I will definitely be sharing this with the GSA.

Oh man, that hurts.

Can I ask a sincere question? It's something I've always wondered but never found the answer to. Why is there a separate category for gay females but not for gay males? What is the history of the term lesbian? This is a genuine question. I am a full supporter of equal rights for the LGBT community, and I feel I should be more informed of the communities and neighbors I support.

Thanks.

So sad that fear of something people don't understand can lead to such senseless acts of violence. In this day in age, we have so much more to worry about than if someone is gay or not. It is time for this country to grow up and get educated about these things or this will never stop.

Neal... I have no idea. Just thought I'd add to the conversation.

i identify as queer and i've seen several of these stories in the news. but...what i don't like about this video is that it doesn't give any background about the murders. was it gay on gay crime? were they random shootings? i know at least one of the stories is a bona fide hate crime but we aren't given any details about the rest.

a gay female was 'tortured' in a town that i lived in and it was assumed that it was a hate crime. it turned out, however, that she was a victim of her partner's actions.

i think it's important to understand the correlations between violence and sexual orientation, but i it's very important to understand context as well.

Here's one of the more brief "histories" of the word "lesbian:"

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It turns out that a Greek poetess Sappho, who lived in ancient Greece in 7th century BC wrote poetry about love, some of it addressed to women. Sappho lived on the Lesbos island that is located in the Aegean Sea.

Although the inhabitants of Lesbos are properly referred to as "Lesviots" or "Lesvonians", in many translations from classical Greek to English they're called "Lesbians". Apparently they're not so happy about this connection:

In recent years this has often made Lesbos the destination of cruises and other vacations for lesbians, despite the disapproval of conservative Lesviot authorities, with some cruise ships being denied permission to dock. -- Wikipedia

I've just heard of the 15 year old in Oxnard, CA, who was shot by a classmate. There was an article about this hate crime in the NY Times. That was scary, you send your kid to school and you hope they'll be safe, then some punk with access to a gun kills that kid for no reason but fear and hatred. It all starts in the home, we have to teach our children that it's ok if someone is different from them, whether it's appearance or sexual orientation.

Call me crazy, but it seems to me that EVERY crime is a hate crime. I mean, you don't often hear of someone shooting their spouse because they're madly in love, do you?

If you really want to make a difference, stop voting for Republicans. There are a lot of good people in the Republican Party but, while both parties have way off the chart weird wings, the Democratic Parties far-out people generally don't preach hatred based on gender, race, sexual orientation or religion. And for local politics, back the Green Party. They don't have a snowflakes chance in hell nationally but do some very good work locally.