Quotation marks. They are useful when used correctly, and disturbing when they are not. In a previous Perspective, I warned against using them around the word family. Love really does make a family, and attempting to exclude certain families from consideration is hurtful and hateful. The same is true for the word marriage. The law determines one's marriage status -- not religious bias.
Today I will speak about an equally troubling use of quote marks; those which are used around the word murder.
Linda Harvey, spokesperson for the group Mission America, seems to believe murder isn't murder when applied to transgender individuals. Speaking about her reaction to news stories of homicides against transgender persons, she said, quote, "This article also repeated half-baked talking points about transgender 'murders'." Harvey put the word murder in quotes, and then went on:
"Were they murdered by raving Trump supporters? Or johns furious that a prostitute turned out to be a male?"
That level of callousness and insensitivity is stunning, even for Linda Harvey. What the women did or didn't do is irrelevant to their deaths. But her statement is typical of the vile anti-LGBT bigotry of many groups masquerading as loving, caring individuals -- and you can quote me on that.
I'm Jim Kline, and that is my Perspective.
