Let me start this entry by plugging the new movie Milk in theaters now (though it's still on it's way to some smaller towns). It's the autobiographical story of Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. It was released almost exactly thirty years, to the day, after his assassination and it depicts not only his rise in government but also a snapshot of what gay rights looked like in 1978 and where they've come since then. The acting was phenomenal, the story moved easily and at just over two hours it left me wanting to see it again. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn or to anyone who thinks they've got nothing left to learn...
When we left the movie last night, my friend Mark and I commented on how, despite the sad ending we knew was coming, the movie left us with a sense of hope. As I watched the opening scenes of police raids where gay men were escorted out of the bars and into the paddy wagons, I was reminded of film reels I'd seen of Jews during the Nazi regime and blacks in the middle of civil rights... people punished simply for "being." Amidst the anti-gay Proposition 6 story line that's shown in the film, I was humbled by the sacrifices the older generation made for gay rights today and I was grateful for the drastically improved way of life that people in the GLBT community are able to enjoy today.
We've certainly come a long way!
... or have we?
On December 13, a 28-year-old lesbian woman was attacked and gang-raped by four men when she got out of her car. When they thought they saw someone coming, they forced her back into her car and took her to a burned out building where they proceeded to rape her two more times. The reason I mention this horrifying story is that police suspect she was singled out because she was gay and they're classifying this as a hate crime.
In the wake of legislation like Proposition 8, members of the GLBT community are not only having their rights stifled, it's becoming a case of "us vs. them" with gay folks becoming a faceless enemy that needs to be brought down. When the focus is shifted from human rights, the aggressors tend to forget the "human" aspect altogether.
Gay rights advocates note that hate crimes based on sexual orientation went up nationwide and accounted for 16 percent of all hate crimes in 2007, the last year for which statistics were available. Gay, lesbian or transgender people were the victims in five of the nine bias-related murders tallied by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that year, but neither of the two rapes.
Avy Skolnik, a coordinator with the New York-based National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, noted that gay, lesbian and transgender crime victims may be more reluctant than straight victims to contact the police.
The organization, a network of nonprofits working to reduce anti-gay bias in 35 cities, counted 70 sexual assaults involving gay or transgender victims in 2007. In the vast majority of cases, the alleged perpetrators were straight men, Skolnik said.
"Assailants target LGBT people of all gender identities with sexual assault," he said. "Such targeting is one of the most cruel, dehumanizing, and violent forms of hate violence that our communities experience."
Skolnik said the group has noticed a dramatic spike in the number of bias-related murders this year involving gay and lesbian victims and plans to analyze the data to see if the increase may be related to the gay marriage bans that appeared on ballots this year in California, Arizona and Florida.
"Anytime there is an anti-LGBT initiative, we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks," he said. "People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice."
While I do realize we've come a long way in the journey to fair and equal treatment of GLBT persons, this story reminds me that we've still got a long way to go...
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