A woman was raped in San Francisco the other day, but no doubt she got what’s coming to her. After all she lives in a state where lesbians aren’t considered full citizens anymore, not like us god fearing heterosexuals, and besides, she had the audacity to place one of those rainbow stickers on her car.
SAN FRANCISCO – A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday.
Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.
“It just pushes it beyond fathomable,” he said. “The level of trauma — physical and emotional — this victim has suffered is extreme.”[…]
Gay rights advocates note that hate crimes based on sexual orientation have increased nationwide as of late. There were 1,415 such crimes in 2006 and 1,460 in 2007, both times making up about 16 percent of the total, according to the FBI.
Avy Skolnik, a coordinator with the New York-based National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, noted that gay, lesbian and transgender crime victims may be more reluctant than heterosexual victims to contact police.
“Assailants target LGBT people of all gender identities with sexual assault,” he said. “Such targeting is one of the most cruel, dehumanizing and violent forms of hate violence that our communities experience.”
Now rape is a horrible crime no matter what one’s gender or sexual orientation, but after reading the details of the MsNBC report it seems pretty clear that this woman was targeted specifically because she was openly gay. That is a hate crime, pure and simple. And it’s not hard to speculate that if this can happen to someone in the most gay friendly city in America, it is likely happening everyday across America in other cities and towns, large and small, but likely without the local police taking it seriously as a crime intended to terrorize the gay community.
Indeed, there is evidence that hate crimes under reported, and hate crime against gays, lebians and transgendered persons especially so because many state statutes in many states do not include sexual orientation as a category in their definition of what constitutes a hate crime.
Nor is it much of a surprise that this young woman was selected for this brutal rape by her attackers because she is a lesbian, even though she does lives in a “gay friendly” city. After the recent demonization campaign against gay marriage in California run by the supporters of Proposition 8, I’d have been surprised if hate crimes against gays and lesbians had not increased. Words have consequences, and hateful words all the moreso. I’m willing to bet that after “Prop Hate” passed a lot more homophobic bigots suddenly felt that their prejudices were justified and legitimized because a majority of their fellow citizens voted with them to their deny fellow human beings the full range of human rights under the law. And no doubt a certain subset of those bigots became emboldened to act upon their feelings of anger and rage with violence directed against LGBT individuals whenever the opportunity arose.
So this Christmas season, whether or not you are a Christian, please try to remember that the essential message of Jesus was one of inclusion, not division, acceptance, not judgment, love, not hate. Especially try to remember this if you are one of those people who harbor any ill feelings against our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered brothers and sisters (for our brothers and sisters they truly are). It’s a message worth remembering at a time when we speak about peace and good will on earth, yet ugly vicious crimes like the one in San Francisco still occur in our nation on a daily basis. Hatred of anyone should not be considered a virtue. And it is up to those of us who recognize the humanity of all humankind to stand up against those who have failed to learn this lesson.
If you read closely, you’ll notice that the story was filed from San Francisco but the crime occurred in Richmond, a very high-crime city in the East Bay. (They quoted a Richmond cop.)
It would be shocking to hear of such a crime as this in San Francisco proper. I suppose it could happen but it’s much less likely in the city.
Indeed. Richmond ain’t exactly the Castro.
I was going to say the same thing. Richmond is a lot like Oakland, but worse in many ways. Richmond is not exactly a tolerant town. I suppose the closest I can come to as a well known comparison is the Bronx vs. Manhattan.
That said, it is still a horrific crime no matter where it was perpetrated and clearly shows how far we have to go as a species.
Sadly, I just read about this attack this morning on The Raw Story. I saw nothing about it in our local papers (I live in Oakland), though it is possible I could have missed the reports.
As I woman, am I supposed to be more outraged that she’s a lesbian? I’m not.
IF men are going around gang-raping, the lesbianism is an excuse. And they wanted one.
Could have been a ‘ damn foreigner’.
Could have been an ‘ Uppity Black bitch’ (a hidden firearm saved my activist sister in the 1970’s from this fate).
When a man, decides with other men, that a woman is non-human, and that her body belongs to them….
I’ve been the first female face women like this see. The agony in their eyes cuts across all racial, socio-economical and sexual boundaries. The intent by the animals to destroy the spirit, by hurting the body, is raw inhumanity.
And, there is little ‘ Justice’ to be had by these women. We’ll see if this woman gets ‘Justice’.
Sexual assault and the death penalty pretty much soured me on our so-called ‘ Justice’ System.
I understand the temptation to try to connect this terrible crime with the passage of Prop 8, but I think it’s just too much of a stretch. As others have commented, Richmond is perhaps the poorest and most crime-ridden city in the Bay Area. Odds are extremely low that the perpetrators of this crime are so politically attuned that their crime was in any way influenced by Prop 8 rhetoric.
Violence against women (gay or straight) is age old and about power, as has also been noted above. What stood out to me about this story was watching the local newscast and listening to the police interview. The horror that the officer expressed with regard to the brutality of the crime, the very real concern for the welfare of the victim, the seriousness with which the police are handling the investigation, and the willingness for a tremendously impoverished city department to post a $10,000 reward for information — that’s what made me sit up and pay attention.
But if you read the article notice what Lt. Mark Gagan said “The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation.” Presumably he knows this because the victim told him so. So its not just a stretch.