Thursday, June 12, 2008

More Outrage

In the midst of our discussion on Republican-leaning gays on Wednesday's show -- after the Log Cabin president, Patrick Sammon, defended John McCain in an interview with me -- we got a call from Stephen in Pennsylvania, who argued that people on the right don't want to kill us. I had explained that the bashers on the streets are empowered by religious hatemongers who are empowered by the John McCains of the world. Maybe Stephen should read up on this outrage before he votes this November. I read this report on the show --- so angering. In case you haven't heard:

"The man charged in the death of a gay man outside a Greenville County nightclub last year has been sentenced to three years in prison. Deputies said 20-year-old Sean Kennedy was attacked on May 16, 2007, in the parking lot of the former Brew’s nightclub by Stephen Moller. Kennedy later died from his injuries. According to witnesses, Moller shouted anti-gay slurs just before he attacked Kennedy. Moller was originally charged with murder in the case. However, in November 2007 a Greenville County grand jury handed down an indictment for a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter against Moller.



That meant in South Carolina he could only get five years. The judge then reduced the sentence to three. And then, the three years was reduced to two and half, for time served -- for killing a gay person, a sweet 20-year old man. If there was hate crimes legislation in effect -- like the federal hate crimes bill John McCain voted against -- there would have been enhanced penalties which would send a murderer to jail a lot longer and send a message to others, as well as a federal investigation into what happened, which might have shed more facts.

We had Sean Kennedy's mother on the show several times in the past and many have written about his case, but not nearly enough. This is the stuff that outrages me -- and I know, many of you too -- about people like Steven. Was quite a discussion. I'm going try to post some video and/or audio of it on the weekend. It's important for us to listen to and send around those kind of discussions, so people get just why John McCain is someone who will not do anything for LGBT people and will only empower those who hate us.