Perhaps you hadn’t heard, but anti-gay violence is on the rise.  Here’s what the Mormons brought to California’s gay citizens…

Surge in anti-gay hate crime cases

Hate crime cases involving anti-gay sentiment shot up in Santa Clara County last year, a striking increase that a leading prosecutor attributes to controversy over Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on gay marriage.

Anti-gay incidents accounted for more than half of hate-crime cases last year — 56 percent — a big jump from only 15 percent in 2007. There were 14 anti-gay cases out of 25 hate-crime cases in 2008, compared with only 3 out of 20 in 2007.

"My belief from having done this work for many years is that surges in types of hate incidents are linked to the headlines and controversies of the day,” said Deputy District Attorney Jay Boyarsky, who is assigned to monitor hate crimes. "Marriage equality and Proposition 8 have been in the news, and we have seen an increase in gay-bashing.”

I’ve been sitting at my computer, seeing one report of anti-gay violence after another glide across my screen, week after week since Proposition 8 and the election of President Obama.  Numb, and unsurprised.  You hear crackpots calling down God’s wrath on gay folk all the time.  You hear them comparing us to murderers and terrorists.  You hear them citing the passages in Leviticus that call for homosexuals to be put to death.  It’s when you hear all that coming from the statehouses that it makes you wonder if a threshold has been crossed in the culture war…

Utah:

Last night, Utah’s local ABC station received leaked portions of an interview with state senator Chris Buttars (R), which will be highlighted in an upcoming documentary on Proposition 8. Buttars is an outspoken opponent of gay rights; in the latest interview, he compares gays to alcoholics and Muslim terrorists, and warns that gay people are “probably the greatest threat to America.”

Colorado:

…If it passes, SB 88 would extend state employee health benefits to same-sex partners of state employees.

Renfroe said he was voting against the bill because it would sanction sin and be an abomination to God.

“The Lord God said it is not good for man to be alone — and so he made a helper suitable for him — and that was woman,” said Renfroe, quoting a Bible verse from Genesis. “God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply.

“Leviticus 18:22 says, ‘You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a female, it is an abomination.’

“Leviticus 20:13 says, ‘If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act and they shall surely be put to death. Their blood guiltiness is upon them.’

Tennessee:

State Representative Tony Shipley was quoted on OpenPen on March 13 in a blog that had jaws dropping throughout the GLBT community. Shipley today told O&AN and Jenny Ford, a lobbyist for the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), that the quotations were taken out of context.

A lobbyist writing under the name Desoto quoted Shipley as saying, ”They can do whatever they want out in California, with gays passing babies around, and violating God’s law, but when God drops California off into the sea, they will have to deal with the consequences of their actions.”

…

In the blog, Desoto also reported that Shipley said, ”That [gays adopting] ain’t gonna fly-I’m sorry, I’m a Southern Baptist, I’m a Christian," and "If they [the "secular progressives"] keep pushing and pushing and pushing-they’re pushing us too far, and something will happen-just like we did in 1860." Tennessee

…and in one statehouse after another where they are still fighting over same-sex marriage, adoption, hate crime laws, and anti discrimination laws.  They can’t seem to hate us enough.  I was sitting in the office one of my project managers and told him offhandedly about my decision to not take my usual cross-country drive this year because I was disturbed by all the anti-gay rhetoric I was seeing coming out of the heartland statehouses, and the resulting violence.  He was genuinely shocked to hear about it.  But to see it happening, you have to read the gay news blogs.  As far as the mainstream news media is concerned, violence against homosexuals is still an unremarkable thing.  Something like dog bites man.  Not worth wasting their reader’s time over.

I read a Baltimore crime blog almost daily now, to get a feel for what’s happening at street level in my city because mainstream local news coverage is so crappy.  It’s basically an aggregator, just posting links from other sources to crime stories, with maybe a little commentary between them.  There needs to be something like that for the gay community.  Some place were we, and everyone else, can see how dangerous things are.  Because there is still a lot of denial that so many violent words flung at gay people, can possibly be turning into violent acts.

I don’t want my little life blog to be that place.  But I am sick of seeing one act of violence after another flashing across my screen and it’s too much to comment on all of it.  So from now on, instead of just letting it go, I’m going to compile them into a running series of posts.

"During the wars with Napoleon, when Admiral Nelson asked for the numbers of men killed and wounded in a week of action, he said ‘Let me have the butcher’s bill for the week’". Dritz sighed to a reporter one day.  "As I make out these reports with the new numbers of AIDS cases each week, and as I check them off when they die, I feel like I am writing the butcher’s bill of this epidemic."

-Randy Shilts, And The Band Played On

Here’s a few line items in the culture war on gay people…

Attack in pub seen as gay-bashing

"I asked the guy why he had done it, and he said, ‘Because he’s a faggot. I’m not a fag. The faggot touched me. He deserved it.’

"He just kept saying those same words over and over again."

 

Brooklyn Gay Murder Victim’s Cousin Describes Fatal Attack

"I had him in my arms, and as I had him in my arms I was calling the paramedics," Brown said. Duncanson, who had been stabbed four times in the back, was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he died roughly one hour later.

 

Gay Man Assaulted Outside Midtown Atlanta Bar

‘He assumed the two guys were men he had met and they said ‘hi’ and called him over. He went over and said hi. They asked him if he was gay and when he said yes, they knocked him down and kicked him in the face,’

 

Spanish ‘Gay Panic’ Acquittal Inspires Protest

They lived together in the Spanish province of Vigo and were planning to get married. Both were stabbed to death by Jacobo Piñeiro Rial in their apartment in the early morning of January 13th, 2006. The bodies showed a total of 57 stab wounds, according to forensics. After killing them, Piñeiro took a shower and cleaned himself up. He filled a suitcase with some of their belongings to make it look like a robbery and then spilled clothing all over the place. He poured alcohol over everything, including his victims’ bodies, turned on the gas spigot on the stove, and set everything on fire.

The jury bought the killer’s ‘gay panic’ defense…

 

Dallas Jury Finds Man Guilty for Robbery in Anti-Gay Attack

"Dean told jurors that Gunter punched him in the nose and that the next thing he remembered was seeing two men beat him. Gunter kicked him in the back and Singleton kicked him in the face before he lost consciousness again, he said. A witness testified hearing Gunter and Singleton make anti-gay remarks during the attack. As a result of the attack, Dean suffered a fractured back and dislocated jaw, and his chin was broken in half. He testified that he has vision problems, lost his sense of smell and is still missing teeth."

According to the paper, defense attorneys argued that Singleton was responsible for the beating.

 

And so it goes…