KNOWhomo

LGBTQ* Stats You Should Know 

(2012, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force)

LBGTQ* Charts and Graphs

Hate Crime Statistics

(Graph from Daily Kos)

LGBTQ* History in Art

Subject: Knight von Hohenberg  and his lover, a squire, burned at stake. 

Charge: Sodomy

Painting: 1482 - Painter Unknown (from Zurich Central Library)

LGBTQ* People You Should Know

Matthew Shepard

This week marks 13 years since the brutal beating, act of hate and death of Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old student at the University of Wyoming. Matthew was brutally beaten and left for dead, tied to a fence post on the outskirts of the small town of Laramie on October 7th, 1998. He was not discovered until 18 hours after his attackers left him Due to the severity of his injuries, Matthew died five days later on October 12. 

Matthew’s story was the fist/punch heard around the world. His death became the catalyst for a generation’s fight for just laws and equal protection.

Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project would go on to create a theatre piece titled THE LARAMIE PROJECT (and a follow up ten years later). 

Melissa Etheridge paid tribute to him with her song Scarecrow. 

(to learn more visit the Matthew Shepard Foundation) 

LGBTQ Comics, Graphic Novels and Illustrations

(Trigger Warning: LGBTQ* Violence/Hate)

Green Lantern and the Gay Bashing

By Eric Diaz 

(text from the article: 10 Most Important Gay Moments In Comic History)

Terry Berg got brutally gay bashed in the Fall 2002 issue - The this entire storyline was meant to be an homage to the late Matthew Shepherd, as the Terry Berg character even looked like him.

Green Lantern Kyle Rayner was working at a magazine and had a teenage assistant named Terry Berg, his very own Jimmy Olsen. Eventually, it was revealed that Terry was gay, and he eventually came out to GL. His own family not accepting of him, Terry became Kyle’s token gay friend and confidant, only to be gay bashed by thugs a few issues later, leaving him in a coma. Clearly, this entire storyline was meant to be an homage to the late Matthew Shepherd, as the Terry Berg character even looked like him.

The whole storyline would send Kyle Rayner into a long “its all my fault, woe is me, I’m exiling myself to space” saga.

At the end of this storyline, Terry wakes from his coma and finds that Kyle has left him a duplicate power ring, implying that he will soon become the Teen Lantern (or something like that). But directions changed over at the Green Lantern book; Kyle’s supporting cast was soon forgotten. It’s a damn shame too, because it would have been great to have a gay hero on the Teen Titans and now Terry Berg is nothing more than a footnote in DC history.