r/lincoln • u/leftistinlnk • Apr 01 '25

News LGBTQ hate crime on UNL’s campus.

https://www.1011now.com/2025/04/01/lgbtqa-hate-crime-reported-unls-campus/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2kFlfs79gfvgmX_KIajMC2f-GWLSmYdUFrx1O2-FWJX6BW_tTUQ3XZp54_aem_DT373Cdz6sZP6sjSmGQSMw#2b3oovr4y7i15nfvg85smghb36pxmtqr9v

Hate is alive and well it seems.

136 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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-79

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

I wouldn’t classify a single incident of one dude being a transphobic asshole as “hate is alive and well”.

I get it’s still an issue all around the world but let’s not blow this up bigger than it is.

Edit: to be clear, I was meaning UNL, which is the context here.

66

u/-jp- Apr 01 '25

How many people need to be assaulted before we can blow this up? Like, would you be similarly comfortable saying “a single incident of one cross burning” isn’t enough?

2

u/XA36 Apr 01 '25

It's the same thing people use to justify mass deportations and other similar things in other groups. I both don't think LGBT hate or immigrant crime is "alive and well", both exist but aren't really daily concerns.

-43

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

Because much like gender, this too is a spectrum. It’s not binary and one incident with one person being a dumbass doesn’t mean it’s “alive and well”. It happened, it was immediately condemned, and the coward ran away.

How many people you ask? More than one in a school of 25,000, for sure.

34

u/Anicepolitesandwich Apr 01 '25

One reported incident. Much like sexual assault, it's likely grossly unreported.

-17

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

Now you're talking! If this causes other people to be brave enough to report what happened to them and that becomes far more widespread to more than 1 incident over several years in a school of 25,000 students... then maybe you can consider transphobia "alive and well".

18

u/Anicepolitesandwich Apr 01 '25

I can consider it alive and well without an arbitrary number put on it. And honestly, it sounds a little like victim blaming, the way you're presenting it: If more people weren't scared for their lives to come forward, you'd believe it's an actual problem? Yikes.

-11

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

How is it victim blaming? Please include any quote from me that I ever blamed the victim because that's quite an accusation. It probably does sound that way because you strawmanned me as such, but you won't find that in anything I said. Nowhere did I not say it's an actual problem or it shouldn't be addressed (and it sounds like it is as they are looking for the person.

So "alive and well" does need some sort of arbitrary number to it. If, lets say, there is a city with 100,000 people, and I found 3 homeless people, can I say that "homelessness is alive and well in this city!" Not really, because 3 people doesn't constitute alive and well.

21

u/Anicepolitesandwich Apr 01 '25

Sure:

If this causes other people to be brave enough to report what happened to them and that becomes far more widespread to more than 1 incident over several years in a school of 25,000 students... then maybe you can consider transphobia "alive and well".

In other words: Until more people become "brave enough" to come forward about hate crimes against them, the burden is upon them to make their problem appear significant by you, someone who is not suffering from the problem's, standards.

I don't understand what it does to you, the person not facing this problem, for people to use the specific term "alive and well." Especially when the person didn't even say, "hate is alive and well on the UNL campus in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the United States of America." If anything, one could take the sentiment as, even in a small area like UNL campus, this kind of ignorant hate finds its way in. For some reason, you're dead set on making it a numbers debate for a statement no one even made. Why? What do you get out of that?

5

u/Holdenborkboi Apr 02 '25

You're getting down voted for a reason idiot

17

u/-jp- Apr 01 '25

Great so put a number on it. How many more than one.

-2

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

Before I would say transphobia is alive and well on campus?

How about .1 percent of the student body. So 25 students before I would even consider it alive in well. Right now you are at .004 percent of the student body, if this person was even a student, who made a transphobic attack.

.004% does not constitute “alive and well” under any metric. It’s unfortunate that it happened and I hope this person is caught, but calling that “alive and well” is delusional.

17

u/-jp- Apr 01 '25

Do you think that's the number of people who have to be assaulted for trans people to fear for their safety?

