Lez Keep It Real

In light of the post I wrote yesterday and the amount of responses and attention it garnered, I thought that today I would do a bit of a follow up post – not so much on Erin and her “fag bug” but on the crime committed against her itself. Or should I say, “hate crime.”

There were many people who commented yesterday (not below but on other sites) about the term “hate crime” and what it meant or what it claimed to mean.

I thought I’d take this opportunity to revisit this term and define it properly.

According to the dictionary, a hate crime can be defined as a “crime, usually violent, motivated by prejudice or intolerance toward a member of a gender, racial, religious or social group.”

What happened to Erin’s car was definitely a crime, as her car was vandalized. What made it a hate crime is the fact that there were homophobic slurs used. Had someone simply written “u suck” or “dumb ass” on the car, it would have been different. But the culprit, or culprits as the case may be, made a point to attack Erin’s sexual orientation and to demean her for it.

The motivation behind it came from hate – hate for homosexuality and for her lifestyle. The fact that something as simple as a rainbow sticker can incite such behavior boggles my mind. I see plenty of bumpers with slogans that I abhor but as much as they bother me, I wouldn’t go buy a can of spray paint and vandalize their car because of it. People have a right to express themselves, and to have pride in who they are whether that be through race, religion, sexuality, etc.

Current legislation allows federal prosecution of a hate crime only if the crime was motivated by race, religion, national origin, or color. In addition, the assailant must intend to prevent the victim from exercising a federally protected right. The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999, passed by the Senate in July 1999, seeks to expand federal jurisdiction over these crimes.

Some people think that a crime is a crime period. But would you say that getting arrested for drunk driving is the same thing as seeking out someone on the street because they looked differently from you, beating them senseless and leaving them for dead?

I’ve been asked, “What makes a crime any worse that say if I murdered someone for money or murdered him or her because they were gay?”

First, it doesn’t matter either way for the victim because both situations are horrible. With that being said, the difference to me is the motivation behind the crime. Targeting someone simply because you hate their lifestyle, race, religious beliefs or what not is extremely upsetting to me. When a person commits a crimes based on hating someone, they are saying, “You are lower than me. You do not have a right to walk the streets I walk or share the same air as me. You are below me.” What gives any person the right to judge someone in that matter? Don’t we all come from the same pool of life? When someone is born a different color, does that make him or her less of a person? When someone is born gay (yes, I believe we are born this way) does that make him or her less of a person? What’s worse … does that make them deserving of an attack of some kind, physical or otherwise?

In today’s society, the way we define or phrase things is tricky. You can easily find yourself stepping on toes or stumbling over your words by accident. And when talking about hate crimes, you are often treading a fine line. I agree with the fact that crimes, all crimes that is, are inexcusable. But, and maybe this is because I am gay and know what it is liked to be looked at differently because of something that I am unable to control or change, I think that any crime committed out of hate is unforgivable.

I leave you with the following examples of a hate crime and I ask, do you think these people would still be alive had they not been targeted out of hate? To me, that is the difference that matters.

Matthew Shepard
On October 6, 1998, 21-year-old college student Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyoming, pistol-whipped, then left for dead in the freezing night. He died six days later.

Danny Overstreet
On September 22, 2000, a man looking to “waste some faggots” entered a gay bar in Roanoke, Virginia and opened fire, killing Danny Overstreet, and injuring 6 others.

JR Warren
On the fourth of July, 2000, JR Warren, 26, who was black and gay, was beaten to death by three men in West Virginia, then run over by a car to make it look like a hit and run.

PFC Barry Winchell
Barry Winchell, 21, was beaten to death by fellow service members while sleeping in his cot on July 5, 1999 at Fort Campbell, Ky. His Army colleagues thought (correctly) that he was gay, so they killed him.

Billy Jack Gaither
Billy Jack Gaither, 39, of Sylacauga, Alabama was bludgeoned to death by two men on Feb. 19, 1999, then set on fire with automobile tires because he was gay.

- provided by hatecrime.org

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