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View Article  LGBTQ advocacy on federal hate crimes may assist in justice for Jennifer Daugherty

I was horrified to the point of weeping when I sat in my office and caught a PG tweet about the brutal violation of the life of Jennifer Daugherty. I've worked with adults with mental and developmental disabilities for several years so I got right away the depravity of how she was victimized and murdered.  It was a gut wrenching, hearthbreaking story and so incredibly awful to think about her suffering, that I was amazed at her sister's willingness to come forward and relive it over and over again.  Awed, even.

Yesterday, the Post-Gazette ran a piece about the potential to apply the newly expanded hate crimes protections to Ms. Daugherty.  This would allow for federal resources to be used investigating and prosecuting the crime, which could be a big help in bringing her sex alleged murderers to justice.  A fitting justice. 

Many of you might not realize that persons with disabilites were not protected on a federal level with regard to hate crimes. You might not even know that people with disabilities are targets of hate crimes.

Prosecutors must show the violence was directly related to the victim's disability in order for the act to qualify as a hate crime, Mr. Decker said. For example, he said, an attacker's animus might be revealed in epithets uttered during the crime.

In October, the U.S. Justice Department released what it called the "First National Study on Crime Against Persons with Disabilities."

The study showed that people with disabilities who were between the ages of 12 and 19 and 35 and 49 were more than twice as likely to be victims of violence than non-disabled people in the same age groups, and people with mental disabilities were more often victimized than people with other kinds of disabilities. Nearly 20 percent of victims interviewed said they "believed that they became a victim because of their disability," the Justice Department said

If you have friends or family members with disabilities, you probably are familiar with the fact that people are often targets. Predators look for perceived weakness. Ms. Daugherty trusted that these people were her friends.  They didn't just trick her into doing something stupid.  They brutally assaulted, tortured and murdered her because they were well aware (I believe) that her disability made her suceptable to them ... the media softens it with "used her trusting nature against here" language, but I read this as them using her disability to their advantage to carry out whatever sick pleasures they derived from the brutal attack. 
 
The expansion of the hate crimes legislation owes a lot of debt to the LGBTQ community which lobbied tirelessly to ensure that sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression where included in the protected classes. 
 
Our efforts got that bill passed and that bill might serve to help bring justice to a victim of a brutal crime because of another protected class included in the bill. Your advocacy might help Ms. Daugherty's family find some small measure of consolation in what is possibly the worst thing that could ever happen to a family.  I truly cannot think of anything more heinous to have to live with than wondering about the suffering she endured.  It makes me weep now to even write that sentence.
 
Thank you for being a part, in whatever way, of passing this important legislation.  Equal rights under the law should include everyone.  Protecting people who are targeted because they belong to a particular group fights evil and injustice. 
 
This is evidence of how those who are oppressed under the law have a moral imperative to unite in the call for justice. There's no way to parse out which advocates made the impact -- the important point is finding intersections for equality and using them to promote a most just society. 
 
 
View Article  Things you should know about today!

HuffPo has a good piece about Immigration Equality. Have you considered the impact second-class citizenship has on families where one parent faces the possibility of deportation?  Not because they are here illegally or have done anything wrong, but because heterosexual families can use a legal marriage to sponsor their loved one.  A documentary debuts today.  Check out the link for more information. 

A piece from the New York Times runs in today's Post-Gazette about Obama's plan to use executive power to "to soften enforcement of the ban on openly gay men and lesbians serving in the military" along with other issues where Congress refuses to show leadership.

Soften enforcement is some pretty tough lingo, ain't it.  Sheesh.  Enforcing an unjust policy that hurts American defense is not the problem, Mr. President.  We don't want an American military where participants must lie about their identity to serve their country.  It isn't healthy, it is predicated on irrational fear and it is just plain wrong. 

It continues to amaze me how our allied elected officials just don't see that there are issues where they can show leadership -- do the right thing one might say -- without getting into big scary political fallout over marriage equality.  As long as we see it in the White House, we'll continue to see it locally where providing health insurance to gay people is considered "risky."

A minister from Tulsa is certainly not in that camp.  He's made a dangerous trip to Uganda to speak out publicly against the legislation which would sentence people to death for being gay.

Lavanhar left Tulsa on Thursday for Kampala, the capital of Uganda. For security reasons, news of his trip was withheld until he made it into the country, and the location of the "Standing On The Side of Love" conference will not be announced until Sunday.

He said he plans to offer encouragement and support to those who oppose the bill.

"There are times when the church colludes with injustice and evil, like in its support of slavery and racial segregation," he said.

"In those times, people must rise up to save the church as much as society. This is one of those times.

"There are moments in life when we have to take risks to support what we believe to be God's will for humanity, and it is my strong belief that God's will is for people to be free."

This is precisely why the United States has a moral obligation to give the LGBTQ community full equality across the board.  We should not allow ourselves to be an example to justify "separate but equal" as a slippery slope to "death penalty for gays."

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