Handing Hate a Microphone

An article appeared in this week's Newsweek about the rise of hate speech in the immigration debate has come with a rise in hate crimes. The National Council of La Raza is now imploring media outlets to "stop handing hate a microphone." I wrote to Newsweek wondering why this hasn't been said about gays in the 10 years since Matthew Sheperd's murder in spite of the many gay organizations making this point. Here's my letter:

I am pleased to see your article When Hate Becomes Hurt in the March 10 edition. I am glad the article made strong links between the rise of the use of hate language -- words such as "invaders" and "aliens" -- in the immigration debate and the increased incidence of hate crimes. It is good to see the National Council of La Raza asking media outlets to "stop handing hate a microphone." But I'm annoyed with what isn't in this article and hasn't been featured in the news. Lawrence King of Oxnard, California was killed last month because of an ongoing high level of hate language against gays. Gay organizations have been making the connection between hate speech and hate crimes since before Matthew Shepard's death a decade ago. Why are we only now talking about the links and asking to stop handing hate a microphone?

To be fair to Newsweek, you have been a good ally to gays over the last several decades and I appreciate your efforts. It was through one of your straightforward, matter-of-fact articles about gays in the early 1980s that I realized I was gay.