NEWSHATE CRIMES

In the past two years, more than two dozen LGBT people in Puerto Rico have been murdered, often in very graphic and violent crimes. Puerto Rico's own police department has been singled out by the Justice Department for failing to deal with the high levels of violence faced by LGBT citizens.

Yet at a time when violence toward the LGBT community in Puerto Rico is high, the territory's legislature is poised to remove protections from their existing hate crimes law for people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Outraged that the government would consider removing hate crimes protections for a population already facing epic levels of violence, Jorge Supelveda started a petition on Change.org urging the Puerto Rico House of Representatives to keep the country's hate crimes laws intact.

South African government sets up task team to tackle hate crimes against LGBT South Africans in response to a 170,000-strong Change.org campaign calling for action on ‘corrective’ rape.

South Africa’s Ministry of Justice is establishing a national task team to address hate crimes against LGBT South Africans after 170,000 activists from around the world demanded action on ‘corrective’ rape, the increasingly common hate crime in which men rape lesbian women to 'turn' them straight or 'cure' them of their sexual orientation.

The decision came yesterday during a meeting at the South African Parliament of senior government and police officials with grassroots activists, who used the US-based social action platform Change.org to recruit a record-breaking 170,000 supporters from people in 163 countries. It follows the murder of Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24-year-old lesbian who was stoned, stabbed with broken glass and gang raped 10 days ago in a black township outside Johannesburg. Used condoms, a beer bottle and a large rock were all found on or beside her body.

More than 140,000 Change.org members have petitioned McDonald’s to dismiss the employees who encouraged two women as they violently attacked a transgender woman in a Baltimore location. But pressuring for punishment for these individuals doesn’t address the deeper issue at hand: McDonald’s needs to establish better policies for the inclusion of transgender people at all levels of their operation.

So today, to help keep up the pressure on the petition effort and also ask McDonald’s to address the underlying issue, we’re asking everyone to send a creative Follow Friday tweet to McDonald's encouraging them to adopt policies that will help prevent another incident like the one in Baltimore in the future.

Please take a second to send this tweet:

#FF @McDonalds but only to see if they adopt policies to protect transgender employees & customers http://chn.ge/fPkkhm via @change

More than 120,000 people have joined a viral petition campaign calling on McDonald’s and Maryland authorities to take action over the severe beating of a transgender woman at a franchise of the fast-food chain near Baltimore, Maryland.

The assault, captured on film by a McDonald’s employee, shows 22-year-old Chrissy Lee Polis viciously attacked by several customers while McDonald’s employees watch. Polis is punched, knocked to the ground, dragged across the floor by her hair, and kicked in the face until she appears to experience a seizure.

To date, only one McDonald’s employee has been held responsible, with the company continuing to say that it’s investigating the situation and “will take appropriate action as necessary.”

The attack has caused widespread outrage, with hundreds of people attending a vigil and rally outside of the Maryland McDonald’s to protest anti-transgender violence. In response to the attack, Adrian Leigh Cowan, a Baltimore resident, also launched a campaign on Change.org, the fastest-growing online platform for social change.

When I first saw the video, I was brought to tears.

A young woman in her early 20s, beaten as she tries to use a restroom at a McDonald's in my home state of Maryland. Several assailants punch her, knock her to the ground, drag her across the floor by her hair, and kick her in the face until it appears she experiences a seizure.

As the video spread over the Internet on Friday – first through the blogosphere and then to mainstream press outlets – the facts on the ground became even more troubling. We learned that the video was filmed by McDonald's employees, several of whom seemed to cheer the assault on from behind the camera. And we learned that the victim was a 22-year-old transgender woman, later identified as Chrissy Lee Polis.

That’s when it hit me: yes, this was a disturbing attack, appalling on a sheer human level for its heinous nature. But this was also a hate crime, and representative of the violence and harassment that too many transgender people face in this country when they try to access public accommodations like restrooms.

