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Street Harassment is a Hate Crime in Nottingham, UK

July 14, 2016 By HKearl

HarassmentisaCrimeThere’s big news out of the UK this week.

Via the Telegraph:

“”A police force has become the first in Britain to recognise misogyny as a hate crime, in an effort to make the county a safer place for women.

Nottinghamshire Police is recording incidents such as wolf whistling, street harassment, verbal abuse and taking photographs without consent within the hate crime definition.

It also includes unwanted sexual advances, uninvited physical or verbal contact and using mobile phone to send unwanted messages….

Sarah Green, acting director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: ‘We welcome this because it comes off the local police force talking to and listening to local women’s groups. What we are talking about is not trivial behaviour – some harassment that women and girls receive in public is upsetting and should have the attention of the authorities.’

She added: ‘Police in Nottingham have not changed the law but they have listened to local women who said the behaviour bothered them. Together, they are recording it so they can monitor it and look back on who is doing it and where it happens.'”

While there are a lot of complications regarding criminalizing street harassment, and there are a lot of nuances for why it’d be hard, possibly unfair, and largely unenforceable to make all verbal street harassment illegal (especially in the USA), I still can’t help but cheer and tear up a little bit to see these horrible, demeaning and needless interactions classified as a HATE CRIME!! They should have no place in our society.

More about this story from Washington Post and Guardian.

“Misogyny hate crime is classed under the new policy as “incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman, and includes behaviour targeted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman”…

Rachel Krys, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: ‘It is great that police in Nottingham will be capturing the way a lot of harassment in public spaces is targeted at women and girls. In a recent poll we found that 85% of women aged 18-24 have experienced unwanted sexual attention in public places and 45% have experienced unwanted sexual touching, which can amount to sexual assault.

‘This level of harassment is having an enormous impact on women’s freedom to move about in the public space as it makes women feel a lot less safe. The women we spoke to do a lot of work to feel safer, including avoiding parts of the city they live in, taking taxis and leaving events in groups.’

Krys said recording such incidents would give police and policymakers a much clearer grasp on the levels of harassment women and girls are subjected to, and better understand measures which could reduce it.

‘It should also challenge the idea that women and girls in public or online spaces are ‘fair game’,’ she added. ‘We know that ignoring harassment and sexist bullying creates the impression that other types of violence against women will be tolerated so we welcome any action which counters this.'”

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Filed Under: News stories, street harassment Tagged With: hate crime, laws, UK

Gay Clubs Should be Safe

June 14, 2016 By HKearl

Half-staff LGBT flag in DCThe shooting at the Orlando gay club over the weekend is horrendous. That Latinx LGBQT-identified people were attacked and killed in a space that was supposed to be safe is disheartening and enraging. We mourn the victims and stand with the survivors and the families affected.

We stand with those who strive for equality, acceptance, and a world where people are not hated, harassed, abused or killed because of their identity.

As a HuffPost blogger Denise Frohman wrote:

“We know homophobia didn’t end with marriage equality. We know the shooting in Orlando didn’t happen overnight — we have a cultural problem that perpetuates homophobia, racism, sexism, and Islamophobia in our schools, our streets, and on our televisions.

We are the work we have to do.

I want feel safe everywhere I go. I want liberation for all of us who live under the threat of violence…

I mourn those killed in Orlando, their families, their partners, and the peace of mind we cherished in these spaces. Tomorrow and the day after, we will work, as we’ve always done to reclaim space, even the ones we built for ourselves.”

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Filed Under: LGBTQ, News stories Tagged With: hate crime, murder, shooting

Transgender Day of Remembrance

November 20, 2011 By HKearl


One of the groups of people who face the most street harassment and the most vicious levels of violence are transgender persons. At least 20 transgender individuals were murdered since the beginning of 2011, according to the folks who run the Transgender Day of Remembrance website.

This is an outrage. No one should be harassed or killed simply for being who they are.

From the Transgender Day of Remembrance website:

“The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.”

Today we remember and honor those 20 individuals murdered this year:

Reana ‘Cheo’ Bustamente
Génesis Briget Makaligton
Krissy Bates
Fergie Alice Ferg
Tyra Trent
Priscila Brandão
Marcal Camero Tye
Shakira Harahap
Miss Nate Nate (or Née) Eugene Davis
Lashai Mclean
Didem
Camila Guzman
Gaby
unidentified male dressed in women’s clothes
Gaurav Gopalan
Name Unknown
Shelley Hilliard
Jessica Rollon
Astrid Carolina López Cruz
Cassidy Nathan Vickers

We also honor and remember the 600+ people that have been documented by the Transgender Day of Remembrance folks and all those who have not yet been accounted for.

May there be a year in the near future when there are no new people to remember, when hate crimes cease.

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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: gender policing, hate crime, murder, street harassment, transgender, transgender day of remembrance

It’s open season for shooting sperm at women

February 26, 2011 By HKearl

You may remember that last summer, Michael W. Edwards of Maryland was accused of spraying semen from a bottle onto women’s backs in Giant grocery stores and Michael’s craft stores in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At the time, Edwards admitted to the grossness.

When I heard about it, I was not only disgusted by his actions, but I also was annoyed at the reporting. The Washington Post author of the article about it kept mentioning how “normal” Edwards is and how he attends church, etc.

Big whoop-dee-doo. Maybe the writer would feel differently had Edwards shooted semen on HIM at a grocery store.

Well, someone on Facebook gave me a tip that Edwards was recently sentenced to three years in jail for two counts of second-degree assault. But because he attends church and otherwise follows the law, his sentence was reduced to probation, no jail time. The only silver lining is that he has to see a therapist during probation.

Now maybe prison wouldn’t have solved anything either, but shouldn’t he have some other punishment? Especially since it sounds like it was a hate crime.

Edwards claims his “actions” were the result of “misplaced anger after breaking up with his girlfriend.” So because he was upset over a break up, he bottled up some of his semen and went looking for innocent women in stores to shoot it at. That’s a hate crime against women. And yet, again, he faces virtually no consequences.

So guys, go ahead and load up. It’s open season for shooting sperm at women. Well, as long as you attend church, have no prior criminal record, and have “misplaced anger” against women.

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Filed Under: News stories Tagged With: grocery store sperm shooter, hate crime, michael w edwards

The person you said ‘Hey Baby’ to is a lesbian

March 10, 2010 By HKearl

Yesterday I was excited to read about the first same-sex couple marrying in Washington, DC. Equal rights for all! What I didn’t notice in the Washington Post article I read was the mention of street harassment until my partner pointed it out.

“A man [Angelisa] Young sees almost every day, who normally greets her with a jokingly flirtatious ‘Hey, baby!’ was conspicuously silent when she saw him the day after the courthouse. She wanted to tell him, ‘Believe it or not, the person you said ‘Hey, baby’ to on March 2 was also a lesbian with a partner.”

I’m really glad she mentioned this (and that my partner pointed it out). The differing impact street harassment has on LBQT women compared to heterosexual ciswomen is an important topic that is rarely talked about.

Men still proposition and sexually harass women who appear to be heterosexual, even if they are not. This is the epitome of heterosexual male privilege: assuming every woman he sees on the street is single, heterosexual or bisexual, and interested in his attention. This assumption wholly denies the sexual identity of women who are not.  While many, even most, heterosexual and bisexual women want nothing to do with the men who approach them on the street, women who have no sexual interest in men especially do not. Male harassers do not give women that choice.

Scholar Tiffanie Heben wrote in her article “A Radical Reshaping of the Law: Interpreting and Remedying Street Harassment” how street harassment by a man who interprets a woman to be heterosexual can function to deny the woman of her sexual identity. His actions remind her that her true sexual identity is a “deviance” from the sexual orientation norm he is projecting onto her. She may also be frightened because she fears that if he finds out her sexual orientation he will become violent.

Meanwhile, women who do not appear to be heterosexual or who do not conform to their birth sex (such as transwomen) can be harassed for that reason, often with hateful violence and threats. Gary David Comstock, a professor of religion at Wesleyan University, studied violence against lesbian and gay people and found that 86 percent of the openly lesbian women he surveyed had been the victims of anti-lesbian verbal harassment as a result of their sexual orientation. More women of color than white women reported such harassment.

I cover this topic more in my forthcoming book.

Thoughts or stories from readers about how sexual orientation and gender expression impacts gender-based street harassment?

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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: gay marriage, hate crime, LGBQT rights, street harassment, Washington Post

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