Yesterday Judge Louis Guirola Jr. of the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi sentenced Joshua Vallum to 49 years in prison for the hate crime murder of Mercedes Williamson, a transgender Alabama teenager.

This was the first ever application of federal hate crime laws in regards to the murder of a transgender person.

I grew up just about two miles, as the crow flies, or as the child finds a path through what we called the Creek, from Lewis and Clark College. My older brother matriculated there, played basketball for them in the late 60s for awhile. One of my major life heroes, William Stafford, taught English there for many years while I was growing up.

So it has been a major blow to me to discover that this past weekend at least two hate crimes occurred on the campus in the span of a couple of hours.

Am I the only one who has never seen such a headline? (Excluding religious wars and religious warfare, of course.) I'm pretty sure that shit just doesn't happen, at least in the US. Yet, just the other day, yet again some religionist snuffed some kid for being possessed by demons.
'Baby Doe' dad: Mom's boyfriend thought girl was possessed - SFGate