The Gay Hate Crimes Crisis Isn’t Over Yet
Thursday’s historic passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is cause for celebration. The first federal legislation to provide inclusive protections for the GLBTQ community, this hate crimes bill will extend significant protections to many Americans.
Yes, we absolutely must celebrate this victory. It tells all our citizens, and the world, who we are, what we stand for – and what we won’t stand for.
But we cannot think we’re done. This is, in fact, just the beginning.
Gays in this country are increasingly becoming victims of violent, and deadly hate crimes. New York City, certainly more “gay-friendly” than many towns and cities across America, has been host to several brutal beatings this year. Among other incidents, New Yorkers have suffered beatings on a tony Upper East Side street, outside a Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood restaurant, and the latest, the vicious beating of forty-nine year-old Jack Price – caught on tape – in blue-collar Queens.
Kicked and beaten by two young men less than half his age, Price had to be put into a medically-induced coma. One of the men arrested in the attack claimed not to be homophobic, yet proudly displayed for the media’s cameras his (misquoted) Leviticus 18:22 tattoo: “You shall not lie with a male as one does with a woman. It is an abomination.”
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee this summer that there has been “nearly one hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade,” since 1998 – the year Matthew Shepard was murdered. It’s been exactly four thousand thirty-one days since Shepard’s death. Over ninety-six thousand hours. Do the math. Yes, it’s taken that long – and that many hate crime incidents – for the U.S. Congress to pass legislation offering protection to the GLBTQ community against crimes of hate.
But America is not alone in its treatment of GLBTQs. Scotland Yard reports an eighteen percent rise in homophobic hate crimes in London – almost 1200 incidents, more than three a day -Â over the past twelve months. Italy has seen an eleven percent increase in gay-related hate crimes as well. But the worst news comes out of Iraq, where organized militias are roaming the streets and gunning down suspected homosexuals, and Iran, where the government has hanged adults and juveniles – just for being gay.
Homophobic hate crimes are on the rise, and for every hate crime that makes the statistics, how many go unreported? Obviously, there are few numbers available, but one study out of Ireland this year found that sixty-four percent of homophobic hate crimes are not reported to police. A 2007 study by Human Rights First determined that “[London] police themselves estimate that some 90 percent of homophobic hate crimes go unreported.”
Every hate crime – reported or not, affects the larger community. Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker says that a hate crime,
“…is really two crimes — one against the individual and another against the group to which he belongs. By that definition, [Matthew] Shepard’s murder may be viewed as a terrorist act against all gays, who would have felt more fearful as a result.â€
And to those, like Rep. Steve King (D-IA) who tried to have the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill name changed to the “Local Law Enforcement Thought Crimes Prevention Act of 2009,” we can now, proudly, say, America thinks you’re wrong, and the full weight of U.S. law says so.
Yes, Thursday’s passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is cause for celebration. But it will also be a rallying cry – to those like Rep. King, and to those like the American Family Association, that bastion of bigotry, whose latest call to action offered this attack:
“In its never-ending quest to shred America’s Judeo-Christian value system, the left is planning to hurriedly push through a “thought crimes” bill.
So-called “hate crimes” laws are really laws that criminalize thought, because they punish an individual not for what he did but for what he thought. Politically incorrect thoughts about homosexual behavior will result in enhanced criminal sanctions under this law.
Everywhere hate crimes laws have gone into effect, they have been quickly used to intimidate, silence and punish people of faith who express deeply held religious objections to the normalization of homosexuality.”
We can’t assume the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act will put an end to hate crimes. They’re already on the rise. What we need to do is work to ensure more victims of hate crimes report them.
Let’s use this hard-fought success to rally our troops and ensure the momentum we’ve built this year doesn’t end with the hate crimes bill. Let’s redouble our efforts to see repeal of DADT and DOMA, and enactment of ENDA.
There are only two months left in the year. There is a crisis confronting the GLBTQ community. Let’s address it, before it’s too late.
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As millions of Americans are seeing their health care premiums spike and the cost of living continue to rise, House Republicans are expected to bring to the floor a bill to redefine the word “showerhead.”
The legislation is officially named the “Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing Act,” or the SHOWER Act.
“If we wanted a gentle mist as our shower, we would just stand in front of a humidifier. So that’s why I introduced The Shower Act. Because no one wants to be waterboarded by a trickle at 6 AM in the morning,” the bill’s primary sponsor, U.S. Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC), said last month when defending his legislation.
According to congressional reporter Jamie Dupree, the bill is scheduled for a vote on the House floor next week.
READ MORE: ‘Exhausted, Indebted, Aging’: Researcher Warns the Trump Age Is America’s ‘Final Act’
U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) last month blasted the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for prioritizing legislation on home appliances over reducing the cost of health care premiums.
“You’ve got 15 bills—six of those 15 bills are on home appliances, the so-called ‘Shower Act’—and you can’t be bothered to include your health care plan that you’ve been spending a year developing?”
Meanwhile, Republican former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy appeared to take a veiled swipe at Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, telling C-SPAN that “Maybe Democrats won the shutdown” because Johnson effectively shuttered the House for two months rather than work on legislation to lower health care premiums.
“Republicans, having the majority, should have planned further in advance instead of the last weeks of the year to see, ‘how am I going to deal with this?’ So now they’ve kind of got a political football,” McCarthy explained.
