Tag Archives: hate crimes

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 …

Police searching the home of Tennessee church shooter Jim David Adkisson found the following books: “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” by talk show host Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly. I’m sure those three’s chests are swelling with pride today. Seriously. I …

Days after the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville put up a sign welcoming gays to worship, yesterday a gunman shouting “hateful words” killed two people and injured seven others during a youth performance of the musical Annie at the church. The gunman was tackled by congregants and eventually taken into police custody. Jim D. Adkisson, 58, was charged …

Acting on a petition filed by the Christianist group Repent America, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that struck down that state’s 2002 hate crimes law, saying it was inappropriately attached to an unrelated bill. Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision striking down amendments that added sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, gender, and mental …

A Ventura County, California judge has ruled that the 14-year-old killer of gay teen Lawrence King will be tried as an adult. Relying on past court decisions, a judge ruled Thursday that trying a 14-year-old boy accused of murder in an adult court does not violate the constitution, swatting down legal arguments raised by the boy’s attorney that it was …

Ahmet Yidlz, a 26 year-old old gay man, was murdered in Turkey last week in what some are calling the country’s first gay “honor” killing. In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey’s gay poster boy will be buried – a victim, his friends believe, of the country’s deepening friction between an increasingly liberal …

A beloved Episcopal priest and several transgender youth were attacked Monday in a possible hate crime outside of a shelter for LGBT youth in Queens. A priest who runs a shelter specializing in outreach to homeless transgender youths was beaten with construction equipment and paint cans by a group of teenagers in a possible hate crime, authorities said Tuesday. Two …

Hungarian nationalists fire-bombed a Budapest bathhouse yesterday as that city readied for this weekend’s gay pride events. A gay establishment in the Hungarian capital has been targeted, the second attack in a week. Four petrol bombs were thrown into sauna called Magnum in the early hours of yesterday morning. One man was slightly injured by fumes. The bombers had called …

More fuel for the Matthew Shepard Act, sadly. A report released Tuesday shows that violent attacks on members of the LGBT community nationwide grew by 24 percent in 2007 over the previous year. The 78-page report was prepared by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs with input from more than 30 of its members across the U.S. The number of …