Florida Agenda

Photo Courtesy, www.stophate.us

Simmie Williams Jr., 17, a hero who was loved by many, but most of all by his mother Denise King, her tears of anguish and pain on her face is heartbreaking as she holds a picture of her son.

“I gave him $2 for the bus and he never came back,” said King, who lived with her son west of Fort Lauderdale. “He was a quiet person, kept to himself. He had a lot of friends. He wasn’t a troubled child. He was a happy person.”

Williams was attacked in the 1000 block of Sistrunk Boulevard by two young men who wore dark clothing and might live in the neighborhood, police said. Williams, who was wearing a dress and was known in the area by his first name or as “Chris” or “Beyonce,” was shot about 12:45 a.m. on Feb. 22,2008 and soon afterward died at Broward General Medical Center.

Could you image how you would feel if you said goodbye to a loved one, thinking you would see them later that day or the next but never get to see them alive again, only to find out they were murdered for being gay? So many are stolen from us each year for living out and proud. It’s time we honor all of them with the National Rainbow Memorial.

Williams, like many teens, feel safe and are strong enough to handle the price they pay like being picked on, bullied, beaten and have paid the ultimate price – their life. They are soldiers fighting on the frontlines in neighborhoods where it can be a living hell, as proven by all the recent LGBT suicides over the past few months. These are children, brothers, sisters, and every time one is murdered we should feel the pain of loss and sadness, but we should also feel empowered to do more until the senseless murders of LGBT people in America stops. We fight hate and those who teach it together or we die alone at the hands of hate. According to his mother, Williams wanted to be a chef and he really like to cook. King, who passed away at the end of 2009 from a medical condition, had been very supportive and active in our community by speaking at rallies and town hall meetings to help teach love and understanding. She was also a member of the Gay American Heroes Advisory Board. We will miss King and Williams, but never forget them. For more information, visit www.gayamericanheroes. comSimmie Williams Jr., 17, a hero who was loved by many, but most of all by his mother Denise King, her tears of anguish and pain on her face is heartbreaking as she holds a picture of her son. “I gave him $2 for the bus and he never came back,” said King, who lived with her son west of Fort Lauderdale. “He was a quiet person, kept to himself. He had a lot of friends. He wasn’t a troubled child. He was a happy person.”

Williams was attacked in the 1000 block of Sistrunk Boulevard by two young men who wore dark clothing and might live in the neighborhood, police said. Williams, who was wearing a dress and was known in the area by his first name or as “Chris” or “Beyonce,” was shot about 12:45 a.m. on Feb. 22,2008 and soon afterward died at Broward General Medical Center.

Could you image how you would feel if you said goodbye to a loved one, thinking you would see them later that day or the next but never get to see them alive again, only to find out they were murdered for being gay? So many are stolen from us each year for living out and proud. It’s time we honor all of them with the National Rainbow Memorial.

Williams, like many teens, feel safe and are strong enough to handle the price they pay like being picked on, bullied, beaten and have paid the ultimate price – their life. They are soldiers fighting on the frontlines in neighborhoods where it can be a living hell, as proven by all the recent LGBT suicides over the past few months. These are children, brothers, sisters, and every time one is murdered we should feel the pain of loss and sadness, but we should also feel empowered to do more until the senseless murders of LGBT people in America stops. We fight hate and those who teach it together or we die alone at the hands of hate.

According to his mother, Williams wanted to be a chef and he really like to cook. King, who passed away at the end of 2009 from a medical condition, had been very supportive and active in our community by speaking at rallies and town hall meetings to help teach love and understanding. She was also a member of the Gay American Heroes Advisory Board. We will miss King and Williams, but never forget them.

For more information, visit www.gayamericanheroes. com

Philip Walsted  : Photo Courtesy, www.stophate.u

Philip Walsted and Dr. Jonathan Hartman are a couple that made history in Arizona because they were openly gay and forever in love.

On June 12, 2002, Walsted, an openlygay 24-year-old in Tucson, Ariz., was killed in a brutal and violent murder. Walsted was savagely beaten to death with a baseball bat. According to one news report, Walsted suffered injuries to more than 50 places on his body, including signs of numerous blows to his head. Another news report states he was hit in the head with a baseball bat as many as 20 times and was found dead on the street near Fifth and North Hoff Avenue, not far from where he lived.

“An unbelievable numbness takes over,” said Amy Walsted of her brother’s murder. Amy Walsted says her brother was fun-loving and had a good spirit. He worked for Americn Airlines and lived with his partner Dr. Jonathan Hartman.

Amy Walsted says her brother was the target of a hate crime because he was gay.

In March 2005, David Higdon was sentenced to life in prison for Walsted’s 2002 muder. Investigators describe Higdon, who was 22 at the time of the muder, as having neo-Nazi beliefs and that he mudered Walsted to impress a white supremacist group. Higdon had a previous felony record and was out on community supervision during the time of the murder. Some of Walsted’s personal belongings, including Higdon’s own clothes with Walsted’s blood on them, were found in the home where Higdon was staying.

On Dec. 6 in New York City, Hartman will be among the first to receive the Heart of a Rainbow Award from the Gay American Heroes Foundation for his courage and commitment to Philip over the years. Hartman established the first ever LGBT Memorial in a public park in Arizona in 2005 to honor and rememeber the love of his life.

