Raid on Gay Bar in Texas

We’re working on it, Jari…

This is why we need a federal hate crimes act. Maybe if there had been one, officers would have thought twice before the responded with such brutal tactics. As long as LGBT are considered second class citizens, these attitudes will not change and attacks will continue to happen. If everyone had equal rights and some were not relegated to second class citizens, then we might not need a hate crimes act, but as long as positions in authority can respond in like fashion with seemingly impunity we need one. They get to choose who they prosecute and what the punishment is and some local authorities base that on who the victim was. I wonder what the reaction would be if the officer that said he was groped would have been groped by a woman and this was the response. I think there would have been a huge public outcry, and this difference in response only illustrates the inequality of different groups’ civil rights.