Thousands Attend Funeral of Gay Man in Chile
A 24-year-old who was beaten and branded with swastikas by a neo-Nazi group earlier this month was laid to rest, as thousands attended his funeral in Chile. Friends, family, gay rights activists, and foreign dignitaries gathered in Santiago on Friday, as police stated they are treating the murder of Daniel Zambudio as a hate crime. They believe he was targeted because he was homosexual. The tragedy has sparked a national outcry and a debate over whether the government should pass an anti-discrimination law offering stronger protections for victims of hate crimes. Al Jazeera's Rachel Levin reports.

WA TODAY: Huge funeral for gay neo-Nazi victim: Thousands of Chileans have joined the funeral procession a gay man tortured and beaten to death by presumed neo-Nazis amid growing national outrage over the attack. ¶ On Friday people crowded the streets around cars that travelled for three hours between Daniel Zamudio's home in San Bernardo south of the capital and the main cemetery in Santiago, waving white handkerchiefs, throwing flowers and clapping. ¶ "There will be time for justice but for now, I am only asking for respect, and I thank all of you for each gesture, each tear shed, for my brother," Diego Zamudio said before a private cremation. » | AFP | Saturday, March 31, 2012

Cross-burning in Prosperous US Town
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: An 11-foot (3.3-meter) cross was stolen from a church and set on fire next to the home of a black family, igniting anger and disbelief in a prosperous, mostly white Central California community that hasn't seen a hate crime in nearly a decade.

Police assigned extra patrols to the neighbourhood in Arroyo Grande and rewards were offered for information leading to an arrest. Church leaders were urged to mention the family in their prayers.

"I was horrified," said the Rev. Stephanie Raphael, president of the San Luis Obispo Ministerial Association. "We live in a paradise, and I think the first thought was, this can't really be real."

The cross was stolen from a garden at Saint John's Lutheran Church weeks ago and set ablaze on Friday in a lot behind the house where the family lived, police Cmdr. John Hough said.

A 19-year-old woman awoke about 12:30am and saw the flaming cross from her bedroom window. Arriving officers doused burning pieces of wood with a garden hose.

Police declined to release the names of the family members because the incident was considered a hate crime – the first since 2002 in the city of 17,000 people in mostly rural San Luis Obispo County, a region of vast farms, picturesque small towns and a state university campus.

More than 30 clergy members signed a letter to the editor of the San Luis Obispo Tribune urging that the crime be taken seriously. » | Wednesday, March 23, 2011

THE SAN LUIS OBISPO TRIBUNE: Cross burning brings outraged residents to Arroyo Grande City Council meeting » | Cynthia Lambert | Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Catholic Church Viciously Vandalized: Police calling damage to California house of worship a hate crime

Dutch MPs Bid to Halt
Hate Crime Trial Fails
THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE: A controversial Dutch MP has lost a legal attempt to halt a pending hate crime prosecution against him.

Geert Wilders will now face trial for inciting hatred against Muslims after a Dutch court described his challenge as “inadmissible”.

While leaving court on Wednesday Mr Wilders said: “Freedom of speech is under pressure. The legal system in North Korea is better than in the Netherlands.”

Despite the controversy Mr Wilders, the leader of the Freedom Party, is one of Holland’s most popular politicians.

Mr Wilders is the maker of the 17-minute anti-Koran movie, Fitna, which features quotations from the Koran interspersed with footage of terrorist atrocities and speeches by Muslim preachers.

The controversial MP has also been criticised for writing anti-Islamic articles and letters which were later published in a mainstream Dutch newspaper.

While in August 2007 Mr Wilders called for the Koran to be banned.

However, Mr Wilders has always maintained that he is targeting Islam not individual Muslims. >>> | Friday, January 15, 2010

We Won't Turn into Iran
YNET NEWS: Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar vows to protect freedom in wake of gay center attack

Until this murder case isn’t [sic] solved and the killer’s identity is discovered, we’ll continue to ask: What prompts a human being to massacre teenagers, children really? What was the motive for this demonic act?

At the site of the attack in the heart of Tel Aviv, a two-minute walk from my house, I mostly saw consternation and shock in the eyes of the crowd and passersby. Eyes were teary and hearts cried. As a Tel Avivian, and as a person who had only experienced magical moments on Nachmani Street, where the crime took place, I felt a sour sense of shame rising within me.

What’s happening to Israeli society that leads us from one horrific display to another? What can prompt a person to indiscriminately kill boys and girls who arrived at a site meant to grant them support and security?

We need to be cautious before police conclude the investigation. However, one way or another, waiting for the case to be solved cannot be a pretext for evading a moral obligation. For Israeli society, this is an opportunity to clearly and unequivocally define its commitment to freedom and tolerance. For public officials and leaders, this is the time to pledge that we will protect Israel’s character and future as a free society. Because wherever a person is attacked or humiliated because of his lifestyle, choices, tendencies, or indecision, it is not only the freedom and dignity of that person that are being undermined. >>> Gideon Sa’ar* | Tuesday, August 04, 2009

*Gideon Sa’ar is Israel’s education minister

YNET NEWS – OPINION: End the Silence

The whole of Israeli society must speak up in wake of gay center massacre

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.” That was the political legacy of Harvey Milk, the first politician to come out of the closet in the United States and a member of the San Francisco city council; the movie about his life, which ended in murder as he predicted, was one of the most important films in recent times.

If the murder of the two young people at the gay center was indeed motivated by their sexual orientation, this is the gravest hate crime ever carried out in Israel based on this motive. Yet we must keep in mind that this was not the first case. In the 2005 Jerusalem Pride Parade, Yishai Shlisel stabbed three participants. The latest incident ended on a graver note. >>> Eyal Gross* | Monday, August 03, 2009

*Prof. Eyal Gross, a law lecturer at Tel Aviv University, formerly served as a volunteer legal advisor for the LGBT Association in Israel

Police Hunt Israel Gay Club Shooter
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Hundreds of police officers are scouring the streets of Tel Aviv today in a manhunt for a gunman who shot and killed two people at a youth club in the worst ever attack on homosexuals in Israel.

The Tel Aviv shooting shocked the Mediterranean city, which prides itself on its live-and-let-live attitude and boasts a thriving gay community. The brazen attack drew condemnations from the city's mayor, from Cabinet ministers, the country's chief rabbis and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We'll bring him to justice and exercise the full extent of the law against him," Netanyahu said of the killer, speaking at the Israeli Cabinet's weekly meeting. >>> AP | Sunday, August 02, 2009

New Dark Age Alert! Gunman Kills Three in Tel Aviv Gay Nighclub [sic]
THE TELEGRAPH: A black-clad gunman has killed three people and wounded several others in an attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub.

Israeli police said the gunman entered Cafe Noir, a youth club for gay teenagers in central Tel Aviv, and sprayed the interior with automatic rifle fire, killing three people and injuring 11.

Yaniv Weisman, who witnessed the incident, said: "This was a hate crime, a premeditated attack. Those hurt were very young."

A police spokesman confirmed the deaths at the gay club, describing the incident as "criminal, rather than nationalistic". >>> Telegraph reporter | Saturday, August 01, 2009