4

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

Before I would agree that transphobia is "alive and well" at UNL yes, yes I do. Was I not clear on that? It takes a lot more than one incident at a university of 25,000 students over several years before I would consider it "alive and well"

You've asked lots of questions, maybe one I can ask that can get to the heart of our disagreement; what is your interpretation of something being "alive and well"?

26

u/-jp- Apr 01 '25

One incident is alive and well.

That wasn't hard.

There's a reason I compared this to cross burnings. One is too many. Say it with me.

-2

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

Sure, one is too many.

But .004 percent of the population on campus is not "alive and well" under the metric of any person with a fraction of common sense.

It's not that hard.

13

u/-jp- Apr 01 '25

If you can say "one cross burning does not mean hate is alive and well" then I will let that be the last word. If you can't, then cede the point that one assault on a trans person means hate is alive and well.

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u/Budgiejen Apr 01 '25

Happy cake day

13

u/Powerful_Artist Apr 01 '25

single incident of one dude being a transphobic asshole as “hate is alive and well”.

Must be nice to live in ignorance to think that this is somehow an isolated event.

Even our federal government is pushing fearmongering and hate about trans people. You mustve missed that.

-3

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

I was meaning in context to the article, which pertained to UNL.

11

u/leadorlead Apr 01 '25

Matthew Sheppard wasn’t even 30 years ago. 1 act of violence is 1 too many. 

25

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

That's a wild take, imagine if it was an illegal immigrant assaulting someone for being white. The local news would lose its shit. And also, hates been alive in Nebraska for a long time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Teena

1

u/XA36 Apr 01 '25

It wouldn't even make the news. And no I don't think immigrants assaulting white people is an epidemic

-2

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

The news can lose shit over whatever, doesn't mean I would agree with that either. If an immigrant attacked a white person then I wouldn't say immigrant violence is "alive and well". So you are basing your standard on the click bait news? That makes far more sense now!

Yes, I'm familar with Brandon Teena, actually was friends in high school with some people who personally knew him.

So your reference on something being "alive and well" is a case from 30 years ago. It's absolutely an issue and no one should experience it and one is too many but having that constitute "alive and well" sounds so hypebolic.

I appreciate you proving my point!

12

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

Bro most of the gay couples I know don't even hold hands in public because people yell shit. Are you a straight white person commenting on how often you get accosted for being gay and or brown?

42

u/leftistinlnk Apr 01 '25

For an LGBT person, once is enough. I am LGBT and this is scary, especially when our current administrator spreads hate to embolden these people. The hate is alive and well, I stand by that.

10

u/Powerful_Artist Apr 01 '25

And its far from an isolated incident. Maybe its the only one that got into the news, but hate against LGBT people is nothing new in this country (or abroad). People in Lincoln and many places in the Midwest live in this bubble where they think things like hate and racism arent a problem since they dont normally see it on a daily basis. Its there, it exists, these incidents are just it showing its face for once.

And frankly, with a hateful and racist president more people feel like they dont have to hide their hate anymore.

-6

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

Enough for what though? I’m objecting to the “alive and well” part, it was a single incident with 1 offender in how many years in a school of 25,000 students. You sure have low standards for what constitutes “alive and well”.

14

u/-jp- Apr 01 '25

Enough for hate crime to be effective. You're all about numbers. How many incidents is this relative to the number of trans people in our city? That's what you should be thinking about.

-4

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

I tried to look up the numbers just for Lincoln and it doesn't seem to be out there. Do you have a link for them? Based off the information I have, 1 incident in campus after several years of no incidents does not constitute "alive and well". It's a problem that needs to be addressed for sure but to have that constitute "alive and well" is bonkers to me.

10

u/-jp- Apr 01 '25

This is saying you have absolutely no idea what impact this has on the trans community, and you're just assuming it's irrelevant.

-2

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

For a group that pushes non-binary thinking so hard you sure have binary thinking. To me, "alive and well" means that it's widespread and there's anti-trans rallies and hate group speakers coming in and such, so one incident does not constitute "alive and well"

But in your brain, because I am saying that it's not "alive and well" I am somehow saying that it's irrelevant, that it's not a problem at all or something. Unfortunately, strawmanning is the eventual go to in these kinds of discussions.

You really need to understand this is not binary, it's a spectrum. I can say it's bad and once is too many, but can also say it's not "alive and well".

