fe and terrible death raises a number of issues that could benefit from political organizing strategies and tactics to deal with them. One of the most obvious is the complicated issue of homophobia. Brandon saw herself as male and longed to arrange a sex-change operation to effect a physical transformation. She claimed to be a hermaphrodite, one born with sexual characteristics of both genders, but the movie makes clear that she appeared to be exclusively female.
Brandon was driven by what she termed sexual identity crisis. However, her killers, once they realized that she seemed to be a woman, were furious that she and Lana were lovers, seeing the relationship as lesbian. Homophobia continues to be a social problem, as other recent high-profile cases have shown, leading to violence and, often, murder. It also tends to be under-reported. According to the National Organization for Women, the vast majority of victims of anti lesbian/gay violence "possibly more than 80%" never report the incident, often due to fear of being "outed."
An organizing strategy to deal with homophobia could include legal, educational, social, and other strategies to confront and lessen public fear and hatred about homosexuality. An effective overall strategy would first examine the prevalence of the problem and then seek a diversity of ways to deal with it. While homosexuality has become increasingly accepted in American society, gay and lesbian individuals continue to face considerable prejudice. Any strategy that attempts to deal with homophobia must confront the underlying ignorance that fuels such hatred first.
Several media campaigns already exist to spread information about homosexuality, but resistance to its dissemination sometimes prevent it from being shared in many of the places, such as the public school classroom, where it might be most effective. Working to con
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