geoff: The brutal murders of
several lgbtq+ people and allies
in recent weeks are raising
alarm across the country.
Among those cases the shooting
, death of 66-year-old Laura Ann
Carleton earlier this month in
lake arrowhead, California.
Carleton was killed after an
argument about a rainbow pride
flag hanging outside her store.
And last month, the murder of a
28-year-old dancer o'shae
Sibley.
Sibley, who was gay, was fatally
stabbed during a confrontation
at a gas station in Brooklyn,
New York.
Police say Sibley confronted a
group of people who made
homophobic slurs and racist
remarks while he and his friends
were dancing and voguing.
I recently spoke about these
attacks and the larger problem
of violence against lgbtq+
people with Sarah Kate Ellis,
the president and CEO of glad.
>> Thanks for having me.
Geoff: We are living in a moment
where acceptance of lgbtq people
has never been greater.
Looking at glaad's latest
survey, nine out of ten
heterosexual Americans, 91%,
think that lgbtq people should
live without facing
discrimination.
84% support equal rights for the
lgbtq community.
And yet, glad documented a more
than 300% increase in anti-lgbtq
incidents during this past pride
month over last year.
What do you make of that?
>> Yeah, it's actually really
shocking what's happening in our
culture, in our world today. And
I think it really is simple and
it boils down to the
politicization of our community.
Really, what we're seeing is
that politicians are filling the
airwaves with anti-lgbtq
rhetoric, and it's getting
picked up on social media, and
then it's turning on from online
to offline in real life into
hate and violence.
And so even though it is such a
small, and this is exactly what
you pointed out, this is a very
tiny group of people who are
anti-lgbtq.
The vast majority of Americans
are allies, or are lgbtq.
But they're making a lot of
noise and they're super violent.
And I just want to point out,
not only are they now violent
toward our community, which
we're kind of used to, sadly as
a community, they're violent
toward our allies.
They're violent toward
corporations.
If you remember back to pride
month, when bud light and target
were threatened with violence
from these anti-lgbtq folks, so
they've really heated up and
turned up the volume on violence
against our community and our
allies.
Geoff: In nearly half of the
documented incidents, as I
understand it, were perpetrated
by people with extremist ties.
What's the best way, in your
view, to confront that?
>> This is really tough.
This is a tough situation we are
in.
And we need to see leadership on
this.
And we're not seeing that right
now at the Republican party.
Actually, what we're seeing the
Republican party do is
villainize us and marginalize
us.
We're actually seeing faith
leaders like the pope who is
reaching across the aisle and
talking about the churches for
everyone, everyone, everyone, he
said a few weeks ago, we need to
see the leadership, the
political leadership in America
on the Republican side to stop
villainizing us and to stop
politicizing us.
Geoff: What's the impact of all
of that on the lgbtq community?
>> It is devastating, honestly.
The violence that you talked
about, we've seen 350 acts of
violence or threats of violence
against our community.
This is a poll that we do or a
measurement that we do with the
adl in the past year.
And we've seen over 600
anti-lgbtq pieces of legislation
proposed since January.
There's nine active now bills of
"Don't say gay" across America.
It's not just Florida and it's
not just Texas.
What we're seeing is a
proliferation across the states
in America with these anti-lgbtq
bills, and all of that rhetoric,
all of the fear mongering turns
into violence and hate against
our community and it makes it
, really dangerous for us to
exist.
But we do not cower to this.
We never have, and we never
will, nor will our allies.
And we saw that beautifully,
both with o'shay and with Lori,
who stood up for what they
believed in.
But you shouldn't have to die in
America for being for a
marginalized community.
Geoff: As you mentioned, Laura
Anne Carlton, she was not a
member of the lgbtq community.
She was an ally and she was
defending her pride flags in
front of her store the night
that she was shot.
And o'shae Sibley, 28 years old,
was with his friends at a
Brooklyn gas station, was
dancing to beyoncé songs and was
fatally stabbed.
Reflect if you can on what they
represented.
>> They represent the best of
America, living their lives
freely, supporting their
community in one case and being
an ally in the other case. They
represent, honestly, the
American people, the majority of
America, and not the small
minority that we're talking
about.
And I think that standing up for
your values shouldn't mean that
you get gunned down or stabbed.
That's not what this should be
about.
A week ago, we hadn't even heard
the representative in Lori's
district speak out against this
, and in support of her.
I don't know if that's changed
in the recent couple of days,
but what kind of leadership is
that?
That is perpetuating and
promoting hate and violence.
Geoff: Sarah Kate Ellis is the
president and CEO of glad.
Thank you for being with us.
>> Thank you for having me.
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