Hate crime
Jun. 13th, 2016 02:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lokifanI’ve been rather disconnected this weekend -- working, and the beach, and trying to sort my sleep schedule - so I just heard about the Orlando shooting.
And after the initial wave of horror and sadness, came telling myself: well, we have gun control where I live. (And then remembering a friend’s story about guys with weapons waiting in the car park outside a gay club and the patrons sneaking out the back. This was in 2010.) Well, this is part of the anti-LGBTQ backlash happening in the States. We’re not having that here.
Which is just a horrible way to be thinking; it’s small-minded and selfish, or it feels that way, even though I’m not sure I’d think that about other people. But that’s why hate crimes are a particular threat against the social order, of course. It’s not solely a horrific act of violence against dozens of innocent people, not just a crime against everyone who loved them; it’s also a warning to queer people everywhere. Remember to feel vulnerable and know that people hate you.
And after the initial wave of horror and sadness, came telling myself: well, we have gun control where I live. (And then remembering a friend’s story about guys with weapons waiting in the car park outside a gay club and the patrons sneaking out the back. This was in 2010.) Well, this is part of the anti-LGBTQ backlash happening in the States. We’re not having that here.
Which is just a horrible way to be thinking; it’s small-minded and selfish, or it feels that way, even though I’m not sure I’d think that about other people. But that’s why hate crimes are a particular threat against the social order, of course. It’s not solely a horrific act of violence against dozens of innocent people, not just a crime against everyone who loved them; it’s also a warning to queer people everywhere. Remember to feel vulnerable and know that people hate you.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-14 09:20 pm (UTC)If I try to bracket my emotional response then I guess I would say that it's not empirically clear that this attack is a backlash. Statistically, LGBT (especially the T) people have been at higher risk of violence in the US for many years. All the data is very incomplete, but until recently bias based on sexual orientation wasn't recorded by most police departments as a category of hate crime. In any case, changes in how bias-motivated violence against LGBT people is recorded means it's hard to draw meaningful conclusions about how the level of violence has changed over time. All of which is to say that bias-motivated violence against LGBT people may just be continuing despite legal changes, as opposed to being a reaction against those legal changes.
I think you're right to be glad about UK gun laws. In a society with this many guns I don't think anyone is very safe. I found it hilarious when the US government issued a warning to Americans visiting Europe that there could be terrorist attacks. There would need to be A LOT of attacks like those in Paris to pose the same level of risk as US gun violence.