On Luxuries

Then again, marriage equality seems such a luxury in the face of news like this: six gay men have been murdered in Iraq, in what seems a roar of religious violence.

Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a local official said on Saturday, and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown on a perceived spread of homosexuality.

Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous for gays and lesbians in Iraq since the rise of religious militias after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein six years ago.

"...They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honor," a Sadr City official who declined to be named said.

The police source who declined to be named said the bodies of four gay men were unearthed in Sadr City on March 25, each bearing a sign reading "pervert" in Arabic on their chests.

As incredibly exciting as Friday was with the news of Iowa (and Vermont), this news should remind us that marriage is not the final frontier of the gay rights movement. This news should remind us that lives are still at risk, every single day. This news should remind us of the importance of hate crimes legislation and governmental attention at every level to violence against minorities. Last year, a California man used a "Yes on Prop 8" sign to beat a gay man. The irony of beating a gay person with a marriage campaign sign is stunning - we cannot let ourselves be distracted from the wars that are still being fought all over the world: the wars for our right to exist.

Decriminalizing homosexuality, although powerful and necessary, doesn't even begin to adequately engage in this fight. It's the fundamental groundwork and the recognition that this war is already being waged, but it cannot be the only step made by the global community. More has to be done. These lives won't be the last we lose.

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Let us also remember that these hate crimes don't only happen abroad. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports at least eleven separate incidents of hate crimes against the glbt community within the first three months of this year. These included death and poison threats against eleven Seattle gay bars, a gay woman beaten in Minneapolis, two gay men who were assaulted with glass bottles and box cutters in New York, a gay veteran murdered in Pennsylvania, a radio host calling for violence against transwomen, and two gay men who were beaten unconscious in Oregon. These are only the ones that have been reported. Actual numbers of hate crimes committed against any minority are unknown and underreported.