Last September, Ríhanna Kelver was standing outside the Crowbar & Grill in Laramie, Wyoming, preparing to start her bartending shift, when she noticed a group of men across the street. One of them was shouting in her direction, and Kelver heard several homophobic and transphobic slurs as he began approaching her. Moments later, according to court testimony and surveillance footage, the man shoved Kelver to the ground hard enough to injure her tailbone.
Kelver responded by drawing a pistol from her bag, chambering a round, and pointing the weapon at the man who had pushed her. She kept the safety on and never fired. The man and his companions retreated.
Today, Kelver, a 28-year-old trans woman, faces two felony charges—aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent—which could carry up to 15 years in prison. The man who shoved Kelver and who allegedly initiated the confrontation, known only as “S. Durham,” has not been charged.
I guess it just depends on what’s important to you.
Does it matter to you when an innocent person is horrifyingly massacred?
Or does that mean nothing to you?
It made enough of a difference that state and federal laws were enacted. The perpetrators were given life sentences. It caused a massive cultural shift in this and every country. For decades.
But if you want to ignore it, go ahead.
Every bigot - every monster- on this planet agrees with you. Those are the allies you have chosen.
In 1998 most users here were either toddlers or didn’t exist.
Expecting them to have heard about a specific murder is ridiculous, especially if they’re from a different state or another country.
So it doesn’t matter?
Where did I say it doesn’t matter?
You’re complaining that people don’t know about something that happened 30 years ago, at a time when they were likely very young or didnt even exist.
Not knowing about every single terrible thing that has ever happened on a particular subject doesn’t mean you don’t care about it.
Without googling I bet you wouldn’t know a thing about Holly Chapman and Jessica Wells in the UK, a double murder that happened over 20 years ago.
Or who Dawn Sturgess was.
Both pretty big here, the double murder led to significant changes in the law and procedures for data sharing across the UK.
The difference between us is, you not knowing about it doesnt lead me to the insane conclusion that its because you just don’t care about the subject.
Either you agree that this man’s massacre was a tragedy, or you don’t. As far as I can tell, you are arguing very hard in favor of it, and that, simply because some people were not born before 1998, his death has no meaning. That is the message I am very clearly receiving from you.
I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I’ve heard enough. I’m just gonna block you now.
So you’re admitting the horrific double murder of two 11 year old girls doesn’t matter?
You didnt know about them so obviously by your logic that means you don’t believe they were a tragedy.
There’s a difference between ignoring something and being too young to have heard about it.
Are you too young for death to have any meaning for you?
The only argument you are making is that your very humanity has a sell-by date. I don’t accept that. I think you’re just making an excuse for being a piece of shit. And I certainly don’t accept that.
So, tell me, why do you find it OK that this innocent gay man was horrifically massacred? Why are you arguing in support of it?
Because that is unquestionably what you are doing
JFC take a breath. You went from 0-100 with absolutely no justification. Nobody is defending them, in any way, nor did anyone even imply that what they did was OK.
What in the fuck are you talking about?
What do you think not hearing about something means?
Are you arguing that your ignorance negates the meaning of someone’s death?
Are you really that arrogant and entitled? So solipsistic?
Nobody is arguing that in this thread.
Your head is just a place to store your teeth, isn’t it?
Dude I’m a history nerd and have a pretty solid grasp on random abscure shit and this was an unknown to me. I’m in California and my town was having crosses burned around the same time which is more directly relevance to me, some dude getting lynched a year before I was born in fucking Wyoming is so far outside my view you may as well bring up hate crimes in Vostoc Russia, the same thing applies to damned near everyone.
Fact of the matter is that it’s categorically impossible to know about every hate crime committed in the past 30 years, even folks who study this shit for a living would probably miss some things. You don’t need to know about every thrice damned obscure case to know the broad trends and issues.
You clearly speak another language than I do, because you heard something completely different than what I said.
Either you think that killing someone because they are gay as right or wrong. If you cannot answer to that, this conversation is over.