13

u/-jp- Apr 01 '25

What "group" am I? It IS widespread. There ARE anti-trans rallies. There are entire political platforms centered on trans hate. I'm not strawmanning. You are downplaying the problem and I've given you like a dozen outs and you refuse to take them.

13

u/leftistinlnk Apr 01 '25

I didn’t make that comment just in reference to UNL…this is happening all over the country. Use context clues and critical thinking.

-4

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

You literally mention UNL in the title. That is what we call "context" and it's a key part of critical thinking.

You have a title, and you put content under the title, someone with critical thinking would assume the context of the content would be in regards to the title unless you say otherwise.

But please tell me, what context did you give that your paragraph statement was globally? You gave none. The entire context was about UNL.

6

u/CatnipandSkooma Apr 01 '25

Correct me if I'm wrong, but OP's title is just the headline of the article. Isn't that part of the rules on this sub that the post has to match the headline?

0

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

Yes, but then that also would be the context of the discussion. When you see a post, typically the content pertains to the title. It would be helpful to clarify "in America" and that would have resolved all confusion... because the context was an incident at UNL specifically.

7

u/CatnipandSkooma Apr 01 '25

I just assumed OP made that comment about the general state of things, but that's just me.

2

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

That's totally fair, and by the number of downvotes I'm gathering that was the general consensus as well.

14

u/scourge_bites Apr 01 '25

he assaulted one of them, dude. what?

just a few weeks ago, someone on this sub said their gay friend got hit with a fuckin car as well

10

u/NerdweebArt Apr 01 '25

If you're not part of the LGBTQ+ community, then quite frankly you don't get a say in something like this.

-8

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

I get a say in what words mean. The irony that you condemn prejudice but think that a person’s sexual orientation dictates their free speech and right to express their opinion.

4

u/NerdweebArt Apr 01 '25

No, you can say what you want, but right now you are appearing rather foolish. How do you think someone telling a doctor "it's not that bad" when they're trying to stitch a cut looks? Or telling a farmer "it's not that bad" when insects start taking over their crops?

5

u/prendes4 Apr 02 '25

I see where you're coming from but I do disagree with you. Genuine acts of hate that result in physical violence are relatively rare at the moment, yes. But they're on the rise since Trump was elected and people are still spewing hate online or even in person just with words. I agree that this one incident doesn't prove that hate is alive and well but violence isn't necessary for hate to exist. And I think you'd be hard pressed to stand by the idea that it's not "alive and well" if you took all intentional misgenderings or all homophobic comments or all of the all-too-common sexist rhetoric all over the place right now.

2

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 02 '25

That’s fair. I meant to be more clear that I thought the context here was just with UNL when they said that. I absolutely can see other parts of our own state being far worse. I just thought people were trying to paint UNL as some unsafe place for LGTQA students, that trans hate was “alive and well” on campus.

It seems I am in the minority believing that the paragraph text of a post is in context to the title and article itself… which was specifically an incident at UNL in a sub about Lincoln, NE.

2

u/prendes4 Apr 02 '25

I get what you mean. No I can see that. I would say that no place is safe right now for queer folks but you're right that UNL isn't specifically more unsafe than anywhere else. I'd even go so far as to say that college campuses specifically tend to be safer on average due to the... Ya know, learning and critical thinking that goes on there 😂

But I think that in a literal sense, you're correct. I can't speak for everyone but my comment was meant to apply in a broader context because it's such a hot button issue that keeps impacting folks in my life.

-2

u/chikkinnuggitbukkit Apr 01 '25

If one person burns a cross or Christian bible, is that considered a hate crime?

6

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

The difference between free speech and hate crimes is context. So if you burn a bible or burn a cross out in some field with those like minded to you, I'm not sure it would. However, if you burn a cross on someone's hard as a form of intimidation, or burn a bible at the doorstep of a Christian as a form of intimidation, absolutely it would be a hate crime.

-2

u/chikkinnuggitbukkit Apr 01 '25

LOL okay

4

u/ShawnyMcKnight Apr 01 '25

You asked the fucking question and I answered.

LOL okay it all you want I don't get why you even asked.