I think hate crimes laws are a good thing. Not because I want to see kids tried as adults. Nor do I want longer prison sentences or larger prison populations. Laws have a normative effect. Hate crime laws emphasize that you don’t just get a wink and a nod when you harm a dissempowered minority. The message they send is not “we’re going to lock you up a long time” but rather, “you know, it’s really not ok for you to do that.”

Hate crimes laws are not enough, of course. Schools and teachers need to enforce a policy of respect for minority students. Newspapers like the Post need to get their heads out of their fucking asses. The way this happens is activism. Writing letters to the paper. Blogging about it. Making a fuss. Standing up and demanding rights. This blog post is part of the solution. But so are hate crimes laws. And so is ENDA. It’s a small part of a bigger puzzle.

No one is safe these days, transgender or regular-gendered.

@richard: See, that’s the kind of legislation I’m down for: civil rights legislation, employment and housing protections - laws that actually protect trans and queer people in their everyday lives and enforce the idea that we are as worthy of respect and rights as everyone else, rather than laws that only help us when we’ve been violently victimized.

@Billy: thank you so much for that response to Christian. Completely right on.

@Jon: thank you! And again, word on HRC. They’re certainly not part of my community.

I work in the Court systems, and I have a lot less fear of the big bad cops and DA offices as you seem to advocate.

Well, I’m glad that you have the privilege of a happy and healthy relationship with the police and the judicial system. Many people don’t have that privilege. My own experiences with the cops involve being wrongfully jailed for days during the RNC, getting pepper sprayed in the face, and watching friends be wrongfully and violently arrested. (And before you say these things were probably deserved, let me assure you that all charges were thrown out in all of the aforementioned arrests.)

I don’t see what Sanesha Stewart’s alleged and unsubstantiated sex work has to do with anything at all. What are you trying to say? That she deserved to be killed? That she’s somehow culpable in her own death? That she’s somehow less worthy of respect and remembrance because of some unfounded claims that she was a prostitute? Firstly, being a sex worker does not make anyone any less human or less deserving of respect and safety and freedom from violence. Secondly, since no actual evidence has been given of Sanesha having been a sex worker, you’re just parroting a pervasive stereotype of trans women, especially trans women of color.

@Billy - I agree, the media coverage of Lawrence King’s murder has been strange and non-specific. I do wonder if part of that is because the victim is a child; sometimes that causes the media to back off a bit, which is not such a bad thing. Even though some details do seem missing, it would also feel kinda gross and opportunistic to see the media put out details of Lawrence’s life out there, or even of McInerny. I think there’s a place for the sort of investigative reporting that tries to get at what could’ve caused such a tragedy, but it would have be done very thoughtfully, very respectfully, and without any sensationalism. Probably something best left for a bit farther down the road.

It really seems like there is zero investigative reporting or investigative police work happening around either of the cases you mentioned (in addition to several other trans murders nationally in the past month). And yet when some random teenage girl went missing last year in the Caribbean the search was on the news 24/7 for weeks.

Yes, the disparate media attention is part and parcel of how both the media and our larger society place different value on the lives of different people. A murdered young trans woman of color is vilified, slandered, and disrespected; a young gender non-conforming queer person barely registers on the radar; a young, non-trans, straight white woman makes sympathetic headlines for months on end.