs about homosexuality in private also. If you expect Christians to prove their beliefs are true, where people freely choose to accept based on science and reason, and work with those beliefs by free choice, not by force of law; then the same should be applied to beliefs about homosexuality, and prove it first by science, and/or allow people free choice to accept and work with those beliefs. The same as how Obama had free choice to change his mind about gay marriage WITHOUT anyone passing a law FORCING him to change his mind. Why not let all people have that same freedom?