Queer Musings

Hate Crime Legislation a Symbolic Gesture?

It's not often that I find myself disagreeing with Dan Savage. When it comes to the passing of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act I have to say he's wrong that it is a purely symbolic piece of legislation.

During the time I lived in Oklahoma City I was a victim of hate crime two different times. The first time the police didn't find my attackers. The second time they did. If I would've had the ability to try and get the crime into federal jurisdiction instead of the state I would have been more likely to follow through on pressing charges.

When I was attacked the second time, I got lucky and an off duty police officer saw what was going on, called for back-up and then stopped my assailants. He then reported to the officers that arrived on the scene that the attackers had been calling me faggot while beating on me.

One would think with an officer making that kind of statement I would have pressed charges. Well this was in Oklahoma which is one of the most homo-unfriendly states around. The on duty officer that took my statement actually seemed to be encouraging me to not press charged. He said that at most the attackers would spend the night in jail, get out the next morning and only have to pay a fine.

Given what I knew about Oklahoma, I decided not to press charges.

If I would of had the protection of hate crime legislation I would definitely have pursued prosecution. With the off duty officer's statement about the attackers calling me faggot, I can't help but think that would have moved it from the state level to the federal level. The one attackers that hit me in the head with a beer bottle would have been facing a lot more than just a fine.

So Mr. Savage, just because the hate crime bill doesn't directly affect every member of the LGBT community, it's still an important piece of legislation. Honestly I feel it's much more important than trying to get the White House to move on marriage as you seem to want them to do. I personally feel that the repeal of DOMA is the least of our concerns.

If you want to discuss something that will affect more LGBT citizens then let's talk ENDA. It is currently legal in 29 states to fire an employee simply for being gay. Surely that would affect more LGBT citizens than the hate crime bill.

Maybe you want to talk about something that affects every American citizen. If so let's talk about DADT. During a time when we are fighting two wars, both in the Middle East, it is insane that we are discharging service members that can translate Arabic. Lt. Dan Choi is a perfect example of this. An Iraq war veteran, and West Point graduate that studied linguistics, and is fluent in Arabic was discharged for challenging DADT. Is America safe now that we don't have him translating intelligence reports that could indicate another attack here in the US?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for marriage equality. That issue, however, is one that I feel needs to be fought on the state level. Once we achieve a victory in more states would it be necessary to pressure DC to repeal DOMA. Sure Obama could come out and say he opposed Proposition 1 in Maine and for the approval Referendum 71 in Washington where you live. I think that would be a wise move for him. After all he did say he was a "fierce advocate" of LGBT rights.

If I was to be 100% honest, when Mr. Savage and other respected LGBT advocates spend so much time in the national press talking about marriage; it makes me feel like a bad queer for not wanting it as bad as they seem to want it.

I will admit that you are probably right that the passing of the hate crime bill affects fewer members of our community. I still feel having been a victim of a hate crime that it is a much needed piece of legislation. I'm glad to see it finally passed, and that we have a President that has stated he will sign it into law.

(via AC360 Talks Hate Crimes with Corey Johnson and Dan Savage - Towleroad, More than gay news. More gay men)

Buy 'Music for Matthew' Support a Worthy Cause

While debating the "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009," H.R. 1913, better known by many as the Matthew Shepard Act, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R - North Carolina) called the events surrounding Matthew's death a hoax.

In the Congresswoman's own words:

"The hate crimes bill that’s called the Matthew Shepard Bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed. But we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s, it’s really a hoax, that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."

In response to the hurtful and shameful comments Foxx made on the House floor, my friend Lee wrote a song that he is using to raise money for the Matthew Shepard Foundation. All the money he makes from his song 'Virginia' will be donated with a note on the check that the donation is "in the name of Virginia Foxx." Lee is selling the track for the bargain basement price of 99¢ be sure to get yours now so he can make a nice donation to a worthy cause.

You can visit his blog to get the listen to 'Virginia' before purchasing it, or you can just visit 7 Digital directly and purchase it from there.

