Amnesty International reports that 38 years after the Stonewall Riots, the LGBT community remains the target of abuse and violence by U.S. police.
How much of this violence is inspired by irresponsible and ignorant elected officials, such as Rep. Debra Maggart (R) - leader and champion of bigotry - is a question that should be the subject of a soul-wrenching national debate.
When you have leaders who promote the view that a minority group is responsible for the sexual abuse of children, why should anyone be surprised by violence against that minority group?
Oh, but I forgot, the important question of the day is the abuse and violence inflicted upon potential life. If only women would stop "killing babies" via abortions and birth control (and you too, God, please stop "killing babies" via violent miscarriages!), we could finally have our picture perfect rightwing Culture of Life.
Nevermind that real live babies die all the time in this damn country because morally superior "pro life" rightwingers are too selfish and stingy to sign on to universal healthcare. The subject of the sanctity of potential life is just one more way for delusional rightwing "pro life" slackards and bigots, such as Rep. Debra Maggart, to avoid any and all responsibility for this world of violence and misery that they are so damn good at making worse.
While the world of the living continues to fall apart, you just keep on singing your goddamn morally superior songs about the sanctity of potential life. Kid yourselves all you want, but in the end it is YOU who are responsible for a larger than life share of the violence and misery of the living.
The next time a gay person is beaten to death, I'm thinking of you Rep. Maggart!
An excerpt from Amnesty International follows. Since it involves violence inflicted upon the living, it will not be of interest to Rep. Maggart or the rest of you delusional "pro life" rightwing crusaders for the sanctity of potential life.
Stonewalled: Police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the US:
In a new report titled Stonewalled: Police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the US, Amnesty International (AI) documents serious patterns of police misconduct and brutality—including abuses that amount to torture and ill-treatment—against LGBT individuals. Profiling of LGBT individuals as criminal; selective enforcement of laws; sexual, physical and verbal abuse; inappropriate searches and mistreatment in detention remain commonplace, as does a lack of accountability for perpetrators.
The report also examines how US authorities are in breach of their international human rights obligations by failing to take adequate measures to prevent or punish crimes committed against LGBT people. Case histories documented in the report demonstrate failure to respond or inadequate responses by the police to hate crimes and violence targeting LGBT people, as well as situations of domestic violence that involve LGBT people.
The report’s findings strongly indicate that police abuse and the forms it takes often are specific to different aspects of the victim’s identity. Stonewalled highlights the treatment of LGBT individuals by the police within the larger framework of identity-based discrimination, and demonstrates how the interplay between different forms of discrimination—such as racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia—create the conditions in which human rights abuses are perpetuated. The report shows that within the LGBT community, transgender individuals, people of color, youth, immigrant and homeless individuals, and sex workers experience a heightened risk of police abuse and misconduct.
AI’s findings suggest that police tend to target individuals who do not conform to gender stereotypes that dictate “appropriate” masculine and feminine behavior. Transgender people in particular experience some of the most egregious cases of police brutality. AI heard reports of transgender individuals being subjected by police to discriminatory profiling as sex workers; “policing” of transgender individuals bathroom use; sexual, verbal and physical abuse; inappropriate and illegal searches to determine a transgender individual’s “true” sex; and a failure to protect transgender individuals from abuse while in detention.
Read the whole thing
Hat tip to Pseudo-Adrienne at Liberal-Feminist Bias
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