“The House kept everybody away” during the government shutdown,” he said. “And when you only have a majority for two years, to pass a bill, you have to have a hearing, then you have to have a markup, then you’ve got to pass the building, it’s got to go the floor. You just lost two months.”
“I just think in the House,” McCarthy continued, “you have the power as the Speaker and the majority. If you give that power away, you may look at the end of the day. ‘Ooh, I gave two months. Maybe the Democrats won the shutdown of those two months.'”
Ceasefire@SpeakerMcCarthy on gov’t shutdown: The House sent everybody away. When you only have a majority for two years…you just lost two months…Maybe the Democrats won the shutdown of those two months just by not letting us work. How many other bills could we have passed? pic.twitter.com/fw79NbNoAg
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 2, 2026
READ MORE: Trump Says No Other President Would Take Cognitive Test He ‘Aced’ Three Times Straight
Image via Reuters
A culture and society researcher is warning that America in the age of Trump is seeing its “final act” — but says Trump is just the messenger.
“What MAGA voters received,” writes John Mac Ghlionn in an opinion piece at The Hill, “wasn’t renewal, but a grim revelation. The failure was never just Trump. He was the messenger. The problem is that America no longer has the political, economic or cultural capacity to deliver restoration at all.”
Mac Ghlionn says that America under Trump’s second term is worse than under his first: “Not because Trump changed, but because the country has weakened further — and no amount of bravado can reverse structural decline.”
READ MORE: Noah’s Ark Museum Visitors Hit With Potential ‘Highly Contagious’ Measles Exposure Warning
Warning of what he calls “managed decline,” Mac Ghlionn says that the pillars of American dominance — “productive labor, demographic confidence, institutional trust, and cultural gravity” — are “steadily eroding,” while its “social foundations” are “cracking.”
“Fewer young Americans are working,” he writes. “Not transitioning between jobs — simply not employed at all. Many move between credentials and gig work, lacking direction and long-term footing. Marriage rates are collapsing. Birth rates are falling below replacement. These trends are linked. When stable work is harder to find, forming relationships becomes harder, commitment harder still, and raising a family nearly impossible. With AI accelerating job insecurity rather than easing it, the trajectory only points in one direction.”
This may not be the end of America, but America “no longer defines the age.”
“Trump didn’t save America,” Mac Ghlionn observes. “He didn’t destroy it either. He revealed it. And what he revealed is a nation exhausted, indebted, aging, and divided — still powerful, still wealthy, but no longer confident in its future.”
READ MORE: Trump Says No Other President Would Take Cognitive Test He ‘Aced’ Three Times Straight
Image via Reuters
Recent visitors to Ark Encounter, a Christian theme park that has drawn controversy over the years, are facing a new challenge. Kentucky health officials are warning of possible exposure to measles, after an unvaccinated individual reportedly visited the museum and a local hotel earlier this week.
“Measles is a highly contagious disease,” Northern Kentucky Health District Director for Health Jennifer Mooney, PhD, MPH, said in a press release, according to NBC affiliate WLWT. “Being around so many people at a place such as the Ark Encounter creates the potential for wide exposure. We want to make sure everyone who visited during that time is aware they may have been exposed to the measles, and they should monitor themselves for symptoms.”
“We also want to remind people that measles is preventable through the highly effective MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) vaccine,” Dr. Mooney added. “The vaccine has been administered to millions of people over several decades and has a proven health and safety record.”
READ MORE: Trump Says No Other President Would Take Cognitive Test He ‘Aced’ Three Times Straight
WDRB reported that “Measles, a highly contagious respiratory virus, can cause serious health problems, especially in young children, according to the CDC’s website. The virus spreads through the air after someone infected coughs or sneezes. It can then linger for up to two hours after the infected person leaves.”
According to the CDC, the U.S. saw 2065 cases of measles in 2025, up from 285 in 2024 and just 59 cases in 2023.
“Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. This was thanks to a very high percentage of people receiving the safe and effective measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. In recent years, however,” CDC reported, “U.S. national MMR coverage among kindergarteners has decreased and is now below the 95% coverage target—with much lower coverage in some communities.”
Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist wrote that “Ark Encounter offers free tickets for children,” and warned of “the possibility that unvaccinated kids will pay the price because of one irresponsible person’s ignorance.”
“It’s already happened in South Carolina,” he noted, “where one particular church is now the epicenter of a measles outbreak.”
Image via Shutterstock
GOP Pushes Vote on Showerheads as Millions Struggle With Rising Cost of Living
‘Exhausted, Indebted, Aging’: Researcher Warns the Trump Age Is America’s ‘Final Act’
Noah’s Ark Museum Visitors Hit With Potential ‘Highly Contagious’ Measles Exposure Warning
Trump Says No Other President Would Take Cognitive Test He ‘Aced’ Three Times Straight
Mike Johnson Brags About House Accomplishments When It Broke Record For Fewest Bills Passed
News2 days agoGOP Pushes Vote on Showerheads as Millions Struggle With Rising Cost of Living
News2 days agoNoah’s Ark Museum Visitors Hit With Potential ‘Highly Contagious’ Measles Exposure Warning
News2 days ago‘Exhausted, Indebted, Aging’: Researcher Warns the Trump Age Is America’s ‘Final Act’
News2 days agoTrump Says No Other President Would Take Cognitive Test He ‘Aced’ Three Times Straight
