Uniting To End Hate Violence

Two weeks ago, 17 year-old Simmie Williams, Jr. was gunned down on a street corner in Broward County.  According to family and friends, the African-American teenager identified as gay and had reportedly reached out to transgender support groups in recent weeks. Police are investigating Simmie's murder as a possible hate crime based on the words they say were exchanged before the shooting.

On Friday, hundreds of  gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Broward residents gathered along with civil rights leaders, elected officials and Simmie's family and friends to remember the slain teen. Speakers offered condolences, denounced hate violence and passed the hat to help Denise King cover the cost of burying her son and offered reward money to help find his killers.

It was a beautiful display of love and unity in the face of unspeakable tragedy. It is the kind of unity and outrage that we need every day if we are going to end the epidemic of hate violence in our country.

Days after Simmie's murder, a gay man was beaten while leaving a local restaurant  by an assailant who screamed "You know what I do to faggots? I break their necks."
The same day  a noose was left in a nearby school cafeteria in what may have been a hate crime aimed at a student who'd done a report on Black History month. The student said she'd heard a joke going around campus earlier in the week: 'What do an apple and a black man have in common?'" The answer : '"They both look best hanging from a tree.'"

Simmie's murder came in the wake of national attention drawn by the classroom murder of  Oxnard California 15 year-old Lawrence King, a constant target of harassment and ridicule because he wore makeup. Lawrence was shot in the back and in the head by a 14 year-old classmate who told friends in advance that Lawrence was "having his last day."

Now comes news that another Black transgender teen has been murdered in South Carolina.
"That Adolphus Simmons dressed like a woman was of no consequence to his neighbors at the Bradford Apartments in North Charleston. To them, his shooting death Monday night was a senseless loss of a beloved friend."-

Police would say these crimes are unrelated, carried out by different people but we know they are tied together by a common enemy:   a willingness to do harm to those who are different. The brutal acts spring from common attitudes that are too often going unchallenged. For every national outcry in the wake of a hate crime, hundreds of equally brutal hate motivated attacks and murders occur without condemnation. 

We have to make ending hate violence - no matter the target - a national priority. We have to speak up, at the top of our voices every time.

We need a national hate crime law that sends a new and unmistakable message that we as a society will not allow any class of people to be terrorized by hate violence. But we must do more than seek harsher punishments, we must address hate violence at its root, in the place it is thriving right now, our schools.

We know the perpetrators are overwhelmingly teenagers and young adults.
What begins as taunting, teasing and harassment at school quickly escalates into violence on our campuses and in our streets. Too few schools address the problem, instead waiting until blood is spilled and police are called.

We can begin to end hate violence by passing a federal anti-bullying bill that requires schools to address hate violence through prevention and education. By preparing teachers so they know how to respond and create a safe learning environment for all students.

We can change the culture of hate in society by banding together and refusing to be silent even when the victim doesn't look like us, believe what we believe or come from the same background.