It is men like you and your Bible-thumbing "Christian" backers who spread murder, hatred and chaos across a divided America. Were there real justice, YOU would be charged as an accessory to murder--as would others of your ilk to helped spawn these murders over the last 40 years.
--Several men were assaulted on July 5, 1978, by a gang of youths armed with baseball bats and tree branches in an area ofCentral Park in New York City known to be frequented by homosexuals. The victims were assaulted at random, but the assailants later confessed that they had deliberately set out to the park to attack homosexuals. One of those injured was former figure skater Dick Button, who was assaulted while watching a fireworks display in the park.[103][104]
--Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco city supervisor, along with Mayor George Moscone, were assassinated on November 27, 1978, by political rival Dan White at San Francisco City Hall.[105] Outrage over the assassinations and the short sentence given to White (seven years) prompted the White Night Riots.[106]
--Tennessee Williams was the victim of an assault in January 1979 in Key West, being beaten by five teenage boys. He escaped serious injury. The episode was part of a spate of anti-gay violence inspired by an anti-gay newspaper ad run by a local Baptist minister.[107]
--Steven Charles, 17, of Newark was beaten to death in New York City on October 7, 1979, by Costabile "Gus" Farace, Robert DeLicio, David Spoto and Farace's cousin Mark Granato. They also beat Charles' friend, 16-year-old Thomas Moore of Brooklyn. Moore was critically injured but managed to get help at a nearby residence. It was Moore that identified the four men via a lineup four days after the incident. Farace, the leader of the attack, plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter. He was paroled after 8 years, in 1988. He himself was murdered on November 17, 1989.[108]
--On November 18, 1980, Ronald K. Crumpley, a former Transit Authority policeman, fired 40 rounds from a semiautomatic rifle and two Magnum pistols (all stolen from a Virginia gun shop) into a cluster of men standing in front of two gay bars--Ramroad and the next-door Sneakers--in West Greenwich Village, killing 21-year-old Jörg Wenz, from the Netherlands, the Ramrod's doorman, and 24-year-old Vernon Koenig, from Minnesota, a church organist, and wounding six others. Rene Malute, 23, later died of his wounds. A survivor described the shootings as "a massacre, a bloodbath." Crumpley admitted to having paranoid delusions that gays were agents of the devil, stalking him and "trying to steal my soul just by looking at me." He was found not responsible by reason of insanity and committed to maximum-security Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Ward's Island. In 2001, a judge denied Crumpley's request to be transferred to a less restrictive psychiatric facility.
--Charlie Howard was drowned in Bangor, Maine, in 1984.[109]
--Rebecca Wight was killed on May 13, 1988, when she and her partner, Claudia Brenner, were shot by Stephen Roy Carr while hiking and camping along the Appalachian Trail. Carr later claimed that he became enraged by the couple's lesbianism when he saw them having sex [110]
James Zappalorti (1945-1990), a gay Vietnam War veteran, was stabbed to death.[111]
Paul Broussard (1968-1991), a Houston-area banker, was murdered.
U.S. Navy Petty Officer Allen Schindler was murdered by a shipmate who stomped him to death in a public restroom in Japan on October 27, 1992.[112] Schindler had complained repeatedly about anti-gay harassment aboard ship.[112] The case became synonymous with the gays in the military debate that had been brewing in the United States culminating in the "Don't ask, don't tell" bill.[113]
--Brandon Teena, a transman, was raped and later murdered in 1993 when his birth gender was revealed by police to male friends of his.[114] The events leading to Teena's death were depicted in the movie Boys Don't Cry.[115]
--Scott Amedure was murdered on March 9, 1995, after revealing his attraction to his friend Jonathan Schmitz on a The Jenny Jones Show episode about secret crushes. Schmitz purchased a shotgun to kill Amedure and did so after Amedure implied he still was attracted to him; Schmitz then turned himself in to police.[116][117]
--Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill, a lesbian couple in Medford, Oregon, were murdered on December 4, 1995, by a man who said he had "no compassion" for bisexual or homosexual people.[118] Robert Acremant was convicted and sentenced to death by lethal injection.[119]
--The Otherside Lounge, a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta, was bombed by Eric Robert Rudolph, the "Olympic Park Bomber," on February 21, 1997; five bar patrons were injured. In a statement released after he was sentenced to five consecutive life terms for his several bombings, Rudolph called homosexuality an "aberrant lifestyle".
