The problem with statistics is that they are so dry that it is difficult to generate much reaction with them. Witness yesterday's The Violence Numbers.
The numbers need faces. They need lives attached to them.
That's what I am attempting to do here. There were 30 Americans murdered last year in connection with hatred of GLBT people. Not all of them were GLBT themselves. Some were merely thought to be.
But they deserve to be remembered as something other than numbers.
There is no way I could do justice to all 30 in one diary, so I'm doing 10 at a time...both in the interest in shortening the individual diaries and in the interest of maintaining my sanity.
January 2 -- Murray Seidman, Lansdowne, PA
John Joe Thomas met Murray Seidman when he was a patient at the psychiatric hospital where Seidman worked. They became "friends"…as much as that is possible, According to Seidman's brother, Murray had the mental capacity of a second grader. Somehow Thomas manipulated Seidman into appointing Thomas executor of his estate.
Then Thomas beat Seidman to death with a sock full of rocks at Seidman's home. After spending several days disposing of his bloody evidence, Thomas returned to Seidman's home on January 12 and "discovered the body". When police arrived, they found Thomas crying in a hallway.
By way of explanation Thomas claimed that Seidman made sexual advances toward him, so he stoned Seidman in keeping with the teachings of the Old Testament after he received a message in answer to his prayers telling him he must end Seidman's life.
Seidman's brother disputes that Seidman was gay or that the murder was a gay bashing. Lenny Seidman claims that Murray was asexual and that the murder was all about the money.
Murray was very empathetic and very social with all people. He made contact with people on the simplest levels and even more than the simplest level.
--Lenny Seidman
There is religious commentary on the case here.
January 12 -- Krissy Bates, Minneapolis, MN
In November of the year Arnold Waukazo waived his right to a trial by jury and asked the judge to reduce the charges from first degree, premeditated murder to manslaughter, claiming that the killing happened in self-defense and the "heat of passion".
This is cold blooded murder. This was a premeditated planned committed action… he killed her and left her to die.
--Mike Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, in his summation
According to testimony Bates had recently begun dating Waukazo and told friends she was in love with him. But on January 6 they had an argument and Waukazo strangled Bates to unconsciousness. When she moved, he picked up a small knife and stabbed her multiple times. He then left the apartment, where the body was found 5 days later by the apartment manager.
Regardless of whether the violence that affects our community comes at the hands of an intimate partner or a total stranger, it’s a reminder that safety is one of the primary concerns of LGBT people Our public policy work is in no small part guided by our commitment to creating a Minnesota where LGBT people are valued members of families and communities where others would not think of compromising their safety.
--Monica Meyer, OutFront Minnesota
The medical examiner in the case mis-gendered her and identified her by her birth name. The media sought to justify the murder by portraying her as a sex worker since she advertised her services as a massage therapist.
January 15 -- Catherine De Pedro Vélez, Arroyo, PR
As far as I can tell from translating various sources, Catherine DePedro Velez, 19, who was called Spark (on the right in the photo to the left), was out for a stroll on the Arroyo boardwalk with her girlfriend when the girlfriend's abusive husband of 6 years, Jonathan Navarro Haddock, stabbed her in the back with a kitchen knife after Velez was first attacked by Haddock's mother and brothers. Unless I misunderstand and it was Velez's ex-hubby. Translations often mix-up the referents.
February 13 -- Tyra Trent, Baltimore, MD
Tyra's body was found in the basement of an abandoned house in Northwest Baltimore. She had been strangled. Tyra was 25 and was working to obtain her GED. She had been missing for two weeks at the time her body was discovered.
Relatives were gathered at the Trent family home Tuesday night, where they remembered Trent as a vibrant person who liked to dance, loved animals and loved to style hair. She worked with people with disabilities, they said.
According to the news media, she worked as a prostitute.
There was
a vigil on March 4.
February 26 -- Robert Jenkins, Staten Island, NY
Robert Jenkins, 68, was a veteran of 20 years in the Marines and a community role model in the neighborhood of west Brighton. He was a pioneer black draftsman and the grandfather of 11 children. After his retirement from the Marines, he worked as Nassau Smelting and Refining Company as a draftsman and enlisted in is the US Army National Guard, where he was promoted as high as staff sergeant as a helicopter maintenance technician.
Paca, as one grandson named him, apparently had a longtime friend named Ronald Jones that he liked to drink with. The 55 year-old Jones claimed that during a night of drinking, Jenkins made "homosexual advances" on Jones. Instead of declining, Jones flew into a gay rage and beat and strangled Jenkins.
March 8 -- Marcal Tye, Forrest CIty, AR
Marcal Tye was killed by a single gunshot to the head. But that apparently didn't make Tye dead enough, so her body was then run over. The body was then tied to the back of a vehicle and dragged several hundred feet.
Known to be a transwoman in her local community, Marcal was apparently on her way home at the time of the murder. Arkansas does not have a hate crime statute. The FBI is investigating.
March 14 -- Anthony Callao, Queens, NY
Anthony Callao wasn't gay. He just had some gay friends. His friends had a party in Woodhaven, Queens, NY and he attended. Five people crashed the party and began yelling anti-gay slurs and one of them scrawled anti-gay slurs on a wall. Callao and others ran from the scene. But the five suspects chased Anthony, an Ecuadorean immigrant who had just graduated from high school, and when they caught up with him, they beat him with a lead pipe. He was comatose when he arrived at Jamaica Hospital and was taken off life support two days later.
April 18 -- Norma Hurtado, Austin, TX
Jose Alfonso Aviles, 45, became enraged because his 18 year-old daughter was in a relationship with a 24 year-old woman. So he went to the house where Norma Hurtado lived with her mother and shot them both dead. Aviles had previously sent text messages to Hurtado threatening to kill her and her mother. Aviles had been drinking before the incident. Neighbors described the Aviles family as "peaceful people".
April 27 -- Ezequiel Crespo Hernández, Camuy, PR
Ezequiel Crespo Hernández was found on public beach in Camuy, apparently strangled by a belt. Joel Perez Hernandez allegedly killed Crespo after a "dispute over sexual favors".
Every time a religious or political leader speaks language of contempt for gay people, disturbed people are compelled to act on their prejudice and commit violence against us. To take into account religious and political that his words have a permissive effect of people to act on their prejudice against sexual orientation or gender identity of human beings. And that makes them as responsible for his rhetoric of hate and intolerance, violence plaguing the LGBT communities.
Enough.
--Human Rights Activist Pedro Julio Serrano
June 4 -- Alejandro Torres Torres, Ponce PR
Alejandro Torres Torres was stabbed to death in Ponce. No other information is available.
