An LGBT movement takes shape

[dcsmart]

AS ATTACKS on the Seattle lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have escalated, young activists have begun making news with their energy and fresh ideas.

With a renewed sense of outrage and urgency, the possibility exists for the creation of a sizable grassroots organization of activists organizing around a range of issues affecting the LGBT community. Large questions remain, however, about the type of struggle that will most effectively combat homophobia in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8, California's anti-same sex marriage law.

Twenty-one-year-old Kyler Powell--a gay Mormon--had never organized or even attended a protest before spearheading the anti-Prop 8 march in Seattle. Due largely to Facebook and word of mouth, it drew nearly 10,000. The turnout was a testament not just to the fierce opposition to the second-class citizenship of gays and lesbians, but to the willingness of many outside the gay community to take action.

Unfortunately the event program itself--controlled by the Democratic Party-led Equal Rights Washington--silenced any militant response, refusing to address issues of homophobia because it might cause speakers, many of who were Democratic state and local officials, to think twice about appearing. And despite the large attendance, no grassroots organizing took place; instead, the crowd was told to wait on any action until the following March, for a lobbying day.

Less than one month later, the University of Washington's newspaper, the Daily, published a fiercely homophobic editorial in support of Prop 8, including a graphic of a man and a sheep. The author compared homosexuality to polygamy, incest and bestiality, and called it "a problem that needs to be dealt with."

In response, freshman Kyle Rapinian and friends organized a rally on the final day of classes, with hundreds of students gathering as a result of the Facebook group "Students for a Hate Free Daily." As with the previous demonstration, the outrage that drew these numbers was dampened by the prevailing ideas of today's LGBT movement. One school official, for example, defended the right to hate speech to mixed responses from the crowd.

Frustrated with the inability to express their outrage (words like "outrage" and hate were stricken from all official literature in favor of more "positive" message), radical activists began to organize outside the mainstream channels. Chanan Suarez Diaz, president of the Seattle Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against War, and Eli Steffen, an activist working in youth empowerment through the arts, put out a call for interested people to join the struggle against homophobia.

The first meeting brought together both new and more experienced activists who began to organize for a local demonstration as part of the National Call to Action to Repeal DOMA on January 10. In the weeks that followed, the group did explicit outreach to communities generally kept from the stage at local protests, including youth, transgender people, drag queens, and queers of color. By the time of the January 10 protest, the group included veterans, immigrants, straight people new to LGBT activism, and transgender people.

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ALL OF this has occurred against the backdrop of an alarming rise in hate crimes, in particular against LGBT people.

The Seattle Police Department has come under increased criticism for underreporting hate crimes against LGBT people, including four men who attacked two men, one in drag, calling them "faggots." The Seattle Times reported last summer that from July to November 2006, police had no record of hate crimes. But auditors uncovered six reports that had not been forwarded to the Bias Crimes Coordinator (a detective who investigates and logs such reports in a database) and think there are more to be found.

The FBI reports that the number of hate crimes in Washington state increased from 177 in 2006 to 195 in 2007, the last year for which statistics are available. Thirty-nine victims were targeted because of their real or perceived sexual orientation in 2007.

In the days leading up to the DOMA protest, the attacks on the LGBT community took a shocking turn when an anonymous letter was sent to 11 gay and lesbian bars and the alternative newspaper The Stranger in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood threatening patrons. All received the identical warning: "I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin with which I will indiscriminately target at least five of your clients."

According to the Centers for Disease Control, ricin poisoning can produce vomiting and diarrhea, hallucinations, seizures, and blood in the urine and can be fatal. The Seattle Police Department and the FBI are currently investigating.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/23/lgbt-movement-takes-shape

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. This is why organizations like the Pink Pistols are so important

[terisan]

2. Good for them, Equality can't wait.

[ThomCat]

3. We need more of the young kids getting radical.

I'd love to see them moving outside of established channels and building their own. Let's see them break the rules now the way we used to break the rules in the 80s!