Hoods Off

Blue Jays SS Yunel Escobar suspended 3 games by team for anti-gay slur on …
NEW YORK – Toronto shortstop Yunel Escobar was suspended for three games Tuesday by the Blue Jays for wearing eye-black displaying an anti-gay slur written in Spanish during a game last weekend against Boston. Escobar apologized to his team and …
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Will UPS Stop Funding The Boy Scouts For Antigay Policy
After Intel announced it they would no longer donate money to the Boy Scouts of America over its antigay policies, activist Zach Wahls has another target: UPS. Most of the corporations that The American Independent identified as major donors to the Boy …
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Paris Hilton: 'I wish I could take back every word' about gay men
In Paris Hilton's world, gay men may be the "horniest," but one heiress is apparently the sorriest. She's apologizing big time for derogatory comments about gay men captured on audio by a cab driver earlier this month in New York. "I want to say how …
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Ukraine Moves Closer to Passing Anti-Gay Law
This Tuesday, Parliament members in Ukraine made initial steps at passing a decidedly anti-gay draft law. The law deems the “promotion of homosexuality” — described as any action taken to portray homosexuality in a positive light — as criminally …
Read more on Passport Magazine (blog)

Anti-gay propaganda law complaint dismissed
Print this. Anti-gay propaganda law complaint dismissed. Context. Challenge to St. Petersburg anti-gay law to be heard Sep. 27 · Activists challenge the gay lifestyle ban law. © RIA Novosti, Vadim Gernov. Tags: LGBT, Nikolai Alexeyev, St. Petersburg …
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Intel Halts Boy Scout Donations Over Anti-Gay Policy
Boy Scouts Get Big Money From Corporations Despite Anti-Gay Policy. Published in collaboration with The American Independent Corporate foundations have given millions to the Boy Scouts of America and its subdivisions in recent years despite.
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Chick-fil-A Waffles On Their Waffling, Claims They 'Made No Concessions' To …
Yeah, well, apparently, CEO Dan Cathy (who made the anti-gay “guilty as charged” comment in the first place, but whose name wasn't associated with the announcement that they were backing off anti-gay funding) couldn't take the heat from critics who …
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Is Notorious Anti-Gay Group Behind Effort to Sabotage Obama's African …
Last week, a group of African-American pastors held a press conference announcing that they are starting a campaign to get black voters to withhold their votes from President Obama until he no longer supports marriage equality. Led by its president, Rev.
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Rachel Maddow Sounds Off On Anti-Gay Tweets, Emails After Drudge Report Link
Rachel Maddow Sounds Off On Anti-Gay Tweets, Emails After Drudge Report Link. Posted: 08/13/2012 10:13 am. reddit stumble · Share on Google+. Get Media Alerts: Sign Up. React: Amazing Inspiring Funny Scary Hot Crazy Important Weird. Follow: …
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Anti-gay marriage leader: Bezos .5 mil gift in WA “doesn't make that much …
Same sex marriage supporters were talking “game-changer” after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife dropped $ 2.5 miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllion on the pro-side of a same sex marriage referendum in Washington state — representing half of what the pro-side, …
Read more on San Francisco Chronicle (blog)

National Anti-Gay Group Invests 000 To Insert Wedge Issues Into Iowa Senate …
By Zack Ford on Oct 21, 2011 at 4:30 pm Finance disclosure forms show that the National Organization for Marriage has already committed over $ 15000 into the Iowa Senate election between Republican Cindy Golding and Democrat Liz Mathis. …
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Washington state releases names of anti-gay petition signers
It is another loss in this battle for anti-gay groups, often led by the National Organization for Marriage, who have refused to reveal their donors in a number of state anti-gay campaigns, although courts have ruled against them.
Read more on Gay People Chronicle

Anti-gay Vibe of X Factor rejects
By LEIGH HOLMWOOD X FACTOR rejects Nu Vibe will this weekend play two gay clubs — despite making a homophobic slur about fellow contestant Craig Colton. The boy band — booted out on Sunday night — will play Revenge in Brighton on Friday and London's …
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Hans Klasson, June 20, 2009

Even though hate crimes are rarely debated, the hate speech theory is controversial, as criminalizing communication can be seen as impugning freedom of speech. Hate crimes are calculated to cause fear among an entire group of people. Hate crimes send a message that an individual and “their kind” will not be tolerated. Many times leaving the victim and others in their group feeling secluded, vulnerable and exposed.

Hate crimes are exceptional because they have a unique emotional and physical impact that extends past the actual victim. They intimidate others in the victim’s community, causing them to feel isolated, defenseless, and unprotected by the law. These crimes are committed against individuals, or a few individuals. They are intended to incite fear and self-loathing amid a broader group of people. The targeted groups of people can include LGBT people, people of different races, religious backgrounds, or abilities.

Most anti-gay hate crimes are committed by otherwise law-abiding people who see nothing wrong with their actions, and who sometimes believe that they have societal consent to engage in such violence.

Notable anti-gay hate crime headlines in the media:

Lawrence King, a self-identified gay male, 15-years old, was shot twice in the head by a bully while in English class after enduring countless acts of homophobia.

