An Explanation of My 2011 June facebook Project
This year, I posted the names of 30 LGBT people killed in hate crimes around the United States. Here is the explanation that I posted to my facebook wall.
Several of you have asked why my facebook page has become a memorial to a lot of people, many of whom died young. Who were these people and why was I posting all of this?
Every June, the LGBT community celebrates the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, when New York police raided a bar full of gay people, mostly men. These raids were common in the 1950s and 60s. What made that night different? In part, police had been cracking down much more heavily on the gay community due to an upcoming mayoral election. Once we started fighting back, we were quickly joined by Blacks, Latinos, and other disadvantaged people who had been targeted by the police and who had had enough, especially in the electric atmosphere of the summer of 1969. For more about Stonewall, I recommend the wonderful PBS documentary released a few months ago.
The number of incidents of hate crimes against LGBT people reported to the FBI have increased every year since 1995, and that only counts the incidents the states report. In 2008, 1,617 hate crime incidents were reported. In one week in 2003, three transwomen were shot and two killed in Washington, DC. In most incidents of hate crimes against LGBT people, perpetrators are convicted (if at all) of assault or manslaughter; rarely murder. There are approximately 700,000 transpeople in the United States, yet they represent the largest proportion of hate crimes. Transwomen of color are particularly at risk. Many, though not all, of the names on my list came from one excellent website, the Republic of T LGBT Hate Crimes Project.
In the meantime, this year, Apple approved an app for the iPhone called Peekaboo Tranny and Christian Siriano popularized the term "hot tranny mess" on television. So much for queer unity.
Indeed, LGBT people are continually under assault from society and their own families. Bullied kids are told to "toughen up" (that's what my grammar school principal told me to do) and to stop acting so... deviant. All gay kids are gender outlaws, and the system punishes us to keep the status quo alive. Churches and synagogues and television itself contribute to an atmosphere in which parents, teachers, and children drive LGBT kids to suicide, drug use, prostitution, and other lethal behaviors, as we saw in 2010, a year in which almost every week brought nationally publicized gay suicides, mostly of white boys. Unfortunately, this is hardly representative. Almost 30% of LGBT youth (of all sexes and colors) have attempted suicide, compared with 4% of straight youth. Many of these kids are just entering puberty. Kids have also been murdered directly by their parents for being or acting too effeminate, some younger than two years old. This April, a father murdered his daughter's girlfriend and the girlfriend's mother. Many of these murders and much of this torture is done in the name of Jesus Christ, a man who never said a single word about or against gay people.
Many of us have tried to shine a little light. The It Gets Better Project provides adult LGBT people with an opportunity to speak directly to troubled youth over the internet, and now via a book.
By the way, I'd love to post a video but don't have the resources at home to record one. Anyone want to help?
This month, I've tried to highlight the people who weren't Matthew Shepard, a cute, young, white, middle-class man. I encourage you to look up and read these people's stories. They should not have been ignored, and they should not be forgotten.
Several of you have asked why my facebook page has become a memorial to a lot of people, many of whom died young. Who were these people and why was I posting all of this?
Every June, the LGBT community celebrates the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, when New York police raided a bar full of gay people, mostly men. These raids were common in the 1950s and 60s. What made that night different? In part, police had been cracking down much more heavily on the gay community due to an upcoming mayoral election. Once we started fighting back, we were quickly joined by Blacks, Latinos, and other disadvantaged people who had been targeted by the police and who had had enough, especially in the electric atmosphere of the summer of 1969. For more about Stonewall, I recommend the wonderful PBS documentary released a few months ago.
The number of incidents of hate crimes against LGBT people reported to the FBI have increased every year since 1995, and that only counts the incidents the states report. In 2008, 1,617 hate crime incidents were reported. In one week in 2003, three transwomen were shot and two killed in Washington, DC. In most incidents of hate crimes against LGBT people, perpetrators are convicted (if at all) of assault or manslaughter; rarely murder. There are approximately 700,000 transpeople in the United States, yet they represent the largest proportion of hate crimes. Transwomen of color are particularly at risk. Many, though not all, of the names on my list came from one excellent website, the Republic of T LGBT Hate Crimes Project.
In the meantime, this year, Apple approved an app for the iPhone called Peekaboo Tranny and Christian Siriano popularized the term "hot tranny mess" on television. So much for queer unity.
Indeed, LGBT people are continually under assault from society and their own families. Bullied kids are told to "toughen up" (that's what my grammar school principal told me to do) and to stop acting so... deviant. All gay kids are gender outlaws, and the system punishes us to keep the status quo alive. Churches and synagogues and television itself contribute to an atmosphere in which parents, teachers, and children drive LGBT kids to suicide, drug use, prostitution, and other lethal behaviors, as we saw in 2010, a year in which almost every week brought nationally publicized gay suicides, mostly of white boys. Unfortunately, this is hardly representative. Almost 30% of LGBT youth (of all sexes and colors) have attempted suicide, compared with 4% of straight youth. Many of these kids are just entering puberty. Kids have also been murdered directly by their parents for being or acting too effeminate, some younger than two years old. This April, a father murdered his daughter's girlfriend and the girlfriend's mother. Many of these murders and much of this torture is done in the name of Jesus Christ, a man who never said a single word about or against gay people.
Many of us have tried to shine a little light. The It Gets Better Project provides adult LGBT people with an opportunity to speak directly to troubled youth over the internet, and now via a book.
By the way, I'd love to post a video but don't have the resources at home to record one. Anyone want to help?
This month, I've tried to highlight the people who weren't Matthew Shepard, a cute, young, white, middle-class man. I encourage you to look up and read these people's stories. They should not have been ignored, and they should not be forgotten.