Today, Pres. Obama signed in to law the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This law expanded on the 1969 United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victims actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. This law is also the first ever law in the history of the U.S. federal government to extend legal protections to transgender persons.
This law is named after 2 victims of bias-motivated crimes in the United States, Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Matthew Shepard was a student who was tortured and murdered in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming because he was perceived to be gay. James Byrd Jr. was an African-American man who was tied to a truck by 2 known white supremacists, dragged from it and decapitated in Jasper, Texas in 1998. In both cases, we as a nation got a personal look at the sickness that intense hatred and prejudice wreaks — a hatred based on someone's perceived otherness, be it the color of their skin, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation. It is a hatred that fuels a violence that terrorizes not only the victim, but others who may share similar characteristics.
I think the passage of this law will lead to more laws being passed that protect and recognize LGBT persons and other groups of people. I think this has a opened a door for more laws like this one to be recognized and brought to people's attention. This has given hope to gay right's activists saying that this could advance more issues like the repeal of DOMA, repeal of DADT, and passage of ENDA. I feel this sends a powerful message across America: That hate will NOT be tolerated. I feel that this is just the beginning. This really is the first federal gay rights act, so it is truly an historic moment that we must celebrate. I think this is America acknowledging homophobia as a social problem.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Analysis of the Obama Speech
From AMERICAblog Joe Subday writes, "While we know someone at the White House,spent part of the weekend dissing progressive activists and bloggers, I found it interesting that many in the traditional media used blogs as sources for their reporting on the President's big gay speech." Arguing that while the Obama Administration denounces blogs as sources, the media still uses them as credible sources.
Posted on 10/12/09, Analysis of the Obama speech in the traditional media, tells us that while these sources are being discredited in the White House, still alot of people look to them for sources or answers.For example this quote in the Washington Post from gay rights activist and editor of AMERICAblog.com John Aravosis,"Many gay rights activists are disappointed that Obama has not moved forward on two major issues: ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, under which gay soldiers can be discharged for their sexual orientation; and his failure to work toward ending the Defense of Marriage Act." This reporter didn't talk to John directly, he found the quote in a blog post. Joe Subday's audience is of course readers of AMERICAblog.com, people who are for gay rights, and people who want President Obama to answer those tough questions that need to be answered. I think that this was a good post about how the White House can easily dismiss anything they see harms them, but we as a nation still look to those credible sources for answers or insight. I agree with Joe 100%, President Obama needs to start answering the tough questions and not just circling around it, giving us misleading questions. He needs to start living up to those campaign promises and just not tell us what he's going to do. He needs to do it. I think this was a really credible post, I didn't find anything that struck me out of the ordinary. All in all, this was a very good post and I enjoyed reading it.
Posted on 10/12/09, Analysis of the Obama speech in the traditional media, tells us that while these sources are being discredited in the White House, still alot of people look to them for sources or answers.For example this quote in the Washington Post from gay rights activist and editor of AMERICAblog.com John Aravosis,"Many gay rights activists are disappointed that Obama has not moved forward on two major issues: ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, under which gay soldiers can be discharged for their sexual orientation; and his failure to work toward ending the Defense of Marriage Act." This reporter didn't talk to John directly, he found the quote in a blog post. Joe Subday's audience is of course readers of AMERICAblog.com, people who are for gay rights, and people who want President Obama to answer those tough questions that need to be answered. I think that this was a good post about how the White House can easily dismiss anything they see harms them, but we as a nation still look to those credible sources for answers or insight. I agree with Joe 100%, President Obama needs to start answering the tough questions and not just circling around it, giving us misleading questions. He needs to start living up to those campaign promises and just not tell us what he's going to do. He needs to do it. I think this was a really credible post, I didn't find anything that struck me out of the ordinary. All in all, this was a very good post and I enjoyed reading it.
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