Late Thursday night, fire consumed the offices of Women With A Vision, a New Orleans-based center that provides HIV prevention and advocacy services for lower-income and at-risk women.
“The worst damage was concentrated in our community organizing and outreach office where we store all of the resources we use to educate our community,” said WWAV director Deon Haywood. “We lost everything. We do not have an office to operate out of right now. Most of our office equipment and all of our educational resources were destroyed. Because of the targeted nature, we can only assume that this was intentional.”
It may have been an act of spite: According to Housing Works, WWAV recently won a lawsuit on behalf of people who were convicted of prostitution and charged with “crimes against nature” (based on an 1802 law that banned homosexuality and other sex acts).
In essence this ranked prostitution as a sex-offender-class crime, limiting housing and employment options for those convicted and requiring them to register as sex offenders.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Source/Photo: Housing Works blog
Belize
jason: “Serves them right for defending prostitutes. Prostitutes are evil according to the Bible that states gays like us should burn in hell.”
There you go, Jason. No need to leave your Christine O’Donnell slumber party/fundraiser/camping trip just to comment on this story. I’ve already left one in your behalf.
JayKay: “What right do women have to talk about HIV. Women don’t get HIV. Only macho gay men like me can get HIV because we’re the only ones macho enough to have condom-free macho anal sex.”
There you go, JayKay. No need to stop giving your equally macho and probably more masculine beard a foot rub just to comment on this story. I’ve already taken the liberty. Hurry back to rubbing Michelle’s foot. I heard that she can be a very impatient and suspicious woman.
Alexi3
I have no independent study, no stastistics to quote to back-up what I am about to say, but, I would observe that all of the Hate Speech that has been pouring out of the mouths of so called Christian preachers is a very difficult thing to control. Hate always is, it’s a very powerfull emotion and this center’s connection to HIV prevention probably fits in very nicely within such people’s world-view as a legitimate group to attack. The fact that they recently won a court case overturning an 1802 law that equated prostitution and homosexual acts as a sex-offender-class crime is probably seen by whoever is responsible as another attack against “traditional American values”. The closer true equality under the law comes to being a reality in this country the more senseless, violent attacks like this we are likely to see. Rarely do those who see themselves as being a part of the existing power structure have a blinding revelation that all they’ve believed in has been wrong and willingly turn 180 degrees and start marching in the opposite direction. Usually they go down fighting. But go down they will; History is turning a page in America. More slowly than most of us would like but turning just the same.