Sue 'Em

In the wake of the Tucson massacre, it's time to hit upon a new strategy in terms of curbing right wing hate speech and violence aimed at transgender people

Sue 'em.

When the battle was happening over the Byrd-Shepard Hate Crimes Bill in 2009, Bigot Harry Jackson and his merry group of drum majors for injustice in the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition, their masters in the Traditional Values Coalition and other right-wing fundie groups came up with the lie that the bill would 'muzzle our pulpits'.   

But what they were really worried about was the potential of an adverse (for them) legal result and the impact it would have on their money grubbing greed is good for them 'ministries'

And they have good reason to fear a successful lawsuit based on what happened in these two legal cases.     

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In the wake of a 1981 Mobile,.AL trial n which an African-American defendant was charged with the murder of a white policeman and ended with a hung jury, several Klan members decided they would kill a Black man in retaliation.   

On Saturday March 21, 1981 they discovered nineteen year old Michael Donald walking home alone, forced him into a car and subsequently lynched him.   

That act led to a series of cases that not only led to the conviction of the perpetrators in 1983, but a 1987 civil suit filed by his mother Beulah Donald and the Southern Poverty Law Center's Morris Dees that resulted in a $7 million judgment that destroyed the Tuscaloosa, AL based United Klans of America

This was the Klan group responsible for many of the well known atrocities of the 60's Civil Rights era.  Their terroristic resume included beating down the Freedom Riders in the Birmingham bus terminal in 1961, bombing Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 and  murdering civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo in 1965.

The sue 'em strategy also shut down the White Aryan Resistance group as well.

It was bankrupted as the result of a civil lawsuit centered on its involvement in the 1988 violent murder of Ethiopian college student Mulugeta Seraw by racist skinheads in Portland, OR.    

Morris Dees and the SPLC filed a civil suit against Metzger, arguing that WAR influenced Seraw's killers by encouraging their group East Side White Pride to commit violence.

WAR national vice president Dave Mazzella testified during the trial how the Metzgers instructed WAR members to commit violence against minorities, which resulted in Tom and John Metzger being found civilly liable under the doctrine of vicarious liability.    In other words, a person can be held liable for a tort committed by a subordinate or other person taking instructions.

The jury also returned the largest civil verdict in Oregon history at the time—$12.5 million—against Metzger and WAR. The Metzgers' house was seized, and most of WAR's profits go to paying off the judgment.

So with these two cases as major examples, what I’m proposing is that the next time a transgender hate crime occurs, we employ this strategy to sue the senior pastor of the nearest megachurch to the scene of the crime that has a history of spewing transphobia/homophobia..     

I would also include suing any right wing media outlet or talk show host that spews hatred on the airwaves on a regular basis as well.

If the suit is successful, depending on the damage award, it will either bankrupt that church or media outlet, force it to disband or pay a sizable amount of its earnings to satisfying the judgment against it.   It will also send the message that open TBLG hatred or hate speech period will cost you and have a chilling effect on other megachurches and right wing organizations involved in similar hate speech.

Individuals and churches have every right under the Constitution to say and preach whatever message they want, even if it is distasteful to us.   But when those messages cross the line and incite someone to murder another human being, they not only need to be called on it, but if the hate sermon or speech results in injury or death to another person, be severely punished for it as well.  

And if they have to pay a severe financial penalty to the victim’s family for their hate speech, then so much the better.