Nevertheless, the bill's liberal multiculturalist telos was not accepted unanimously, and a handful of queer and trans activists and organizations publicly challenged it (e.g., SRLP et al., 2009 Bassichis et al., 2011 Nair, 2009a, Queer Kids Against Gay Marriage, 2009). For the first time, and departing from previous lobbying and legislating strategies to pass 'LGBs' as fully human by sacrificing the 'T' (Spade, n.d.), the list of populations that shall live, and whose deaths shall be mourned and punished, thus also includes transgender people. The bill extends older hate crime protections on the basis of race and ethnicity to sexual orientation, disability, and gender identity. PASSAGE OF WHAT HAS, MAYBE TELLINGLY, BECOME KNOWN AS THE MATTHEW Shepard Act, (1) has been celebrated as an important milestone in the quest for sexual citizenship and gender recognition.

Hate Prevention Act, cited by Dunning, 2009).

Every year, the FBI reports a number of so-called 'anti-heterosexual' hate crimes-incidents where members of the LGBT community have been prosecuted for supposedly targeting straight people with criminal acts (SRLP et al., 2009).Īfter more than a decade of opposition we passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are (President Obama, before signing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. The second-largest category of race-based hate crimes tracked by the FBI is crimes committed against white people. Compared to white men, Black men are disproportionately arrested for race-based hate crimes.

Marvellous Grounds by Jin Haritaworn