Day Without a Gay - Good Idea on Paper

O.K. I get it. Everyone is still pissed off that Prop. 8 passed, me included. As a result there's been a lot of protests nation wide. The latest scheduled round of protesting sounds good on paper, but isn't very practical in my opinion.

Members of the GLBT community are being asked to call in gay on December 10, 2008 and then spend the day with local charities. It sounds like a good idea on paper. I just wonder is it a good idea to punish employers that have been supportive of the GLBT community.

For example, I work for American Airlines, which has regularly been one of the best companies for GLBT employees. How can I, or any other gay/lesbian employee in good conscience call in gay that day?

For the past 15 years our parent corporation, AMR, has recognized Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Employees (GLEAM) as one of its founding diversity groups. GLEAM has been instrumental in changing the corporate attitude towards GLBT employees at AMR.

They have a long list of accomplishments, some of which are as follows:

• AMR's Equal Employment Opportunity non-discrimination statement includes sexual orientation
• GLEAM was the powerhouse behind the development of the AMR Diversity Advisory Council and AMR's diversity program
• American became the first major airline to implement Domestic Partner Benefits to the partners of its employees and retirees
• American Airlines became the first major and only U.S. airline to protect its transgendered employees by revising its Equal Employment Opportunity Statement to include gender identity as a protected group against workplace discrimination
• GLEAM helped American adopt new procedures when verifying parental consent required documentation for passengers traveling to international destinations with children by including non-conventional and diverse family situations in the policy
• Working with GLEAM, the Admirals Club now allows the partners of its GLBT members to join the Club at the same reduced rate as a spouse
• American became the only Fortune 100 company to have a dedicated gay and lesbian sales team
• American is the only airline to score a top score of 100% on the Human Rights Campaigns Corporate Equality Index since the Index's inception
• GLEAM helped American with procedures for our transgendered customers who may present themselves differently at check-in then on their identification documentation

AA has always in my mind been a leader when it comes to supporting the GLBT community.

I think for those of us that work for companies that have gone above and beyond on GLBT issues, we should spend December 10th being visible at work. So with that in mind, I e-mailed GLEAM and asked if there was a way that we could set up info tables across the AA network to provide information and answer questions from our co-workers. Honestly I think that would go a lot further than possibly angering our co-workers by calling in gay for the day.

As luck would have it, December 10th falls on a Wednesday which happens to be my day off. So I don't have to worry about angering my co-workers. I'm sure, however, that there are plenty of my GLBT brothers and sisters that aren't going to be so lucky that day.

Maybe the ones that actually work with the public that day could wear pink triangle lapel pins. Imagine the impact that could make at the airports and on flights. Then imagine what could have happened to your flight if they did not show up for work that day.

About 100 Protesters Show up in Dallas

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the day off work to go into Dallas to join the protest at the First Baptist Church. It's being reported that only about 100 people showed up to protest the morning "why gay is not o.k." sermons.

What is even worse, it doesn't look like any GLBT bloggers showed up to the event. The best article I can currently find is this one over at seaQwa.com based in Seattle.

There are no arrests being reported, and it sounds like it was a fairly quiet event. I'm going to watch the news tonight to see what they have to report.

I wonder what kept most people at home... Was it the short notice, or fear of confrontation that stopped people from going? I guess I'll never know. It could just be that people in GLBT community here are so used to the way things are, they just don't feel the need to stand up to such blatant hatred.

I would like to take the time to mention that our brothers and sisters in NYC will be holding a peaceful protest in front of the New York Manhattan Mormon Temple. You can found out more at the Facebook event page.

This is yet another one that my schedule prevents me in taking part in. Sure I work for an airline and can get up there easily enough, and I have the day off that they are holding the protest. The only problem is I picked up some hours on Thursday a few weeks ago so a friend could schedule some surgery.

Lastly I would like to send a shout-out to dickie from I'm Just Gaying for his post on the event in Chicago. In a way I envy him for being able to get out and take a stand for our rights. I have a feeling this won't be the last event held, so I'm going to have to start collecting same favors from people so I can cash them in later to take time off work.