The murder of Matthew Shepard in October of 1998 sparked a movement against the seemingly new “gay hate crime.” Before the crime there was all sorts of laws and bills that were being decided upon that affected the LGBTQ community, but the murder of Matthew Shepard really brought LGBTQ rights into the light. Hate crimes oriented towards LGBTQ persons are not new, and have not decreased in frequency in the recent years despite the inclusion of anti-hate crime laws that were brought into place. Being educated on the topic and my role as a citizen in this country, I know that there is still a lot of growing that needs to take place in order to let the United States be one hundred percent accepting of the LGBTQ community and prevent more hate-crimes from arising. There is a systematic denial of rights in the United States currently that reflects the time period surrounding Matthew Shepard’s death. In order to successfully combat the denial of rights and the oppression the group faces that leads to murders like Shepard’s, it is important to take a look at what exactly is the cause of this inherent hatred of difference and start from there. One of the best approaches I can think of is to look at the issue from the standpoint of a justice-oriented citizen. As a justice-oriented citizen, the response to this issue would be to look at the stigma surrounding the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ discrimination can be considered a political issue, what with recent happenings like the
The history of LGBTQ+ rights in the United States is long and complicated. LGBTQ+ identities that are accepted by people outside that community change with time, as some identities establish themselves as commonplace while others are just being introduced to non-LGBTQ+ people. However, rights and acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community are nearly always tied to legal recognition. Lawrence v. Texas questions whether or not a Texas statute that bans homosexual sodomy is constitutional. Although LGBTQ+ rights issues are controversial, everyone deserves to be equally protected under law regardless of sexual orientation. Likewise, the Fourteenth Amendment’s
Recently, in a response to an increase in violence, the state of Wisconsin passes a law that enhances the penalty for any offense committed against a victim where the crime is committed because of hatred for the victim’s race, sex, or religion. Prior to discussing whether or not this penalty enhancement violates the civil jurisdiction given to the state from God; one must first provide the foundation of the jurisdiction of the state from the biblical principles. First, Christ recognizes that God has all authority “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God” Roman 13:1 (King James Online). In addition, Christ recognizes jurisdiction “and Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the
Many issues impacted by hate crimes can be informed by psychological research. For example, are hate crimes more harmful than other kinds of crime? Why do people commit hate crimes? What can be done to prevent or lessen the impact of hate and bias-motivated crimes? Social scientific research is beginning to yield information on the nature of crimes committed because of real or perceived differences in race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or gender. Current federal law defines hate crimes as any felony or crime of violence that manifests prejudice based on “race, color, religion, or national origin”. Hate crimes can be understood as criminal conduct motivated in whole or in part by a negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons. Hate crimes involve a specific aspect of the victim’s identity. Hate crimes are not simply biases, they are dangerous actions motivated by biases.
The history of LGBTQIA+ rights in the United States is long and complicated. The identities within the LGBTQIA+ community that are accepted have shifted over the years as the majority of the population comes to understand some identities to be commonplace and struggles to understand others. However, the gaining of rights and acceptance by the LGBTQIA+ community has nearly always been tied to legal recognition. Lawrence v. Texas questions whether or not a Texas statute that bans homosexual sodomy is constitutional. Although LGBTQIA+ rights issues are controversial, the statute that convicted John Lawrence and Tyson Garner for having private, consensual gay sex as well as the means of conviction are clearly unconstitutional on several grounds,
For decades, there have been several cases and stories about how the homosexual youth have been mistreated, and Matthew Shepard is one of the many cases. The causes of the oppression may be disturbing to some, but they are clear: discrimination and inequality. This issue is dividing our community into acceptance and refutation. Those who disagree about the gap often see it as a choice between being a heterosexual or a homosexual. Often times, the maltreatment may take place in school, at a workplace, or public. It has been shown that “still, some gay students suffer harassment of their sexual orientation, and many, particularly athletes, stay “in the closet” for fear of unfavorable treatment” (“Gays on
Trump as the president-elect has divided the country more than it has brought it’s people together. ‘There has always been hate and divisions,’ some would say. While this is true, this kind of prevalence has not been at the forefront of the political, personal, social, etc. sphere in a long while. Headlines are becoming more trigger inducing and there has been an uproar of hate crimes across the nation. While both sides have contributed to the hatefulness, the way that the hate is manifested is more rampant among supporters of Trump. This is seen through the way that the hate crime rate has gone up since November 8th. In more ways than one Trump’s election into office has given these people that have hate in them a pass, of sorts, to act on that hate and victimize others.