Eric Mohat, 17-years old, went home and shot himself in the head after a bully suggested, ‘Why don’t you go home and shoot yourself’ His two assailants were not charged with a hate crime, since the state had no hate crime law. They were, however convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

The sadistic torture and murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in October 1998. Two petty criminals kidnapped Shepard, beat him ferociously,tied him to a fence in frigid temperatures, and left him there for 18 hours before he was discovered. The case sparked a national debate about the need for hate crime legislation.

Alabama, computer programmer Billy Jack Gaither, 39, was brutally beaten with an axe handle. His throat was cut, and his body was set on fire. One of his convicted killers, Steven Mullins, testified he killed Gaither because he was “queer”

Brandon Teena, whose birth name was Teena Brandon, from Lincoln, Nebraska moved to Humboldt in 1993, after beginning to live as a man in preparation for sex-change surgery. Brandon passed as a man, but was discovered to be biologically and legally female by local police during an arrest on a misdemeanor charge. Brandon lived in a small Midwestern town, where his sexual identity crisis was not tolerated, inciting two presumed friends to brutally murder him and two other innocents. This true story, which was the basis for the feature film ‘Boys Don’t Cry’

Recent developments such as

Zachary Quinto: Jamey Rodemeyer Anti-Gay Bullying Text
At ZacharyQuinto.com, Star Trek's Zachary Quinto explains (all in lower case) that the suicide of a gay 14-year-old, Jamey Rodemeyer, in a Buffalo suburb last September prompted him to go public about his sexual orientation. See below. …
Read more on Alt Film Guide (blog)

Anti-Gay Former Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle to Run for U.S. Senate
We all know why she is anti-gay. I mean come on, has she looked in the mirror or seen any video of herself. Why is it that these obvious closet-cases think they can fool people. Well she definitely passes the Idiot Test required for Republican …
Read more on Towleroad

Rick Perry Refuses To Repudiate Robert Jeffress' Anti-Gay Rhetoric
Rick Perry on Friday refused to repudiate the anti-gay rhetoric of Rev. Robert Jeffress. In endorsing Perry's bid for the White House, Jeffress, senior pastor of the influential First Baptist Church located in Dallas, created controversy by calling …
Read more on On Top Magazine

New report says anti-gay bullying rampant in Northern Ireland
By Brody Levesque BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Homophobic language and bullying are prevalent in schools across Northern Ireland with 98 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual youth reporting hearing homophobic language in school from pupils, teachers, …
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Santorum speaks at anti-gay marriage rally in Concord
By Ben Leubsdorf / Monitor staff Presidential candidate Rick Santorum spoke at a "Restore Marriage Rally" this morning in downtown Concord, telling roughly three dozen people gathered in the Holiday Inn parking lot that one-man, one-woman marriage is …
Read more on Concord Monitor (blog)

Anti-gay activists fail to repeal California law which incorporates gay …
Opponents of gay equality have failed to overturn a new law which sees US public schools incorporate lessons on gay history. Opponents of gay equality have failed to overturn a new law which sees US public schools incorporate lessons on gay history. …
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Anti-Gay Christian Groups Appear To Panic Over FAIR Act Petition Failure
Christian groups failed to get enough signatures to take the FAIR Education Act to the voters. In fact, they fell thousands of signatures short and are now really upset over the fact that children will learn that being lesbian and gay is perfectly …
Read more on Lez Get Real

Judge slams anti-gay former state attorney for trying to short-circuit lawsuit
How much will it cost to save the Detroit Science Center? Officials at the shuttered museum said…- 12:02 am Dear Carolyn: Been married 26 years, two children in college. The in-laws have fundamentally different views on issues you feel strongly about …
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The case for marriage
The anti-gay lobby has a wealth of rhetoric, but nothing to back it up. Arguing for marriage equality is a tedious indignity. Gay marriage proponents need to turn the debate around and demand the anti-gay brigade mount a decent argument against it. …
Read more on Sydney Star Observer

Michele Bachmann Brags About Antigay Record
The Advocate found that the summit is filled with booths distributing antigay propaganda, but that hasn't stopped Bachmann or any of the others from attending despite calls from gay rights organizations that they skip it. Follow us on Twitter. …
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Anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church To Target Steve Jobs' Funeral
The church is known for its vicious anti-gay bigotry and horribly insensitive funeral protests. (As you may recall, the Supreme Court earlier this year affirmed their First Amendment right to "demonstrate" within spewing distance of grieving families, …
Read more on RollingStone.com (blog)

Romney Plays Both Sides at Values Voter Summit
By Andrew Harmon In a swipe at virulently antigay American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer, Mitt Romney called for an end to “poisonous language” in politics while also touting his own anti-LGBT positions. Though the GOP presidential …
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Values Voter Summit — Or Anti-LGBT Hate Fest?
And that doesn't include the anti-gay bullying that has resulted in so many teen suicides. Last year, the SPLC began listing the FRC and the AFA as hate groups. The listings, as was said at the time, were based on the groups' use of known falsehoods to …
Read more on Huffington Post

Rep. Kriesel joins some in GOP to fight anti-gay marriage amendment
John Kriesel was among well-known Minnesota Republicans who announced Thursday that they will fight the proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment, a proposal their party strongly supports. Rep. John Kriesel of Cottage Grove joins other …
Read more on South Washington County Bulletin