Blowing the Whistle on Violence

by Benji Holmann for the San Francisco Spectrum

Beautiful Lips On Whistles (BLOW) is spreading ideas of caution this election season since homophobia and violence are both on the rise. Connie Champagne from Community United Against Violence has often been quoted, “With increased visibility there is an increase in violence.” The BLOW Project was started by San Francisco activists to promote annual hate-crimes awareness but this election cycle has been so homophobic that a special election edition to educate about hate-crimes was created.

“Our current president, George W. Bush has called for a constitutional amendment to same-sex marriage that has firmly put queers of all backgrounds on high alert”, reads a statement from the group. The proposed amendment to ban gay marriage in the Constitution failed in both the House and the Senate because a sizable number of Republicans, for various reasons, opposed the measure. “While it’s a positive thing to have issues important to our communities presented – it’s questionable if having the most powerful office in the world do so in a negative way. This has brought the predictable result of all the “square states”, Midwesterners and the Deep South looking at headlines about queer marriage rather than issues of Bush’s war or the anemic economy, which are mainstays of presidential elections.” The BLOW Project hopes that no one would be attacked because of real or perceived queerness but there seems no hope for things to calm down before the election.

According to www.Tolerance.org - an online destination for dismantling bigotry and valuing diversity - queer marriage has been positioned by George W. as a political wedge. Ken Sherrill, professor of political science at Hunter College of the City University of New York calls the anti-gay rhetoric a form of "political calculus," to energize the estimated 4 million conservative evangelicals who didn't vote in the 2000 elections. The hate has seeped into state and local elections as well, "Once the president does it, that legitimizes it for everyone else," Sherrill said. "Not since the days of Strom Thurmond have we heard such explicit appeals based on denying some citizens the rights of others."

Earlier this month the Republican leadership killed amendments to federal hate crime laws that were contained in a massive defense department bill that would have protected gays and lesbians. "It's reprehensible that the GOP House leadership demanded the removal" of the hate crimes language, stated Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy.

The amendments would have added real or perceived sexual orientation, gender and disability to federal hate crime laws, thus allowing the federal government the ability to provide assistance for the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes based on these categories. The Human Rights Campaign decried the removal of the protections, which would have increased sentences for crimes motivated by hate against gays and lesbians. "It's just five days away from the anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death and another year will go by without adequate hate crimes protections. That's shameful. Even worse are the political motives behind it. Instead of promoting hate crimes protections, the President is promoting discrimination. Voters will remember that on November 2nd" said HRC President Cheryl Jacques.

The BLOW project reminds folks that although the volume of hate crimes has been on the decline the incidents are more violent. Suggestions are to stay in well-lighted areas when outside, keep drugging and drinking in check when traveling alone and being aware of your surroundings. “Between Halloween and George Bush this is a very spooky time so extra caution – even a “pink alert” makes sense,” advises the group.

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