Lesbian, gay, bi, trans groups oppose the death
penalty
By
Teresa Gutierrez
In a significant development for the movement against the
death penalty and for gay rights, 11 major organizations of the
lesbian, gay, bi and trans movement issued a joint statement on
Feb. 10 announcing their opposition to capital punishment.
The discussion among the groups was prompted when the
prosecutor in the Matthew Shepard case called for the death
penalty for those accused of murdering Shepard. Matthew Shepard
died as a result of a brutal gay bashing in Laramie, Wyo., last
October.
The organizations that announced their opposition to the
death penalty include Gay Men of African Descent, the Astraea
National Lesbian Action Foundation, Lambda Legal Defense,
LLEGO-National Latina/o LGBT Organization, the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force, the New York City Gay and Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project, and the Lesbian & Gay Community
Services Center of New York.
The overwhelming sentiment of the joint statement was that
trans people, lesbians, gay men and bisexuals have nothing to
gain in the struggle for civil rights by supporting the death
penalty. LLEGO representatives said, for example: "Killing a
homophokbe will not kill homophobia."
Each group recognized the inherent fallacies of the death
penalty practice and called it racist and anti-poor. Kerry
Lobel, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force and a recent endorser of the April 24 "Millions for
Mumia" demonstration, "Capital punishment ... fails to solve
the problem of violence."
The Anti-Violence Project said, "AVP also views capital
punishment as an act of state-sanctioned violence--an act that
is no more or less violent than the barbaric acts of our
attackers."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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