Hate Crimes Bill, Long Overdue

The Jewish Week Writes:

“There’s a good reason the Anti-Defamation League and a number of other major Jewish groups have made passage of a new hate crimes bill a top priority: there are still too many places in America where violent crimes against unpopular minorities are not investigated or prosecuted with any vigor.
Different versions of the measure have again passed both houses of Congress, and once again conservative lawmakers are trying to attach “poison pill” amendments and marshaling their forces to strip the hate crimes provisions when the measures go to a House-Senate conference committee. And once again, Jewish groups face a tough fight in protecting legislation that may be even more critical as the recession fuels the growth of assorted hate groups.”

See Hate Crimes Bill, Long Overdue

The Jewish Week

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Another lie from the far right: “All Violent Crimes Are ‘Hate Crimes”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins is claiming “All Violent Crimes Are ‘Hate Crimes” after approval by the House Judiciary Committee of a proposed federal “hate crimes” bill, H.R. 1913.

We offer these two photos to rebut his fatuous claim.

In the upper photo see Sydney gay man Chen (Anthony) Liuas he looked before being set upon by gay bashers who killed him and left his body to decompose.

The lower photo shows what gay bashers do: it is an x-ray showing how they used a nail gun to kill this man. The decomposed body of 27 year old Mr Liu was discovered floating in the Georges River last November, the body been bound with electrical wire and wrapped in a rug. He had been shot in the head 30 times with a high powered nail gun. The nails embedded in his skull were up to 85mm long.

See how many nails they shot into his skull?

This is typical of a hate crime: a level of violence that far exceeds that of a robery or mugging.

Does Perkins get that? No: he claims “All violent crimes are hate crimes, and every victim is equally important. All of our citizens deserve equal justice under the law. Do we somehow care less about victims violently assaulted because of robberies or personal disputes than we do about those assaulted because they belong in a federally designated category?”

Any criminal act is hateful, but only some – those against people because of their color or orientation – are hate crimes. We can be sure that Perkins would be singing a different tune if those who followed his brand of “Christianity” were subject to the same level of hate crimes that LGBT people face every day.

It is un-American for Perkins and his ilk to use LGBT as cannon fodder in their effort to generate fund raising dollars and build political power.

But to mislead people about the need for hate crimes legislation to generate fund raising dollars and build political power is more of a ‘sin’ than anything two gay men can do to each other.

Shame on those seld-appointed “Christians” who pervert Christ’s teachings into a cover for the kind of homophobic violence that killed Mr. Liuas.

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IGLHRC Asks the Iraqi Government to Protect Gay People

NEW YORK, April 17, 2009 – The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has sent a letter to the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Salim, requesting that she takes specific measures to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Iraqis and prevent hate crimes against those perceived to be gay.

IGLHRC’s letter, written to coincide with Ms. Salim’s visit to Washington D.C., responds to a recent wave of violent crimes against Iraqi citizens perceived to be gay.

Just hours before IGLHRC sent its letter, an Iraqi group identified as “Fazilat” (Virtue) posted flyers threatening homosexuals with death on walls in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad.

The flyers, distributed on April 17, list the names of some of the would-be targets and states that “we will soon punish all you perverts.” Residents of Sadr City say the people who were outed in these fliers have gone into hiding.

Previous acts of anti-LGBT violence in Iraq include the April 2, 2009 murder of two men in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad.

An unidentified local official described these men as “sexual perverts (Monharef Jensiyan) who were killed by members of their tribe to restore their family honour.”

Prior to death, the men’s relatives had disowned them and they were also thrown out of their tribes. So far no one has claimed their bodies and the government has not launched an investigation into the case.

These murders took place one week after Iraqi authorities unearthed the bodies of 4 men killed by gunshots in Sadr City on March 25.

The words “pervert” and “son of a bitch” (jaravah: a derogatory term to describe homosexuals) were written on the chests of the victims. As part of this new wave of violence, a coffee house in Sadr City that was frequented by gay men has also been burnt down.

Apart from these cases, IGLHRC has also received reports of the arrest, torture, and murder of several members of the group Iraqi-LGBT amid a nationwide government crackdown on gay-friendly businesses across Iraq.

Several other reports indicate dozens of extra-judicial murders of LGBT people across Iraq during the past few months.

In response to these violent murders, on April 8, 2009, IGLHRC and Human Rights Watch submitted an urgent appeal to the Special Procedures of the United Nations to ask for an investigation.

IGLHRC is also working closely with the D.C.-based Council on Global Equality to bring the plight of gay and lesbian Iraqis to the attention of U.S. government officials, who will be meeting with the Iraqi minister next week.

SEE ALSO

Shadowy Group Threatens to Kill Gays in Iraq. A shadowy group has posted signs around the Iraqi capital’s main Shiite working-class district of Sadr City naming alleged homosexuals on a list and threatening to kill them. (France 24 News, April 17, 2009)

Member of Iraqi Gay Group Pleads for Help “Before It’s Too Late”. Is there anyone to help me before it’s too late? That is the question asked by a member of Iraqi-LGBT in Baghdad, who says he is to be executed, in a letter released at the weekend by Iraqi-LGBT in London. (UK Gay News, April 6, 2009)

Iraqi Gays Sentenced to Death for Their Sexuality Face Execution. More than 100 prisoners in Iraq are facing execution – and some of them are believed to have been convicted of the ‘crime’ of being gay, the UK-based Iraqi-LGBT group revealed this afternoon. According to Ali Hili of Iraqi-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week. (UK Gay News, March 30, 2009)