There are some who question the necessity of our hate crime laws.

When a crime is motivated by blind hatred, a crime such as that perpetrated against Jake Raynard, it goes beyond any negotiable goal. It is the desire to hurt, to denigrate, and to destroy.

Any time someone is attacked for their gender identity or sexual orientation they are not just assaulted physically, they are treated as less than human and that is what we must fight every day with every breath to counter such brutality.

They didn't look down on Jake as he screamed in pain, as he bled onto the street and pleaded for help. They looked down and saw an object they could fill with their twisted world views and physically bludgeon.

Jake Raynard is not an object. Anji Dimitriou, lesbian mother, viciously attacked, is not an object. Tyli'a Mack, trans woman, brutally murdered, is not an object. Ritchie Dowrey, gay man, viciously attacked, is not an object. We are not objects; we are not fragments of people. We are the many achingly beautiful faces of humanity and must hold ourselves with pride. When anyone is attacked this way, when anyone is reduced in this fashion, we must respond or we are all made a little less.

Though we may be from many different parents we are one family and we stand in solidarity with Jake Raynard, who is the latest senseless casualty. We stand with him and refuse to be less!

We demand that our governments, municipal, provincial and federal, protect our rights and stand with us!