Yet another unpopular opinion from me

[sasha_feather]

There's a famous clip where Barney Frank lays out the "radical gay agenda" (wink wink that it is not radical at all), and says it consists of:
1. Marriage equality (I've already griped about this here, but to recap: it leaves asexual, poly, and single people in the cold, and privileges monogamous relationships)
2. Protection from Employment discrimination
3. Serving openly in the military
and
4. Hate crimes legislation

I actually support 2 and 3, so let's talk about 4. The reason this plank of the platform troubles me is because is about punitive justice rather than transformative or healing justice. It is about punishing bad behaviors, but not about addressing root causes of those behaviors, such as the widespread acceptability of violence and homophobia in US society, and maybe some things about masculinity, and gender policing.

Also, it feeds people into the prison-industrial complex. The US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. In particular, black men, gender queer people, and other oppressed groups are disproportionately imprisoned. Prisons themselves are places where rehabilitation is rare. Sexual assault is a known prison problem.

Black and Pink outlines a bunch more reasons for being suspicious of hate crimes laws: They do nothing for the victims or their families, they are easy ways for states to score points with oppressed groups without actually providing any services for us, and more.

You can read more of my rants at my ideas tag!

Comments

[torachan]

Yeah, I have mixed feelings about all except employment discrimination. I mean, on the one hand, I don't think queer people should be discriminated against in the military, but on the other hand, I don't think the military is an awesome thing that we should all be clamoring to get in on. :-/

[littlebutfierce]

Srsly -- like in principle, sure, anyone who wants to serve should be able to, but in practice I cannot bring myself to actually spend any energy or time fighting for my right to do so, b/c... I would rather spend my energy on promoting a world that focuses less on military solutions in general. ^^;;

Sasha, thanks for that compilation link -- super useful!

[sasha_feather]

Yes, it has a lot to do with where we spend our time, energy, money, etc! While I am very glad about the end of DADT for a number of reasons (including the fact that I currently work at a VA hospital), I would rather put resources toward anti-poverty, anti-homelessness initiatives, and getting people out of prisons, etc.

[sasha_feather]

Yes, agreed. I'm not a super duper fan of the military. BUT I was more relieved and happy than I thought I would be when DADT ended. That is because I find silence really harmful, and speaking really powerful, as general and activist principles, and I hated that there was a whole law enforcing silence.

[torachan]

Yeah, definitely in that respect I fully agree.

[laceblade]

I like that link a lot, especially that the legislation does nothing for victims/families, and it's easy points. I feel like so much of politics focuses on that these days: the easy points, i.e., abortion or etc., which people get REALLY riled up about, but the President will very rarely be dealing with, if ever.
"But everybody dislikes hate, amiriiiiite? VOTEFORME."

[sasha_feather]

Yes, that's a good point.

[meloukhia]

YES. I am really fucking disturbed by how many 'progressives' and members of the social justice community endorse retributive justice rather than social reform. It's so gross.

[sasha_feather]

"When you seek vengeance, dig two holes."

[jesse_the_k]

Oh! That's a lovely phrase new to me — whence?

[sasha_feather]

Wikipedia tells me:

Another proverb, attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius, states, "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." The implication here is that a desire for revenge may ultimately hurt the seeker as much as the victim.

[owlectomy]

OK, I think you have just changed my opinion!

I mean, I'm really not a fan of punitive justice or the prison-industrial complex, but I think my attitude was sort of "Well, since we're not going to get rid of prisons anytime soon the punishment ought to reflect that a hate crime really can be worse than a crime with different motives."

Sometimes pragmatism is useful, but sometimes you can let slide some really bad stuff in the name of being pragmatic.

[(Anonymous)]

I think you have just changed my opinion!

WOWeee!

:D

[sasha_feather]

Um, that was me, I don't know why I wasn't logged in. :/

[luinied]

Late to the thread, but I wanted to add my voice to the agreeing here also. And I don't think the history of how hate crime laws have been applied in this country paints a very nice picture.

[sasha_feather]

I suspect I completely agree with you, but do you have examples, or more that I can read about this?

[luinied]

Alas, what I have now is a fuzzy memory from about ten years ago when I took a class that made me briefly better informed on such matters.