Gays Killed In Baghdad As Clerics Urge Clampdown

[Guest]

Lest anyone forget their are places you can still be killed for being LGBT. Yet there are still those fighting our rights in the civilized world saying Hate crime legislation isn't needed. In some churchs and mosques the hatred comes directly from the pulpit. There isn't a day somewhere where violence and discrimination against us isn't occuring. It's epidemic.

Gays killed in Baghdad as clerics urge clampdown

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-world...-GAYS-KILLINGS/

Laura

[Guest Donna Jean]

Yes, Laura....

I had read this and it distressed me quiet a bit.....

I think that we should thank our lucky stars that we live in a more enlightened time and place.

Oh, it's not perfect by a long shot...but we're slowly going in the right direction..

And Hate crime legislation IS needed...

It's even sadder that the clerics encourage such things ....how sad.

Donna Jean

[Sally]

It is so important to remeber that we are not in a perfect world, but that we are in a little better part than most.

We are world wide here in the playground, but there are a lot of countries not represented and a lot of them are because of the persicution.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest April63]

Sounds kinda like Chronicle of a Death Foretold...

I agree with Sally. We don't live in a perfect world. We'll be perfect someday, but not yet. We just have to wait it out, and try to do the best that we can do. Things will improve.

April

[Guest]

We are world wide here in the playground, but there are a lot of countries not represented and a lot of them are because of the persicution.

A sensationalist story like this in Iran or Iraqu Where this happens all the time makes us feel that we are above such brutality. After all we're above that, but are we? It might interest you to know That plenty of violence and murder occurs right here under our noses. Both gays and transgender organizations have a long list of LGBT deaths that occured right here under our noses that do not even include the Middle East.

What makes this more brutal and barbaric? The fact that the word pervert was carved into their chests? The murdered victims are still just as dead if they occur there or here. Can murder really be more civilized somewhere else?

Where do people get their prejudices from? Could weekly hate speech against LGBT's in the pulpit have anything to do with it? In many cases, Yes!

Here's some articles closer to home:

Group says hate crime rates rose against gays in 2007

http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article...st_gays_in_2007

HOMOPHOBIC HATE CRIME IN BRITAIN, RESEARCH FINDINGS, JAN BRIDGET

http://www.lesbianinformationservice.org/hate.htm

COMPARISON OF HATE CRIME RATES ACROSS PROTECTED AND UNPROTECTED GROUPS

http://www.centeronhalsted.org/programs/Wi...imes_Report.pdf

Remembering our Transgender dead

http://gender.org/remember/about/core.html

Bear in mind that not all hate crimes are reported as such especially in muder or rape because families often hide the fact that their family member is LGBT due to embarrasment. So the hate crime rate is grossly underestimated as our our actual numbers in the population.

"but the estimated population that identifies as gay, lesbian, or bisexual is only about 4%"

That estimate is far lower than the actual numbers of GLB's. In addition the transgender population is said to be between 1 and 3 million. We know just from our number here that it more likley 8 to 10 million. Sure there's a visible population but there is also a larger invisible closeted one. One is still LGBT whether in the closet or not.

In short GLBT deaths are ocurring everywhere and the numbers are vastly unreported. Are some countries more brutal than others? Of course but a death is a death no matter how brutal the circumstances. In some places Governements prosecute us and in others religous zealots do. The one common thread in this is that most hate crimes are spuurred on by weekly speechs in the pulpit. In fact that's why some religous and family organizations are against any hate crimes legislation. They fear loosing their favorite gladiator sports pastime, disparaging GLBT's every Sunday from the pulpit. I'm not sure what happened to "Love thy neighbor as yourself". One thing is for sure the hate message gets out but the love message does not. Are we as really civilized as we think we are?

I get a great deal of email reports about hate crimes committed aginst our members here. Almost all didn't report them. These include reports of violence and rape. Though I try to get them to post their stories in here, most do not. That does not mean they are not occurring, right here in our "Civilized World".

Laura

[Sally]

Sounds kinda like Chronicle of a Death Foretold...

I agree with Sally. We don't live in a perfect world. We'll be perfect someday, but not yet. We just have to wait it out, and try to do the best that we can do. Things will improve.

April

April,

Don't get the idea that I said we should just 'wait it out' - that is a very dangerous path.

England tried to 'wait out' Hitler's advances into Poland and France, that didn't turn out so well.

We tried to sit out the war and let the English, Free French, Russians and Dutch hold them off, but with Japan and Italy at Germany's side that would never work.

It took an attack on our troops at their base to bring us in.

Are we going to wait for the hate crime to be against us personally - I'm not.

I merely stated that in a lot of the world hate crimes are less 'visual' they are carried out in secret and identities are hidden.

This was very public and people so often 'claim responsibility' for such acts.

It is up to us to make this sort of thing too public to hide.

We have to inform people that we are here and we are not a threat to society - the hate mongers are the threat to society and always have been.

It is a slow process trying to erase bigotry, but if it is never started it can never be completed.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest April63]

I didn't mean we should be idle. I just meant that changes aren't going to happen over night. So we need to be patient.

April

[Sally]

I didn't mean we should be idle. I just meant that changes aren't going to happen over night. So we need to be patient.

April

Patient, vigilant and active - work for transgendered groups and rights, talk to people and let them know that we are not the threat.

I'm writing a book of stories that should help people to understand how human we are, once finished, I will have to find a brave publisher willing to take a risk, but if published I will split the proceedes with the transgendered orginazations that seem to be doing the most good.

It may not be much, but it is a start and something that I can do.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest mia 1]

Don't get the idea that I said we should just 'wait it out' - that is a very dangerous path.

England tried to 'wait out' Hitler's advances into Poland and France, that didn't turn out so well.

We tried to sit out the war and let the English, Free French, Russians and Dutch hold them off, but with Japan and Italy at Germany's side that would never work.

It took an attack on our troops at their base to bring us inAre we going to wait for the hate crime to be against us personally - I'm not.

Well that is exactly right not only did the Appeasers led by Chamberlain give Hitler what he wanted they gave him more than he asked for,,and Gosh darned Czechoslovakia, and the rest of Europe,,the Brits and the French thought Stalin could do the dirty work and they could sit back and protect their bloated overseas emmpires.....It took the U.K's Churchill to bring England off her knees and take on the cup cakes alone, and this happened after the French capitulated after 6 weeks and the Ribbentrop-Molotov non aggression pact of 1939.

Churchill and England stood alone and even scuttled the French Fleet to make sure the French didn't turn their warships on England.

That is the kind of leadership the LGBT community needs and we had it with Harvey Milk and of course he was senselessly murdered...SO right on Sally lets fight for our dignity and human rights and in parts of the world like the Mid East, and in Colorado and Wyoming where members of the transgendered have been brutally murdered and their perpetrators got away with pleas of temporary insanity......

Waiting around is like waiting for the Second Coming ...GOOD LUCK on that idea....