--Matthew Shepard (1976-1998), a gay student, was fatally attacked in Laramie, Wyoming on October 7, 1998. Shepard was tortured, beaten severely, tied to a fence, and abandoned; he was found 18 hours after the attack and succumbed to his injuries less than a week later, on October 12. His attackers, Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney, are both serving two consecutive life sentences in prison.[120]
--Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder, a gay couple, were murdered on July 1, 1999, by white supremacist brothers Matthew and Tyler Williams in Redding, California. Tyler Williams was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in prison, to be served after his completion of a 21-year sentence for firebombing synagogues and an abortion clinic.[121] Benjamin Williams claimed that by killing the couple he was "obeying the laws of the Creator".[122] He committed suicide in 2003 while awaiting trial. Their former pastor described the brothers as "zealous in their faith" but "far from kooks".[123]
--U.S. Army Pfc. Barry Winchell was murdered on July 6, 1999, in Fort Campbell, Kentucky by fellow soldier Calvin Glover. Winchell was beaten to death with a baseball bat after rumors spread on base of his relationship with transgender authorCalpernia Addams. Glover was sentenced to life in prison.[124]
--Steen Fenrich was murdered in September 1999, apparently by his stepfather, John D. Fenrich, in Queens, New York. His dismembered remains were found in March 2001, with the phrase "gay nigger number one" scrawled on his skull along with his social security number. His stepfather fled from police while being interviewed, then committed suicide.[125]
--Arthur "J.R." Warren was punched and kicked to death by two teenage boys on July 3, 2000, in Grant Town, West Virginia, who reportedly believed Warren had spread a rumor that he and one of the boys, David Allen Parker, had a sexual relationship. Warren's killers ran over his body to disguise the murder as a hit-and-run. Parker pleaded guilty and was sentenced to "life in prison with mercy", making him eligible for parole after 15 years.[126] His accomplice, Jared Wilson, was sentenced to 20 years.[127]
--Ronald Gay entered a gay bar in Roanoke, Virginia on September 22, 2000, and opened fire on the patrons, killing Danny Overstreet, 43 years old, and severely injuring six others. Ronald said he was angry over what his name now meant, and deeply upset that three of his sons had changed their surname. He claimed that he had been told by God to find and kill lesbians and gay men, describing himself as a "Christian Soldier working for my Lord;" Gay testified in court that "he wished he could have killed more fags," before several of the shooting victims as well as Danny Overstreet's family and friends.[128]
--Nizah Morris, a trans woman, was the victim of a possible homicide in December 2002 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
--Gwen Araujo, a trans woman, was murdered by at least three men who were charged with committing a hate crime. Two were convicted of murder, the third manslaughter; however, the jury rejected the hate crime enhancement.
--Sakia Gunn, a 15-year-old lesbian, was murdered on May 11, 2003, in Newark, New Jersey. While waiting for a bus, Gunn and her friends were propositioned by two men. When the girls rejected their advances, declaring themselves to be lesbians, the men attacked them. One of the men, Richard McCullough, fatally stabbed Gunn. In exchange for his pleading guilty to several lesser crimes including aggravated manslaughter, prosecutors dropped murder charges against McCullough, who was sentenced to 20 years.[129][130]
--Richie Phillips of Elizabethtown, Kentucky was killed on June 17, 2003, by Joseph Cottrell. His body was later found in a suitcase in Rough River Lake. During his trial, two of Cottrell's relatives testified that he lured Phillips to his death, and killed him because he was gay.[131] Cottrell was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison.[132]
--Nireah Johnson and Brandie Coleman were shot to death on July 23, 2003, by Paul Moore when Moore learned after a sexual encounter that Johnson was transgender.[133] Moore then burned his victims' bodies. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 120 years in prison.[134]
--Glenn Kopitske, 37, was shot and stabbed in the back on July 31, 2003, by 17-year-old Gary Hirte, a straight-A student, star athlete and Eagle Scout,[135] in Winnebago County, Wisconsin. Prosecutors contended that Hirte murdered Kopitske to see if he could get away with it.[136] Hirte pleaded insanity, claiming he killed Kopitske in a murderous rage after a consensual sexual encounter with the victim, because he felt a homosexual act was "worse than murder". The 'temporary insanity' mitigation plea was not upheld, he was found guilty, and received a life sentence.
--Scotty Joe Weaver was an 18-year-old murder victim from Bay Minette, Alabama, whose burned and partially decomposed body was discovered on July 22, 2004, a few miles from the mobile home in which he lived. He was beaten, strangled and stabbed numerous times, partially decapitated, and his body was doused in gasoline and set on fire.
--Ronnie Antonio Paris, a three-year-old boy living in Tampa, Florida, died on January 28, 2005, due to brain injuries inflicted by his father, Ronnie Paris, Jr. According to his mother and other relatives, Ronnie Paris, Jr., repeatedly slammed his son into walls, slapped the child's head, and "boxed" him because he was concerned the child was gay and would grow up a sissy. Paris was sentenced to thirty years in prison.[137][138]
--Jason Gage, an openly gay man, was murdered on March 11, 2005, in his Waterloo, Iowa apartment by an assailant, Joseph Lawrence, who claimed Gage had made sexual advance to him. Gage was bludgeoned to death with a bottle, and stabbed in the neck, probably post-mortem, with a shard of glass.[139] Lawrence was sentenced to fifty years in prison.
