Tag Archives: gay hate crimes

How Do You Commit a Hate Crime Against Yourself?

Ten years ago there was a curious case in San Francisco of a lesbian who was caught perpetrating gay hate crimes… against herself. The woman in question, who must use the alias “Jennifer”, was 17 when she smashed eggs all over own jeep, wrote death threats to herself in graffiti and urinated over her own gym locker.

The graffiti included such frightening threats as “DIE FAGGOT DIE”, “YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE” and “WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. WHEN WE’RE DONE WITH YOU YOU WILL BURN IN HELL.”

Her mother, “Mrs T”, immediately contacted the police and Jennifer’s high school administration, both of whom suspected that the abuse was the work of a homophobic man. Mrs T started sitting out all night in her car to keep an eye on the house in the hope of spotting the guilty party.

Jennifer’s high school made every effort to catch the perpetrators, establishing regular Gay-Straight Alliance meetings and offering a $1000 reward for any relevant information about the crimes. One night the police seemed to have cracked the case: they apprehended a group of young people dressed in camouflage who were trespassing on the school grounds. However, the kids were Jennifer’s fellow students who had turned vigilante in order to track down her abusers.

Mrs T was the first to suspect foul play when she questioned Jennifer and found that her story didn’t quite add up. Jennifer couldn’t explain how a stranger could have known which locker was hers. ‘I was starting to think, There’s something wrong here,’ Mrs T told buzzfeed.com recently. When the truth was revealed, Jennifer was convicted of vandalism and became estranged from her mother.

Since then Jennifer has been rehabilitated; she met all the requirements of her probation and went to university to study to become a schoolteacher. Mother and daughter are now reconciled.

Source | Buzzfeed