Hartman has since marched in parades carrying a poster of Philip and helped in the building of the Rainbow Memorial through his donations of time, experience and resources like many other family and friends of our heroes who become proactive in the fight against hate and those who teach it. We need your to help in honoring all the LGBT people who are murdered and taken from us every nine days in America. Today you can help in our fight for freedom by honoring and remembering a Gay American Hero by telling this story to a friend and giving what you can to build the Rainbow Memorial. We fight hate together, or we die alone at the hands of hate.

For more information on Walsted and other heroes, visit www.gayamericanheroes.com.

Ryan Skipper: the inspiration behind the National Rainbow Memorial

It all started in March 2007 as I was watching the local news and heard of a young man who had been murdered for being gay. His name was Ryan Skipper, and he would later become the inspiration for the National Rainbow Memorial, not to mention a Gay American Hero.

At 25, Skipper was your everyday bighearted, handsome young guy living out of the cage of shame and fear in Polk County, Florida, which is located between Orlando and Tampa. It takes a lot of courage and strength to live as an LGBT person in an area where the presence of the KKK is prominent. It’s also home to a local sheriff who implied that Skipper got what he deserved because he was out looking for sex. To date, that sheriff has never apologized to Skipper’s family for his insensitive statements.

Skipper, who was openly gay, was attacked in his own car. His body was found on the side of a road, his throat slashed and as many as 20 stab wounds covered his torso. The two cowards who brutally murdered Skipper were convicted and are serving two life terms with no possibility of parole. Unfortunately, Skipper’s death is part of an alarming statistic: one LGBT person is murdered every nine days, and one gay bashing occurs every six hours in America.

Since his death, Skipper’s parents have started a PFLAG chapter in Polk County and are fighting hate on the frontlines. His brother is on the Gay American Heroes advisory board and has traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with President Barack Obama as part of a coalition to get a national hate crime law passed.

It’s time to show the world our heroes because our family and friends are being stolen from us because of hate. We will not live in fear, but rather face the ongoing violence against the LGBT community head on. We will be united in this fight for respect, dignity and protections under the law. It is through awareness, education and perseverance that we will prevail and honor the lives of all our Gay American Heroes.

Teach love, fight hate, save Lives and give Hope – The National Rainbow Memorial.

Michael Sandy – one of many Gay American Heroes of the National Rainbow Memorial. We must never forget the lives taken from us in our fight for our rights and freedoms as LGBT people in America. Memorials have long been a way to honor family and friends who have passed on, sometimes at the hands of others. Memorials start us on the road to healing and give comfort to us knowing that our loved ones will never be forgotten.

They also give life to those we’ve lost and create awareness for many who may not realize that these kinds of tragedies regularly occur. One gay murder every nine days – one gay bashing every six hours in America.

On Oct. 22, 2010, more than four years after the fatal beating of Sandy, 28, a bench and plaque were erected in his honor at Plumb Beach, the site of his murder in 2006. Relatives and city officials had been planning the dedication for months. A reminder of the horrific attack will have special meaning because of a string of recent attacks against gays. Sandy, of Williamsburg, New York, was lured to the secluded Plumb Beach spot by men he met online, who plotted to rob him. They attacked him, and when he tried to escape, they chased Sandy onto the Belt Parkway where he was hit by a car. He died two days later. Four men were jailed for hate crimes in the attack. Witnesses testified that one of the assailants rifled through Sandy’s pockets as he lay fatally wounded on the ground – and two of them later laughed over newspaper headlines describing the attack. “This is a young man who had a family that loved him, and loves him, and he’s gone now, for no reason at all, because people felt that because he was gay his life was worthless,” said City Councilman Lew Fidler (D-Sheepshead Bay), who sponsored the memorial. “The spate of anti-gay violence and hate crimes that we’ve had … makes it clear that we still have miles to go.”

The inscription on the memorial at Plumb Beach reads: In loving memory of Michael J. Sandy, Oct 12, 1977- Oct. 10, 2006, who died of injuries inflicted on him Oct. 8. This memorial is dedicated to Michael and all who have died at the hands of violence and hate crimes.

For more stories visit:

www.GayAmericanHeroes.com

Almost 100 people showed up on the evening of Monday, May 10th for a candlelight vigil held in honor of Courtney Bright, a 24-year-old Polk County lesbian who was allegedly murdered by the father of her girlfriend. The vigil was organized by Scott Hall, founder of the Gay American Heroes Foundation (GAHF), an organization dedicated to educating about, and ending anti-LGBT hate crimes.

The somber ceremony was organized in the parking lot of the Shoppes of Wilton Manors and various members of the community spoke on behalf of those affected by hate crimes in our country. Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick presented Scott Hall with a proclamation declaring Monday, May 10, 2010 “Courtney Bright Day” in Wilton Manors. Also speaking that evening included Wilton Manors Vice Mayor, Justin Flippen, Carol Benowitz of PFLAG, Michael Albetta of the Dolphin Democrats, Dr. Rod Hurt of the GAHF and Rabbi Noah Kitty of Congregation Etz Chaim. In attendance were representatives of the Wilton Manors Police Department and the Broward Sheriffs Office.

Immediately following the speakers, members of the community tearfully read a partial list of names of other members of the LGBT community who had been murdered in hate-based crimes. —BK