18-year-old Jacob D. Robida entered a bar on February 2, 2006, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, confirmed that it was agay bar, and then attacked patrons with a hatchet and a handgun, wounding three.[140] He fatally shot himself three days later.[141]
--Kevin Aviance, a female impressionist, musician, and fashion designer, was robbed and beaten in Manhattan on June 10, 2006, by a group of men who yelled anti-gay slurs at him. Four assailants pleaded guilty and received prison sentences.[142]
Six men were attacked with baseball bats and knives on July 30, 2006, after leaving the San Diego, California Gay Pridefestival. One victim was injured so severely that he had to undergo extensive facial reconstructive surgery. Three men pleaded guilty in connection with the attacks and received prison sentences. A 15-year-old juvenile also pleaded guilty.[143][144]
--An altercation occurred in Manhattan on August 18, 2006, between a man and seven black lesbians from Newark, New Jersey. During the altercation, the man was stabbed. The women claim that they acted in self-defense after he screamed homophobic epithets, spit on them, and pulled one of their weaves off,[145] while he has described the attack as "a hate crime against a straight man."[146]
--Michael Sandy was attacked on October 8, 2006, by four young heterosexual men who lured him into meeting after chatting online, while they were looking for gay men to rob. He was struck by a car while trying to escape his attackers, and died five days later without regaining consciousness.[147][148]
--Andrew Anthos, a 72-year-old disabled gay man, was beaten with a lead pipe by a man who was shouting anti-gay names at him on February 27, 2007, in Detroit, Michigan. Anthos died 10 days later in the hospital.[149]
--Sean William Kennedy, 20, was walking to his car from Brew's Bar in Greenville, SC on May 16, 2007, when Stephen Andrew Moller, 18, got out of another car and approached Kennedy. Investigators said that Moller made a comment about Kennedy's sexual orientation, and threw a fatal punch because he did not like the other man's sexual preference.[150]
--Duanna Johnson, a transsexual woman, was beaten by a police officer in February 2008, while she was held in the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center in Tennessee. Johnson said the officers reportedly called her a "faggot" and "he-she," before and during the incident.[151] In November 2008, she was found dead in the street, reportedly gunned down by three unknown individuals.[152]
--Lawrence "Larry" King, a 15-year-old junior highschool student was shot twice by a classmate at E.O. Green School inOxnard, California on February 12, 2008. He was taken off life support after doctors declared him brain dead on February 15.[153] According to Associated Press reports, "prosecutors have charged a 14-year-old classmate with premeditated murder with hate-crime and firearm-use enhancements".[154][155][156]
--Angie Zapata, an 18-year-old trans woman, was beaten to death on July 17, 2008, in Colorado, two days after meeting Allen Ray Andrade. The case was prosecuted as a hate crime, and Andrade was found guilty of first degree murder on April 22, 2009.[157]
--Nima Daivari, 26, was attacked by a man who called him "faggot" on September 13, 2008, in Denver, Colorado. The police that arrived on the scene refused to make a report of the attack.[158]
--A Bourbonnais, Illinois elementary school bus driver was charged with leading a homophobic attack on a 10-year-old student passenger on September 15, 2008. The boy was taunted by the driver who then encouraged other students to chase and beat the child.[159]
--Lateisha Green, a 22-year-old transgender woman, was shot and killed by Dwight DeLee on November 14, 2008, inSyracuse, NY because he thought she was gay.[160] Local news media reported the incident with her legal name, Moses "Teish" Cannon.[161] DeLee was convicted of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime on July 17, 2009, and received the maximum sentence of 25 years in state prison. This was only the second time in the nation's history that a person was prosecuted for a hate crime against a transgender person and the first hate crime conviction in New York state.[162][163][164]
--Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old child in Springfield, Massachusetts, hanged himself with an extension cord on April 6, 2009, after being bullied all school year by peers who said "he acted feminine" and was gay.[165]
--Justin Goodwin, 36, of Salem, Massachusetts was attacked and beaten on April 11, 2009, by as many as six people outside a bar in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Goodwin suffered a shattered jaw, broken eye socket, broken nose and broken cheekbone.[166]
--Seaman August Provost was found shot to death and his body burned at his guard post on Camp Pendleton on June 30, 2009. LGBT community leaders "citing military sources initially said that Provost's death was a hate crime."[167] Provost had been harassed because of his sexual orientation.[167] Military leaders have since explained that "whatever the investigation concludes, the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy prevented Provost from seeking help."[167] Family and friends believe he was murdered because he was openly gay (or bisexual according to some family and sources);[168][169][170][171][172] the killer committed suicide a week later after admitting the murder, the Navy have not concluded if this was a hate crime.[173]
--CeCe McDonald, a young African American trans woman, was attacked outside a tavern shortly after midnight on June 5, 2011, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[174] CeCe fatally stabbed her attacker with a pair of scissors.[175] She was subsequently convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 19 months in a men's prison.[176]
--Mark Carson, a 32-year-old gay man, was shot to death by a man who trailed and taunted him and a friend as they walked down the street in Greenwich Village, New York, yelling anti-gay slurs and asking one of them, "You want to die tonight?" Elliot Morales was arrested briefly after the shooting and charged with murder and weapons charges on May 19, 2013.[177]
--At least 50 people were killed, and 53 injured, in a shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub on June 12, 2016.
Frank Browning is author of The Culture of Desire and A Queer Geography, as well as the recently released, The Fate of Gender: Nature, Nurture, and the Human Future.
