Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People

Rating:
Summary: Of societal and institutional discrimination
Review: The homophobic-charged murder of Matthew Shepherd on a cold Wyoming prairie cystalized public awareness and outrage at such an unspeakable act of violence. But the national shame limited its focus on the violence of individuals at the expense of calling attention to the prejudice and discrimination that very much exists on both a societal and institutional basis. This body of work compiled by editors Lacey Sloan and Nora Gustavsson is a wake-up call to redress the socially accepted prejudice that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people encounter every day in laws that single them out, workplace harrassment and what is little less than unequal protection under the law. Edited as a scholarly work with a slant toward social and legal policymakers, "Violence and Social Injustice ..." nonetheless speaks to the larger social order in identifying the daily rituals of social and institutional (government agenices, police, workplace, courts) violence that, though so routine that they go virtually unnoticed, cries for social and legal redress. For the lay person and researcher alike, this book may well be the definitive research on the prevalence of social injustice for yet another group of people that social etiquette and public policy have done worse than totally ignore. Both have endorsed and promoted prejudice that, in any society, serves nothing more than to make it weaker.