Tulsa World: By law, not a hate crime

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By law, not a hate crime

Robert Stotler stands in the driveway of his Tulsa home, where a friend’s pickup was burned and spray-painted with anti-gay messages. ARAM BOGHOSIAN/Tulsa World

By DAVID SCHULTE World Staff Writer
Published: 7/18/2008 2:06 AM
Last Modified: 7/18/2008 9:34 AM

Such statutes in state don't cover sexual orientation

Twice within the past week, Robert Stotler and his partner have been targets of anti-gay messages at their Tulsa home.

About seven days ago, the message "Gays Must Go" was spray-painted on their garage door, and a symbol resembling a swastika, which is used by some white supremacist groups, was spray-painted on the side of their home.

Holes were punched in a friend's pickup's tires and the truck was set on fire while parked in Stotler's driveway.

The message "I'll be back" was spray-painted on both sides of the vehicle.

And back the person came.

A few days later, holes were punched in the front door of their home in the 11800 block of East 25th Street, and the message "Gay Go Away" was painted on it.

Stotler and his partner say they are victims of hate crimes, but police say they are not. Their reports call the crimes acts of vandalism or malicious mischief.

By Oklahoma statutes, the police are right.

Oklahoma is one of 17 states that have hate-crime laws that do not protect homosexuals from crimes directed at them because of their sexual orientation.

Stotler and his partner think something is wrong and — more importantly — that something needs to be done to protect gay men and lesbians in Oklahoma from being targets of physical harm and harassment because of their sexual orientation.

"Do I have to be dead or shot in my front yard for it to be a hate crime?" asked Stotler, a disabled veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corps. "Maybe that is what it will take for it to be a hate crime."

Members of Oklahomans for Equality, a Tulsa-based advocacy group that seeks equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, released a statement denouncing the property damage at Stotler's home and urging lawmakers to include sexual orientation in hate-crime laws.

"Oklahomans for Equality deplores the vandalism directed at Robert Stotler, an openly gay resident of east Tulsa," said Freddy Owens, the group's executive director. "Such intimidation highlights the urgent need for federal and state hate crimes legislation protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"Without such legislation, attacks on Robert and other LGBT people will continue to be classified as mere vandalism and will not be prosecuted properly."

The crime is just the most recent reported incident in Oklahoma in which a gay man was targeted because of his sexual orientation.

In October, Steven Domer, a gay Edmond resident, was abducted and killed. Darrell Lynn Madden, a member of a white-supremacist group, is charged with his murder, and authorities say Madden targeted Domer because he was gay.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation develops standards for state law enforcement agencies in collecting hate-crime records in Oklahoma. Because the OSBI keeps data to be reported on a national level, it has asked law enforcement agencies throughout the state to include offenses based on sexual orientation as hate crimes, but they are not required to do so, said Rodney Eaton, supervisor of Crime Field Services for the OSBI.

"If we have a police chief who says, 'I am not going to report it,' there is not much that I can do," Eaton said.

Records from the OSBI show that from 2004 to 2007 Tulsa police investigated 24 reported hate crimes and that no victims in those cases were homosexuals.

Laura Belmonte, president of Oklahomans for Equality and an Oklahoma State University history professor, believes that hate crimes in general and acts of violence against gay people in Oklahoma are under-reported because victims fear that if their names appear in media reports, other people may harm or harass them.

Her organization frequently receives calls and e-mails from gay men and lesbians from all parts of Oklahoma who have been being harmed or harassed because of their sexual orientation, but in many cases, they decide not to contact the police, she said.

"There are people who are frightened — especially in rural Oklahoma — to report it," she said.

Physical harm is just one of their concerns. They also don't want to risk losing their jobs if their employers find out they are gay, she said.

Fear is why Stotler and his partner have not spent a night in Tulsa since their home was damaged and their lives were threatened, he said.

They have considered moving away from Tulsa but would rather remain in a neighborhood that was once a safe place for them.

"We have painted over the garage," Stotler said. "We are here to stay. We may be nervous at night, but they are not moving us out."

David Schulte 581-8367
david.schulte@tulsaworld.com By DAVID SCHULTE World Staff Writer

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