ABSTRACT
Writing of the murder of a young gay man in Bangor, Maine, John Preston pondered the context of the perpetrators’ acts. He wondered if they “had heard members of the state legislature as they stood in the House and Senate and described gay men and lesbians as less than human” (1995:74-75). This question should not be easily dismissed, since hate-motivated violence can flourish only in an enabling environment. In the United States, such an environment historically has been conditioned by the activity-and inactivity-of the state. State practices, policy, and rhetoric often have provided the formal framework within which hate crime-as an informal mechanism of control-emerges. Practices within the state-at an individual and institutional level-that stigmatize, demonize, or marginalize traditionally oppressed groups legitimate the mistreatment of these same groups on the streets. This chapter examines the ways in which state rhetoric, policy, and practice provide the context for violence against minorities.
