Open Letter from Dean Hamer & Joe Wilson to Bob Wagner & Diane Gramley
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AN OPEN LETTER TO ROBERT WAGNER AND DIANE GRAMLEY: STOP BULLYING TRANSGENDER PEOPLE
This past August, Coudersport, PA resident Robert Wagner convened a “Bible Believing Christian” forum at the local Public Library at which he threatened to violently attack transgender individuals with a baseball bat.
Forum “special guest” Diane Gramley, whose Venango County-based American Family Association of Pennsylvania regularly disparages trangender people as “men who think they are women”, condoned Wagner’s incitement without a word of protest. (The American Family Association, parent organization of Gramley’s AFA of PA, was recently designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization.)
A video of this verbal assault attracted national media attention:
(click arrow to view video):
Each November, the world commemorates the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a time to mourn and honor the many transgender lives tragically cut short by hatred, fear and violence.
We are writing this open letter to call on Wagner and Gramley to take responsibility for the consequences of their rhetoric, publicly apologize for their remarks, and denounce anti-transgender bias, discrimination and violence.
We also urge readers to raise their voices with others in the community to express their support for the right of all people to live free of fear and discrimination, with dignity and respect, regardless of their actual or perceived gender identity and expression.
Please let your voice be heard by writing a letter-to-the-editor of your local paper or blog and sharing news of your action on the OUT IN THE SILENCE website:
(http://wpsu.org/outinthesilence/your_thoughts_index/comments)
or blog:
(http://outinthesilence.blogspot.com/2010/11/open-letter-to-robert-wagner-and-diane.html).
Thank You,
Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign
www.OutInThe Silence.com
