#hateviolence

President Biden on Thursday is hosting a summit at the White House aimed toward addressing and combating hate-based violence within the U.S. The event, titled “United We Stand,” will honor communities recovering from hate-based incidents like the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub attack and the 2019 Walmart attack in El Paso, NPR reports.

The summit will even include remarks from Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the state of hate-based violence in the country. Additionally, a White House briefing released prior to the occasion details actions the administration is taking to fight such violence, together with various agency undertakings in addition to a so-called “Citizens’ Initiative to address Hate-Fueled Violence in America,” which will likely be run by former White House officials. The president will even on Thursday honor 16 “Uniters,” or Individuals who worked to bring their communities together and “address hate and division,” per the United We Stand website.

The event comes just weeks after Biden’s speech about Republican extremists, whom he referred to as “semi-fascists” and “a risk to our very democracy.” His comments sparked some debate as to whether unity is something that can be achieved at all; however the White House has stressed that Thursday’s summit is about hate-based violence and never political violence, so both Republicans and Democrats ought to agree with its mission, NPR reports.

Officials from both parties have made statements in support of the summit, which the White House says “will put forward a shared vision for a more united America.”

Our society is so set in certain ways, like everyone you meet is straight until proven gay. This is true unless your “gaydar” goes off when you see them then there is no possible way they can be straight. Identifying with the LGBTQIA community can make certain people dislike you just because you are not straight. This may make someone so mad that they will hurt you, thus making it a hate crime.

There is a quote by Suzanne Pharr that I really like, she said “Isn’t it odd that there is so little concern about discovering the cause of heterosexuality?” I find that very interesting because our society seems to be so curious about what makes a person identify with the LGBTQIA community. I have friends who are lesbians who have been asked many times “what man screwed you up?” which is just outrageous. Is it really so hard to believe that a women can love a women the same way a man can love a women?

Another reading is called Eight Bullets by Claudia Brenner. It is her own personal survivor story dealing with the hate violence that took a loved one away from her. The summary of the story is that Claudia and her girlfriend, Rebecca Wight, where hiking through part of the Appalachian trail in Pennsylvania. They encountered a man named Stephen Roy Carr who just asked for a cigarette. Later on they ran into him again and he asked if they were lost, they replied that they were not lost. Once they set up camp he saw his moment and from a distance started shooting at them. Claudia was hit with 5 bullets in the head, neck, face, and arm while Rebecca was shot twice one to the head and one to the back. The last bullet missed. Rebecca was murdered that night. Claudia managed to get away and get help but it was too late for Rebecca. This story is very easy to find if you just google one of their names if you want more detail. The main point is this man saw the two interact and found out they were gay. He had so much hatred that he decided he was going to kill them because they were in love. Why is love a reason to hurt someone? They did not know this man before this happened. He was a complete stranger to them. Being different from the majority should not be something punishable, it should be celebrated and understood.

  Have you ever experienced discrimination or hate violence?

How can our society overcome this hate?

  Pharr, Suzanne., “Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism.” Women’s Voices, Feminist Vision: Classic and Contemporary Readings. 5th edition. Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 71-74. Print.