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5.0 Conclusion The conference focused on the manifestation of, and strategies to prevent and eliminate, hate activities in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) communities. From the onset of the conference, it became clear that the delegates viewed hate activities as including not just the verbal, physical, and sexual abuses suffered at the hands of a perpetrator, but the victimization or abuse that occurs when others respond to a victim of bashing or violence in a negative way because of his or her perceived or actual sexual or gender orientation. This secondary abuse, unfortunately, continues to occur at the hands of health care providers (e.g. ambulance workers, emergency room nurses and doctors, victim assistance programs), the police, family members, and the education and legal system, and needs to be addressed.Many people assume that bashing and hate crimes are solely about crimes of extreme and bloody violence. In this conference we began with the assumption that violence and hate crimes are much more than extreme confrontations. It also includes more subtle forms of violence which are often not clearly recognized, including such things as verbal and non-verbal insults, invisibility in schools and various forms of media, the public trumpeting of views that queers are sinful or immoral, shaming and attacking behaviours, jokes, lack of, or limited, services, ignorance of care providers, and an increasingly violent range of aggressive and oppressive actions. Acknowledging that bashing and hate crimes includes this entire range of actions is important in order to create lasting and effective change.
Hate activities were explored from one of four perspectives - violence and bashing, health, education, and youth. The recommendations from these four areas had similar themes in common that, roughly categorized, fell into four main areas: 1) funding and support for services and programs, 2) education and information; 3) legislative and policy reviews; and, 4) collaborations. These main themes are summarized briefly below, followed by a number of priority recommendations. While the body of the report lists all recommendations brought forward by the delegates, this section presents only those identified as top priority. For the purpose of this report the terms LGBT and Queer were used interchangeably. While we realize that the term Queer may be offensive to some, it is the term many young, urban LGBT's, prefer to use. The use of the term 'transgendered and transgender' are self-defined umbrella terms for all persons whose gender identity is ambiguous, dual, or changing, for example drag kings, transvestites, butch lesbians, drag queens, and transsexuals. |