Hate Crime in the United States of America THESIS: In this research paper, information will be given on hate crime in the United States of America. It’s best to know about these types of crimes before it’s too late because it’s rarely reported or spoken about but does occur on regular bases. Hate crime didn't come about until the early 1980's. It's sad how these types of crimes still occur so many years later; there are innocent people who are attacked simply because of their race, religion or sexual orientation. Based on the articles, hate crime in the USA is very common and the chances to be a victim are high enough. Hate crimes are ignorant and pointless, they need to be stopped.Done to many different people in many different
Critical preface: I choose to explore the hate crime problem in society. The reason I choose this topic is because hate crime is a brutal act against people, property, or society because of the group to which they are members or associate with. The hate crime is one of the most notorious crimes which leads to violent acts causing death and disaster. We need to stop these horrible acts and the solution would be to seek advice from an anti-hate organization which help us reduce hate crimes and factual information can then be spread to the society.
Throughout the country the people have seen a variety of problems with the justice system and how nothing is being done to fix the problems. For instance,The amount of hate crimes against foreign U.S citizens is at an all time high, there are too many innocent minorities are being killed by law enforcement, and the level of police abuse is at a record high. These crimes are causing major problems for the society and its people. The problems that have occurred within the crime and justice system are intolerable and the democrats are going to help by attempting to fix these problems to the best of their ability.
The death of Matt Shepard produced a profound impact on the community of Laramie and the entire state. This tragedy provoked numerous discussions and drew the attention of the public to the position of gay and lesbian community at large and individual representatives of the homosexual community in particular. At the same time, the general public was basically concerned on the death of Matt Shepard rather than on the problem of the homosexual community of Laramie. In such a situation, Beth Loffreda attempted to draw the attention of the public to this problem at large. In her book “Losing Matt Shepard”, she does not focus entirely on the death of Matt Shepard and its circumstances, but she rather to lay emphasis on the problem which remained practically unnoticed by mass media and the general public, the problem of hate and intolerance in regard to homosexuals and their position in the local community.
“The Laramie Project” is a production that was created to addressed the cruel murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard who lived in a small town of Laramie, Wyoming. Due to this critical situation that occurred, the state of Wyoming suffered from major judgements from other states in the U.S and countries around the world. Laramie, had demonstrated stereotypical actions and discrimination towards the gay community, due to the people who had killed Matthew being homophobic. When the incident occur in 1998, the legislative had not introduced the end to anti- discrimination for the society, but is now introduced this year, 2017(King, 2017). Sexual prejudice includes stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination based on ones’ sexual identity or behavior, in which this term can relate to what occurred in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming (Blaine, pg. 163).
A popular question asked is, “why do these hate crimes occur?” According to Gordon Allport’s trait theory, all people have certain traits, or characteristic ways of behaving. Individuals have certain characteristic that determines their behaviours and attitude regardless of the situation. These attackers may have the trait “psychoticism,” which is a personality pattern that represents aggressiveness. Another psychologist, Hans Eysenck believed that blood relatives of psychotics shows high levels of this trait, which suggests there may be a genetic link to the trait. It is possible that the attacker grew up having hate against those who are different race and religion which made him believe the same. Allport also came up with the theory of
In light of the recent election putting a man with questionable morality in the powerful seat of President, many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community are fearful of the repercussions this will cause. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “867 cases of hateful harassment or intimidation [were reported] in the United States in the 10 days after the November 8 election”, and swastikas adorned people’s cars and homes in angry graffiti, accompanying words such as “white power” and “fag”, “he she” and “die” (Yan). While the American legal system has come a long way in granting the homosexual community their natural rights, the present climate gives many a fear that things will go back to the way they were before, with homosexuals being oppressed and persecuted for simply loving who they love.
Looking back throughout history at the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals, it isn’t hard to see that we have made the majority of our strides in the past 10 years. As a society we have decided the time is now to put an end to the lack of rights for people of different sexual orientations. Accepting LGBT individuals and providing them the same rights and protections as all other Americans makes us a more united, respectable Country. Everyone deserves equal treatment and opportunities regardless of what their sexual orientation may be.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, also known as LGBT population have experienced a great deal of oppression worldwide. These particular individuals undergo discrimination from society, whether for reasons of ignorance, fear or intolerance, this population faces challenges in multiple areas of social justice sexual. Although the LGBT culture has made some strides in the areas of state and federal legislation, there is still a wide range of criminalization that takes place within our culture. Understanding the LGBT community and the history of their oppression may be the first step in becoming culturally competent. For many years this culture was denied their basic constitutional rights that were afforded to their equal heterosexual peers. Basic rights such as, adoption and marriage were uncommon to this culture until the 20th century.