His lips still lined with dried blood, a deep cut displayed high on the cheek bone, 22 year old Joseph Baken snapped a photograph of himself that would soon go viral as the current symbol in the struggle for the LGBTQ movement.  It would then only take a matter of days, coupled with a telling video shot of Baken mishandling a backflip and crashing face first into sidewalk near the club where the hate crime allegedly took place, to learn that the story was fake.  Those originally outraged at the perpetrator then had to turn their feelings towards Baken, a momentary rally around the man instead forming into a mob spread by disheartened, and in many cases plainly disgusted, online commentators. 

Many fear that Baken's false report will make it more difficult to distinguish the validity of a hate crime case against the LGBTQ community.  If this individual can lie about his injuries, why believe the others? 

However, as members and supporters of the community, we need to approach the answer differently.  We first need to address the culture in which this could exist, and consequently what it is about our culture that has grown so comfortable and passive about the revolting treatment of homosexuality that it is easily believed, if not practically permissible. 

Statistically, it can be trying to keep up with the numbers.  2011 had the highest number of anti-gay murders ever recorded by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.  Specifically, those belonging to a minority group and transgendered women were most likely to be targeted.  In 2009, the FBI reported that there were 1,254 sexual orientation driven hate crimes committed in the United States alone.  Many, however, go unreported.

We have become accustomed to inactively digesting snippets of information regarding hate crimes at all hours of the day- it has turned into a horrific piece of society that we can all but ignore by turning off our televisions and closing our newspapers. 

What we must be aware of is that we need a cultural revision, a reawakening that not only addresses the facts but also replaces the statistic with a human being.  We can't comfortably use someone as a martyr for our cause; likewise, we have to understand the culture in which unjustly labeling yourself as one seems like it would not and should not create a backlash.  We must garner our support for all people, not just ones that fit our standards for a figurehead of the movement.  Consequently, we must be aware of our actions and have respect for those who have been the victims of hate crimes.  Both the boy that cried wolf and the village that responded - or ultimately ignores -- must be held accountable.  

The Feminist Women's Health Center must react similarly to our own issues, as they are often in alignment with those faced by the LGBTQ community.  Dealing with intolerance perpetuated by a negative mentality on sexual orientation is similar to the stigma received by those fighting for reproductive justice.  Members in each movement push for the basic human rights often denied them for a variety of unjust factors - looking at this case in its essence, therefore, leaves us in related struggles.  Likewise, we have to be cognizant of our own place in the movement.  In times of trouble we cannot use our bodies as an internally weak symbol of pure martyrdom.  Instead, they must become a vessel to perpetuate strength and justification for the reproductive justice movement at large.