Research Assignment #1-HATE CRIMES

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/nyregion/16gays.html

   When people in the city are gay, they often face problems of being tortured because of their sexuality. Many gay people especially in the Bronx are being beaten up, or getting very mean comments directed towards them. In this article the interviewer asks a few gay people living in the Bronx, or who live in New York City about what they go through in their everyday lives, being gay. If they are teased, or beaten up, they tell a small part of their story.
  Another hate crime that went on for a person's whole life was told to us by our principal, who had us watch a short movie about a man who was tortured his whole life because he was gay. This man new that he was gay since he was in high school, so the physical pain really started to come when he came out about being gay. He was tortured by the same people every time he saw them in the hallway, or outside of school. The abuse started to come so badly that as soon as he could, he ran away with one of his friends. Through all that came with his pain, his family stood by him the whole time. When him mother found out that he was gay, she was completely fine with it. His dad was a little bit unsure about his feelings for this new idea; but he eventually came around. Over time the abuse became harder and harder to deal with, but once he went off to college and on with his life as an adult, his life improved.
   In one of my favorite shows, Glee; one of the characters is always undergoing some type of abuse. between the pain of not being able to have a relationship. Or simply having to deal with being slammed against the lockers in his school hallway. This boy's name on Glee is named Kurt. At first he also tries to ignore the pain. But it really starts to get to his head, and he stands up to his bullies. But that just leads to more problems in his world of high school, because his bully turns out to be completely incognito, and the bully is.....GAY!! He kisses Kurt passionately in the football locker room. The bully won't admit to anyone that he did it. But this is also a moment of realizing for Kurt. He realizes that when he is being bullied it's to cover up the bully's insecurities by pushing people around and being mean to them, because they can express something that the bully themselves cannot.

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S44-4241-0-6165&artno=0000293670&type=ART

   This article takes a different route of talking about hate crimes. It talks about how many people are saying there should be new laws against hate crimes. There is a law suit going on about whether or not this is a good idea. This article goes into depth about the law suit. The law suit is between different federal agents, and their lawyers.