Tag Archives: hate crimes

On Friday, hours before his mother arrived from Ecuador, Jose Sucuzhanay’s heart stopped and he was declared dead. An Ecuadorean immigrant who was brutally beaten with a bottle and baseball bat last week by men said to be shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs has died, a family spokesman said on Saturday night. Three Sucuzhanay brothers — from left, Romel, Diego …

The memorial vigil for Jose Sucuzhanay, the victim of Saturday’s brutal anti-gay, anti-Latino attack in Brooklyn, will take place Sunday at 2pm at the scene of the hate crime. Facebook link here. Let’s hope the “gays don’t get beaten up enough” crowd has taken notice. Embiggen the image for instructions.

Contrary to widely published reports yesterday, the more seriously injured brother of the two attacked in Brooklyn is not dead, but he has been found to have no brain function. The New York Times has amended the story I linked yesterday. Today the NYPD released the sketch at left in the hopes the public can identify the assailants. Police have …

One of the two brothers attacked in Brooklyn yesterday has died of his injuries. He was beaten to death with a baseball bat because the attackers thought he and his brother were lovers. The two brothers from Ecuador had attended a church party and had stopped at a bar afterward. They may have been a bit tipsy as they walked …

Lawrence King’s murderer, Brandon McInerney, has been found competent to stand trial. Brandon McInerney, an Oxnard teenager accused of first-degree murder and a hate crime in connection with the shooting of a classmate, today was found competent to stand trial in Ventura County Superior Court. Judge Kevin McGee made the ruling after hearing from a psychiatrist and a psychologist. The …

I got several emails from NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office this morning, the last of which said: I was outraged to learn this morning that two men were assaulted at Kossuth Place and Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn, and especially horrified to learn that anti-LGBT and anti-Latino slurs were used by one or more of the assailants – raising this …

Last month former Arkansas governor and failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appeared on The View to say that gays had not been beaten up enough to deserve the comparison between the gay rights movement and the black civil rights movement. At a book signing in Lansing, Michigan on Wednesday, Huckabee acknowledged to Todd Heywood of the Michigan Messenger that there …

A case which dominated the NYC tabloids in early 2004 has finally been settled as a firefighter who was left with permanent injuries after being smashed in the face with a metal chair has agreed to accept $3.75M from the city. The firefighter claimed that the brawl was the culmination of the two years of anti-gay slurs he’d suffered as …

Today is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. From the site: The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight …

Moses Cannon, 22, was murdered in Syracuse, New York on Friday in what the victim’s family is calling an anti-gay hate crime. Moses “Teish” Cannon was openly gay, and his family said today that is why he was shot and killed Friday night. His death should be treated as a hate crime, they said. Cannon, 22, of 404 Arthur St., …

Disturbing: Hate crimes against gays increased in 2007, up 6% from 2006 even though the overall number of hate crimes dropped slightly, the FBI reported Monday. There were 7,624 hate crimes reported in 2007, down 1% from 2006. Crimes based on sexual orientation — 1,265 in 2007 — have been rising since 2005. A hate crime is one motivated by …

Next week Fort Lauderdale-based Coral Ridge Ministries will broadcast a nationwide 30-minute show warning evangelicals that they must fight all hate crimes laws or else the evil gays will criminalize Christianity. Via WingNutDaily: “Hate Crime Laws” is a half-hour exposé that shows how Christians in America, Canada, Australia, and Sweden have been arrested and prosecuted for expressing opinions that are …

It was ten years ago today that gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten and left to die. Ten years and Wyoming still does not have a hate crimes law. This morning Matthew’s mother Judy Shepard appeared on CBS News to discuss the continuing battle. (Via – Towleroad)

Investigators found white supremacist materials in the home of Brandon McInerney, the 14 year old killer of gay teen Lawrence King. The materials were a “prime consideration” in the adding of a hate crimes charge. Investigators seized white supremacist materials, including doodlings of Nazi swastikas, from the bedroom of Brandon McInerney, the 14-year-old Oxnard student accused of gunning down his …

Shouting “Kill the gays” and “Allah Akbar”, Islamic rioters attacked participants in yesterday’s first-ever gay pride event in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Dozens of homophobic hooligans attacked participants of Bosnia’s first-ever gay rights festival in Sarajevo on Wednesday, leaving at least two journalists and one police officer injured. The scuffle broke out at the end of the opening ceremony of the four-day …

Yesterday a Denver judge rejected a request to lower the charge in the case of murdered transwoman Angie Zapata, after her killer’s lawyer said that Allen Andrade was “provoked” into killing Zapata when she smiled at him after he demanded to know if she was male. Only when Andrade grabbed at Zapata’s crotch did he discover the truth. But when …

The 14 year-old killer of gay teen Lawrence King pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder and a hate crime yesterday in a ploy to have the charges reduced to manslaughter. Brandon McInerney entered the plea in Ventura County Superior Court on Thursday. McInerney is charged as an adult with first degree murder and a hate crime for the Feb. 12 …

The murderer of Colorado transwoman Angie Zapata has been charged with a hate crime, adding a potential 18 months to his sentence. Zapata’s supportive sister says that she had long been worried about the crowd of “dangerous men” that Zapata had been hanging with. “One time she came home crying saying, ‘Why, Monica, why won’t people accept me?’ ” Monica …

Michelangelo Signorile has interviewed Carla Lewis, a transgender woman who was inside the Knoxville Unitarian Church when last week’s shooting happened. Signorile: This is a clip from my interview with Carla Lewis, who was inside the Tennessee Valley Universalist Unitarian Church when a gunman opened fire little over a week ago. She came on the program last week to take …

Police won’t release the contents of the letter left by the Knoxville church shooter and the local gay church wants to know what it says. The man who ministers to East Tennessee’s largest gay and lesbian congregation says his church won’t rest easy until members know what Jim David Adkisson wrote. “The more clarity, the better,” said the Rev. Bob …