Alas, it is somewhat expected that hate crimes against gays have increased since the campaign to pass the Calif. marriage ban. Expected because during the campaign some people proposed creating explicit ads that link the hate talk of the campaign to injuries and deaths of gays. Those ideas were dismissed as "scare tactics."
In Santa Clara County, Calif. hate crimes against gays made up 15% of all hate crimes in 2007. In 2008 that jumped to 56%. Hate crimes follow headlines and controversies of the day. Those most likely to use violence, after messages that demonize a segment of the population, won't confine their actions to the ballot box. It was the $42 million campaign that stirred up these crimes, not the vote against us (though one can imagine if the vote went our way there would be fewer such crimes.
No doubt there are some Fundies hoping this threat of crimes with every rights campaign will keep gays from risking it again. Fight for your rights and we'll incite the crazies to bash your heads in.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment