Email Action: Take Action on Anti-LGBT Attack in Boone: Sign Petition, Attend Forum at ASU on Friday

Equality NC again calls on the legislature to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state's already existing hate crime law after a bias-motivated attack on two young women in Boone. The Safer Communities Act would expand current legislation to include hate crimes based on real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

More details are below, but there are two ways you can take action and make a difference.

1) First, if you're in the Boone area this Friday, March 2, please attend a community forum from 6:30-8:30 pm in the Blue Ridge Ballroom of Appalachian State University's Student Union. The two women involved in the assault are confirmed to speak, and Equality NC and The Coalition to Protect All NC Families will also be there.

2) The second action you can take is to help these women in their grassroots efforts to expand current hate crime protections. For more information and to sign their the petition, visit their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/328904423812343/

... and petition:

change.org/petitions/amend-nc-hate-crime-laws.

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Fox News Christians calling for the killing of Atheists..

Admins tried to scrub the Facebook page, which was 2.2 million fans, and they even took down the post a few days later. But the atheist blogger behind One Man’s Blog managed to capture screenshots — including those above.

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Finally some Common sense in the Courts

Michigan Court of Appeals (PDF): Read PDF link for the case.

This case arises from the beating of Ryan Young. In the early morning hours of June 11, 2009, Young was celebrating his birthday with friends at a local bar. Defendant was also at the bar. Young did not know defendant, but defendant joined Young and his friends at their table and defendant and Young talked and became acquainted. At about 3:30 a.m., Young and defendant were dropped off at Young's apartment. Young testified that he went into his bedroom to change and asked defendant: "did you want to do anything or did you just want to go to bed," to which defendant responded: "yeah, I'm going to do something you fucking faggot."

Young testified that defendant choked him "so bad" that he "could not get away from him" and Young thought he was going to die because defendant "wouldn't get off me and just stop punching me." Young believed that he was fighting for his life. Young remembered defendant cutting off his oxygen until he passed out and that, when he came to, defendant was "just still bashing my face in" until he went unconscious again. Young believed defendant hit him "a good 30 times." According to Young, he never tried to touch defendant and neither of them ever fell asleep-except when Young went unconscious from the assault. Young testified that there was no discussion about flipping the television on or anything and that he believed this was because defendant had the assault already planned.

It about time these judges get with the program and cut all this nonsense out…..

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Hate Crimes Conference with the F.B.I

Time Wednesday, April 6 · 4:00pm - 7:00pm

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Location Lumina Theater-Univeristy of North Carolina Wilmington

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Created By OutReach, Amy Schlag

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More Info

Enjoy us for a fascinating and timely discussion of Hate Crimes and Hate Crimes Legislation. This event is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

INTRODUCTION: Keith H. Bethke Jr., FBI Resident Agencies Supervisor, Wilmington and Raleigh

PRESENTATION ON HATE CRIMES: The FBI's Civil Rights Program from Washington HQ will be conducting an unclassified presentation on Hate Crimes. It will include definitions of Federal Hate Crimes statutes (Ma......tthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009), nationwide statistics on Federal Hate Crimes cases, and examples of Federal Hate Crimes Cases previously worked by the FBI and other agencies.

SERVICES: Victim Specialist Kory Williford, FBI Charlotte Division, Office for Victim Assistance Rapid Deployment Team. Kory Williford will discuss services provided by the FBI’s Raleigh Resident Agency program to victims of Hate Crimes.

HATE CRIMES INTELLIGENCE: Tom Kuhl will conduct a brief presentation on Southeastern North Carolina Hate Crimes statistics and how Hate Crimes affect our local community.

HATE CRIMES PANEL DISCUSSION: Moderator Buffy Ruffin, Coordinator of Multicultural Student Affairs.

SHOWING OF S.P.I.C. The Storyboard of My Life (27mins)

CLOSING REMARKS: Quynh Rcom

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