Tag: HateCrime

Mysterious posters appeared labeling trans women as “one of the most awful things you can say.”

This blog is originally appeared at LGBTQ Nation


She had to slog through deep snow to remove them herself.

Hateful flyers circulated in Billings, Montana, falsely accusing local trans activist Adria Jawort of “grooming children,” according to local news outlet KTVQ. The flyers, which perpetuate the false narrative from the anti-trans right that all trans people are pedophiles, were posted near schools in Jawort’s neighborhood just days before Thanksgiving.

Jawort had to travel across town in heavy snow to remove the flyers herself.

“I was annoyed about it,” she told KTVQ, describing how the flyers misgendered her and made hateful claims about her life and sexuality. “I was just thinking, why am I doing this? Why do I have to do this? Why do people think this is okay?”

“The thing the flyer said, calling me a groomer and stuff, and basically labeling me as a danger to the community,” Jawort added. “It’s like one of the most awful things you can say. How does that become normalized?”

Billings police are currently investigating the incident. Lt. Matthew Lennick spoke on what constitutes hate speech: “Once someone transitions from making a general statement about their beliefs or another group to a targeted attack on an individual… a victim could take civil action against someone attempting to defame them.”

Possible criminal charges could include disorderly conduct, stalking, intimidation, or harassment, among others.

While Jawort knows the group responsible, she says she’s more frustrated by the ongoing attacks on state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D-MT). Recently, Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to ban her from women’s bathrooms.

Jawort has been targeted before. Last year, a lecture she was set to give at a library was canceled after a drag ban, with staff citing concerns that hosting a transgender person posed “too much of a legal risk.” This led her to file a lawsuit against the state.

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Neo-Nazi stabbed a gay man 28 times until he died. He’s going away for life

This blog is originally appeared at LGBTQ Nation.

The victim’s mother expressed that her son was forced to “die while staring at an Atomwaffen mask.”

A member of a neo-Nazi group, whose computer was filled with anti-gay and anti-Jewish propaganda, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for the brutal stabbing death of a gay and Jewish former high school classmate.

Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 26, from Newport Beach, California, received a life sentence without the possibility of parole after a jury convicted him in July of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement in the killing of Blaze Bernstein. Bernstein, 19, was home from college on winter break in 2018 when he was murdered.

Judge Kimberly Menninger stated that Woodward, then 21, was driven by “pure hate and rage” due to the victim’s “sexual orientation and religious beliefs,” describing the two former schoolmates as being on “opposite ends of a culture war.”

Woodward had reconnected with Bernstein on a gay dating app and arranged to meet while Bernstein was home on holiday break in January. The University of Pennsylvania student met Woodward in a public park, where prosecutors say Woodward stabbed him 28 times before burying him in a shallow grave.

The next day, Bernstein’s parents reported him missing and began searching through his online activity for clues. They found that he had been in contact with Woodward, a former classmate at Orange County School of the Arts. Woodward later told the Bernsteins that he had met their son but claimed Bernstein had walked off into the park with an unknown person and that he never saw him again, according to the district attorney’s office.

Bernstein’s body was found a week later in the park, exposed after heavy rains.

Investigators found Bernstein’s blood on a skull mask in Woodward’s possession, linked to Atomwaffen, a neo-Nazi group to which Woodward had pledged allegiance. The group advocates for using violence to collapse society and government.

During the three-week trial in July, Woodward’s attorney argued that the killing was a spontaneous, irrational act. Woodward testified that he felt “anger like nothing I had ever felt in my whole life,” and described repeatedly stabbing Bernstein, saying he did not remember how many times he struck him. Woodward claimed he was provoked into the attack when Bernstein allegedly took a photo of his genitals, and said that he was in a haze after smoking cannabis at the park when he discovered Bernstein was touching him.

At the sentencing, prosecutors reminded the judge that Woodward was a former Eagle Scout who may have killed Bernstein to impress Atomwaffen and prove he wasn’t gay.

Bernstein’s mother said at the sentencing that she was haunted by the thought that her son was forced “to die looking at an Atomwaffen mask.”

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Frat boys reportedly attacked a gay man late at night in Texas, hurling slurs at him

This blog originally appeared at LGBTQ NATION.

In Austin, Texas, Joshua Ybarra, a gay man, was attacked by a group of men late at night while walking to his Uber. The assailants hurled an anti-gay slur at him during the assault. Ybarra, who was wearing a purse and black-heeled boots, expressed his frustration to KXAN, saying, “I believe they should all face charges. It started with one person, but they all joined in, especially as I was being beaten and the slurs were being shouted.”

Ybarra was repeatedly punched and beaten while being called a “gay f*g” until he lost consciousness and collapsed on the ground.

One of Ybarra’s friends tried to protect him during the assault, but she ended up being attacked herself. “She threw her body over me, and I just remember seeing them punch the back of her head,” Ybarra recounted. “I was just screaming at her, saying, ‘You need to move.’”

The Austin Police Department considers this incident a hate crime. Three University of Texas Delta Sigma Phi fraternity members—Alex Saenz, Bhavya Kaushik, and Sergio Martinez, the vice president of the Eta Chapter—were arrested after turning themselves in. An additional woman, believed to have been involved, has a warrant out for her arrest.

The defendants’ attorneys claim that a friend of Ybarra instigated the attack and assert there is evidence that will exonerate their clients, including security footage supporting their claims. Saenz, the only one charged with a hate crime, maintains that he did not use the slur.

Prosecuting hate crimes in Texas is notoriously difficult. Out of over 6,000 reported hate crimes since 2001, only 41 have been charged as such, with most not making it to court due to rare prosecutions.

Activists and lawmakers are pushing back against this lack of enforcement. “Where you live determines whether you’re going to get the help that you need. For many rural and suburban LGBTQ Texans, there is often no local recourse for having these crimes taken seriously,” Equality Texas Executive Director Ricardo Martinez told KXAN. “We need lawmakers to stand up and protect our community because violence, like what happened to Josh, falls squarely on their shoulders.”

Ybarra has yet to be cleared to return to work after the attack. Despite the trauma, he finds solace in a framed drawing from his niece, which quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To be yourself in a world constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ybarra reflected, “It’s funny because I always look at that, and I’m trying to remind myself to be my true, authentic self regardless of everything that has happened.”

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