Remembering Satendar Singh
July 21 marks the birthday of Satendar Singh, the victim of a 2007 anti-gay hate crime in Lake Natoma State Park in California. Russian evangelical Christians mobbed Satendar, shouted homophobic slurs, and beat him severely enough to cause a fatal brain injury. What began as a day to picnic and dance with friends is now a day of mourning for the LGBT community.
On Satendar’s birthday, we remember and celebrate his life. Singh would have been 28 years old today.
This “Being Gay Today” video describes the events leading to Satendar Singh’s death:
July 21, 2008 - Posted by unfinishedlives | Asian Americans, Beatings and battery, California, Remembrances, Slurs and epithets, gay men, mob-violence and lynching, religious intolerance | Battery, California, gay men, hate crime, religious intolerance, Remembrances | 2 Comments
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If you are a first-time visitor to the Unfinished Lives Project website, we invite you to read A Welcome Message introducing you to our project. We are truly grateful for your visit.
The Unfinished Lives Project website is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBT hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation.
LGBT people in the United States are suffering a slow-rolling holocaust of terror and murder all across the country. Every locale and demographic of society are affected: First Nations, Anglo, Black, Latino and Latina, South and Southeast Asian, Transgender, Gay men, Lesbians, disabled, young, and mature. Homophobia has a long, crooked arm, and it is reaching out to snatch the life away from women and men whose tragic stories are under-reported to begin with, and whose memories are swiftly forgotten.
The horror of these killings transcends the shock and bereavement of loved ones and friends. These are not typical homicides; they are not killings for money or drugs, incidents of domestic strife, or crimes of passion. The vicious nature of hate crimes against LGBT persons is extremely brutal, grotesquely violent, and egregiously hateful.
Each murder serves the LGBT population as a sobering warning about the actual level of danger in our communities. The message these killings send is that freedom and open life for LGBT people is a cruel dream.
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I had no idea of the crimes against Sean Kennedy and Satendar Singh until I reached your website.
I report on Racial Crimes, but I have found it necessary to report on antiGay crimes like those of Matthew Shepard in Laramy, Wyoming or Lawrence ( Larry ) King, which I have posted in my pages, with help from the YouTube Videos.
I was moved by Senator Tom Duane that spoke in the New York rally of Jose Sucuzhanay, recently murdered with anti Latino and anti gay slurs. He was beaten with a baseball bat.
Christine Quinn, City Councilor Speaker also spoke there and I found their words to be beautiful and inspiring. Bravo for senator Duane and Councilor Quinn !.
As I understand the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Act is stalled. What a shame !
I am making a roster of hate crimes, Racial, Gay, etc ..
And I am also reporting crimes of Sexual Slavery or others, usually against Women or Children.
Thanks for letting me write here and I will continue getting some information on these Horrible Events from your site “Unfinished Lives”…
Thanks for Reporting !
Raciality.com
Vicente Duque
[...] CA with ties to Lively’s group carried out a fatal attack on gay East Indian immigrant Satendar Singh during the July 4 holiday season of 2008. Cohen’s important letter reads in [...]
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