Moni's DC Tourist And Activism Day

One of the things about me and my trips to Washington DC is that I'm only here sometimes for three tightly scheduled days to lobby with little or no time to just play tourist.  

Sometimes it's just a matter of hours, like the 2007 trip to DC in which Polar and I drove 10 hours from Louisville to protest the HRC dinner and then headed back after the protest was done

On this trip for Out on the Hill I built some time into it to do just that and my opportunity to do so came yesterday.   

Jeri and I got out of the house and rolled over to the just opened MLK  Jr. Memorial.  Was a bear parking her car because the National Book Festival was this weekend on the Mall so we had to drive around for a bit before we found a parking space near L'Enfant Plaza.  The clouds were looking dark and ominous at first but they parted to allow the sun to shine as we walked over to it.

But it was worth it.  Jeri and I took some pictures of the monument and of me next to my fave MLK quotes that were on the Inscription Walls.

We then headed over to the nearby National Holocaust Memorial Museum  where we spent two hours until the museum closed at 5 PM EDT.    We then headed over to Dupont Circle for the 7 PM candlelight vigil and march to remember Gaurav Gopalan, a South Indian gay man who was dressed in women's clothing when he was killed in his Columbia Heights neighborhood two blocks from where he lived.on September 10. 

The initial MPD police report presumed Gopalan was a Latina since the body was found with no ID.   Nevertheless, Jeri and Earline Budd were there to rep the DC trans community, and my presence there meant the national trans community was represented as well.   I was there simply to pay my respects and let the local activists handle their business.

I got to meet the Washington Blade's Lou Chibbaro, more DC activists and local politicians.  After Earline spoke at the vigil, conducted a few interviews with reporters including Patricia from Georgetown's student newspaper, we took 'Number Four' home.   We rolled past the landmark Ben's Chili Bowl enroute to her place and after I admitted I've been to DC five times and haven't been there yet, promised her on my next DC trip I'd rectify that omission as we both waxed poetic about Five Guys.

Yeah, have a feeling it may not take me two years to return to DC again.   But I definitely have to do the tourist thing more often.  
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When Is A Hate Crime NOT A Hate Crime?

One of the things I get tired of hearing is that full of caca right wing talking point that 'all crimes are hate crimes', or hearing from non persons of color doubts about the effectiveness of hate crimes laws.

That is until one happens to somebody they know, is part of their ethnic group, or is part of their marginalized group a la Chrissy Lee Polis or Matthew Shepard.

Thanks to Mercedes and a post about this case at her blog, I'm following what is happening in Halifax, NS with Elle Noir.    Last month two people posing as police officers knocked on her door.  She began to open it in response to their claim they were officers, but when she noted that one of the two men was wearing a red bandanna and carrying a gun attempted to slam it shut with her roommate's help.   The perps fired multiple shots through the door with one of them striking her in the right arm before they ran off.

Elle believes it was a hate crime.    The Halifax po-po's don't. 

"They were yelling, 'Tranny faggot, open the door, let us in, let us in,' which leads me to believe they knew who I was. I'm in a second-floor apartment. You know, you have to have a security key to get into the building.   "Obviously it was 100 per cent hatred."

Like Mercedes and Elle, I'm not buying what the Halifax po-po's are selling either since many police officers tend to be conservafools who believe the right wing hype for starters.  I am well aware of the fact that Officer Friendly isn't exactly friendly at times to people of color, and that includes transpeople of color as well.  

We transpeople already have less than cordial relations with them as Amnesty International has documented due to the anti-trans attitudes exacerbated by the hypermacho culture embedded in many police departments.

But back to discussing hate crimes.  

Hate crimes are ones that also send a message to the targeted group irregardless of where they physically live.  The 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was an example of that.  The killing of Dr. James Tiller was designed to intimidate and dissuade any medical professional across the United States who was considering providing abortion services.

The James Byrd dragging death happened over 110 miles away from me in Jasper, TX on June 7, 1998, but the chilling effect of that brutal killing was felt and talked about not only in the African-American communities of Houston and Dallas, but by African-Americans across the USA

In conversations with my Canadian homegirl, she has told me the Byrd attack was discussed in the African descended community of Toronto and amongst other African descended Canadians.


Renee has also talked about how the December 6, 1989 Ecole Polytechnique mass slaying in Montreal affected and continues to affect her and other Canadian women and girls who grew up during that time. .

One of the excuses I hear about opposition to hate crimes laws is that it privileges some bodies over others. 

Um hello, our legal system already privileges some bodies over others. If you attempt to kill the POTUS, the Prime Minister, a congressmember, an MP, a federal judge, any state or provincial politicians, or a police officer, you will get enhanced criminal penalties for attempting to do so.

Ask Jared Loughner about that.

I also agree that the Bill C-389 passage and the Conservatives using fear tactics to attempt to kill it sowed the seeds that probably led to this and sadly future attacks on Canadian transpeople.  Some of those will unfortunately succeed and add more names to the Remembering our Dead list.

Mercedes is correct in stating that someone shouting a transphobic slur at you is not a hate crime.  But if that transphobic slur is followed up by violent action such as a beatdown, weapons being fired at you, someone trying to hit you with a bat or bottle, attempts to stab you with a knife, or attempts to kill you, it most definitely is a hate crime.  

But the bottom line to me is as long as you have people hating others, or willing to in the name of hating other human beings kill those people they dislike in order to send a message to the group they hate, in order to defend the human rights of the marginalized group, hate crimes laws will be a necessary part of the civil rights toolbox.

A 'Crumb' Turns One: Byrd-Shepard Hate Crimes Act Anniversary

President Obama's GL haters slime any legislation or policy that isn't related to same gender marraige, DADT or DOMA repeal as 'crumbs'.

Today is the one year anniversary of one of those 'crumbs', the signing into law of one of the trans community's legislative Holy Grails, the Byrd-Shepard Hate Crimes Act.

Just to recap what it is, the Byrd-Shepard Hate Crimes Act is an expansion of the 1969 US federal hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by a victims actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.   The law also directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation to track hate crime statistics.

The Byrd-Shepard Hate Crimes Act

• removes the prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally-protected activity, like voting or going to school.
• gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue.
• provides $5 million per year in funding for fiscal years 2010 through 2012 to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes;
• requires the FBI to track statistics on hate crimes against trans people as it does with other affected groups. 

This is what the president had to say about it one year ago.

But our legislative work is not finished.   We still need to pass an inclusive ENDA and an inclusive SNDA.
Here's hoping that finally happens and gets signed into law as soon as possible.

One Suspect in Victoria C. White Case Turns Himself In

Seems like I was just posting the update in this case a few hours ago.

Now comes word in an e-mail from Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino Saturday that one of the two suspects wanted in the September 12 death of Victoria Carmen White has turned himself in.. 

Accompanied by an attorney, Marquise Foster surrendered to authorities at approximately 8 p.m. EDT Saturday.  He is being charged with murder and bail has been set at $1 million.

The po-po's are still searching for 23 year old Alrashim Chambers of Newark, the other suspect in this case.

I'd also like to remind you peeps in the area that there is a $2000 reward being offered by Garden State Equality for any information that results in the expeditious apprehension of Chambers

According to Garden State Equality legal counsel Leslie Farber, the reward being offered is NOT dependent on whether or not Victoria's murder is classified as a hate crime.  .


If you have questions or info that will lead to the arrest of the remaining suspect, please contact Leslie Farber
The E-Mail: contact is Leslie.Farber@verizon.net or you can phone Leslie at  (973) 509-8500 or (201) 390-6303.

One down, one to go.