Ryan Keith Skipper Vigil In the Works

Equality Florida is planning vigils in memory of Ryan Keith Skipper across Florida. For more information to attend or volunteer:

Russell Patterson at russ@eq fl.org or 1-813-849-3919.

The Skipper murder shows a disturbing pattern in Florida. Hate crimes against GLBT Floridians have gone up in the last years records on such attacks were released.

"The silence of Florida’s leadership in the face of this brutal murder cannot go unchallenged," Brian Winfield of Equality Florida stated.

The Republican Party has made comments that hate crimes equals censoring people's thoughts. This is laughable from a party that supports harsher criminal penaties for every other offense. The truth is the GOP is scared of offending the Christian Right. To people like James Dobson has lobbied hard against hate crime legislation.

FOF works against “special rights” for homosexuals and hate crime legislation, and supports “reparative therapy” for homosexuality, which has been widely discredited and rejected by the vast majority of doctors and physicians. FOF sponsors “Love Won Out,” conferences held around the U.S. that claim to prove that “homosexuality is preventable and treatable,” where many of the speakers are “ex-gays.” “Love Won Out” is from the title of a book by John Paulk, an “ex-gay” who is the host of the conferences and is an employee of Focus on the Family.

As long as the GOP is held hostage by people like Dobson little will get done to protect the GLBT from attacks