When I was home in the DC area for winter break, I met up with a good friend who had recently moved there from Indiana.  The first thing he told me was that a professor in his department had been murdered.  "Whoa, that's crazy!" I said, not sure what else to say, and then turning back to look at the books in the "lesbian interest" section of the queer bookstore we were browsing.  I had no idea how tragic the story really was, nor that it would quickly become national (to some degree, even international) news.  On December 28th, Indiana University Professor Don Belton was stabbed to death by Michael J. Griffin.  Griffin used a 10-inch-long knife to stab Belton five to six times, later telling police that he had done so because Belton had sexually assaulted him twice and showed no remorse.  Belton's department, IU Department of English, has expressed their

Michelle Chen, among a few others, wrote recently about the opposition among LGBT and queer people, particularly those of color, to the further expansion of US hate crimes laws: http://www.racewire.org/archives/2009/08/do_unto_others_the_moral_slope.html.  To quickly summarize their argument… given the unequal application of the law, namely the racial inequality in the criminal justice and legal systems, why should we further contribute to the power the law has in terms of incarceration.  Furthermore, given our increasing awareness of the physical, emotional, and sexual violence that transgender people face in prisons, why would we want to put more transphobic in prison for longer periods of time.  Just for clarity sake, I should note that the recent discussion in Congress is about the Matthew Shepard act, which would expand federal hate crime laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

Chen et al.’s argument is not to be taken lightly.  Like with...

Another GLSEN Day of Silence has come and gone. I went to work on Friday morning at the University Counseling Center. I had warned my supervisor that I was not going to talk that day. Fortunately, I wasn't seeing clients!

I was especially moved to participate this year following Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover's suicide. You can read more about his tragic death on the Advocate web site - there is an interview with his mother. Carl would have turned 12 on Friday, April 17! But, he had been subjected to ridicule and harassment from fellow students at his middle school since the beginning of the year. School administrators turned a deaf ear - and chose not to intervene on Carl's behalf.

I am angry! While I believe in self-determinism, and the right to commit suicide, Carl's death was preventable. No one should be tormented in the ways that Carl was - to the point where he turned the hatred on himself and took his own life.

Please stand up for those who are silenced. We supposdely live in a free country - but it hardly seems free when people are allowed to harass others. This must stop!