You could argue that good news is hard to come by for Carol Ann and Laura Stutte. The couple, who has been together for more than 14 years, had their Tennessee house burned to the ground in September 2010 in a vicious anti-gay arson attack. The word "Queers" was spray-painted in black letters on the only thing left standing: an adjacent garage that lied next to a pile of ashes.

For nearly eight months now, Carol Ann and Laura have waited for their insurance company -- American National Property and Casualty -- to pay the claim on the burned down property. After all, that's what home insurance is for: to cover tragedies like this, and make sure families can get back on their feet again after disaster. But that's not what happened with Carol Ann and Laura. Instead, American National Property and Casualty has all but ignored their claim, refusing to pay them anything for the burned down house, and even continuing to charge them monthly insurance fees on the burned down property.

But while American National Property and Casualty has turned their back on these two women, the LGBT community in Nashville and around the country has stepped up and is helping seek justice for Carol Ann and Laura. And on this note, there are two amazing pieces of good news. First is that because of the online petition to hold American National Property and Casualty accountable for their disgusting treatment of these two women, Carol Ann and Laura were put in touch with a Pennsylvania woman who was able to donate an insulin pump to their family. Why is this so important? Because Carol Ann and Laura have a daughter who is diabetic, and the pump is necessary for her.

The second piece of good news? Activists with GetEqual are getting ready to hold what will be the first demonstration against American National Property and Casualty. What a way to take disgust at this insurance company public, and put pressure on the company in a very direct way.

American National Property and Casualty (ANPAC) might want to consider a tagline for their business: "If we insure your home, and it gets burned down in a vicious, anti-gay hate crime, don't expect us to pay your claim."

That's because for more than seven months, a Tennessee couple -- Carol Ann and Laura Stutte -- have been waiting for ANPAC to process their claim for their destroyed house.

Back in September 2010, Carol Ann and Laura went away for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary. When they arrived back home, they found that their house had been torched to the ground and turned into ashes. Only a garage was left standing, and on the side of the garage was written the word "QUEERS" in big, black spray-painted letters.

No one has ever been held accountable for setting the fire that destroyed the Stutte's home. And ANPAC, the company that Carol Ann and Laura insured their home with, has gone AWOL, refusing to pay the claim on the property despite the fact that all that remains of the house is ashes.

Over 48,000 Change.org members have written ANPAC, urging the company to do the moral and right thing and pay the claim, yet the company remains silent. Now Carol Ann and Laura have released a heartfelt letter that they've written to ANPAC, pleading with the company for help.

Many people ask me where the campaign against 'corrective' rape came from. Change.org asked me to tell a bit about it, so here I am.

I was born in 1974 and my father died when I was very young.

I grew up during apartheid and was very politically active, which was really dangerous back then.

But at the same time I come from a very Christian background.

Once my mother heard me and a friend talking about skipping the country when I was a teenager. It's what activists did back then, and my uncle was already in exile.

I was still very active in the church and my mother asked the church leaders to stop me from fleeing. They convinced me to drop the politics and stay, but one thing they couldn't strip me of was my sexuality.

I secretly had a girlfriend and my gayness was underground.

Yesterday we reported about the victory of Luleki Sizwe, a tiny group of lesbian activists based out of a safehouse in the townships of Cape Town that started an international fight against 'corrective rape', whereby men rape lesbian women to 'turn' them straight.

In just three months, their call for South Africa's justice minister to take action on 'corrective rape' became the most popular Change.org petition of all time, attracting what amounted to more than 170,000 supporters in 163 countries.

Then yesterday those same township activists walked into the halls of South Africa's Parliament and convinced some of the most powerful officials in the country to agree to the long term, sustained engagement of various government arms and civil society groups to research, develop and implement a national action plan to tackle 'corrective rape' and the intersecting issues of gender-based violence, anti-LGBTI violence and hate crimes.

In short: we demanded that the South African government take 'corrective rape' seriously, and they have agreed to do so... and then some! Click here to read how it all went down or click here to view a slideshow of yesterday's events.

Now, as further evidence of how this campaign has taken 'corrective' rape from an unspoken epidemic to a national discussion, the campaign is all over the media.