From September 11 Grief to the Oval Office: Why Business Leaders and LGBTQ+ Champions Demanded Federal Hate Crime Action

In the wake of September 11, St. Louis advocate Philip Deitch made an audacious case: true unity required protecting every American from bias-motivated violence. Here is how a business community’s response to terror helped pave the road to federal hate crime legislation.

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Overview: Following the loss of 27 openly identified LGBTQ+ victims in the September 11 terror attacks, community advocates and business leaders mobilized across the country to link national defense with individual civil rights. Sparked by Philip Deitch’s landmark 2001 op-ed and grassroots groundwork out of St. Louis, the push treated terror and identity-based violence as two sides of the same coin. This sustained pressure ultimately culminated in President Barack Obama signing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law in 2009.

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A group of people holding lit candles at an outdoor evening vigil with the illuminated New York City skyline and Tribute in Light beams behind them.
Mourners gather with candles against the New York City skyline and the 9/11 Tribute in Light beams, honoring victims and community resilience. Image credit: The Narrative Matters.

How Philip Deitch and grassroots advocates turned national tragedy into federal hate crime protections

Freedom Is a Burden That We Honor: The Untold LGBTQ+ Legacy of September 11

Historical Perspective

There were 27 publicly identified LGBTQ+ people murdered in the September 11 attacks. One year after the towers fell, our St. Louis community gathered to remember them. New York Pride recognized the service, held at Central Reform Congregation, as the largest 9/11 LGBTQ+ memorial in the entire country outside New York City.

That loss helped fuel a national shift. On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. That historic legislation expanded federal protections to cover bias-motivated violence based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, and disability. Missouri had already helped blaze that trail: thanks to then-State Senator Lacy Clay Jr., Missouri stood as the only state to pass inclusive protections in 1998 right after the brutal murders of Shepard and Byrd.

In October 2001, just weeks after the attacks, the following op-ed ran in the St. Louis Business Journal. Written by Philip Deitch, who later served as president of the St. Louis LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, it is believed to be the publication’s first column written by an openly gay professional focused on the queer community.

The Original 2001 Editorial

By Philip Deitch

This is a time of great sadness for all of us. The loss will stay with us, but the initial shock will wear off, and we will find healthy ways to grieve, heal, and move forward.

We keep hearing that this is a moment for unity. Unity will carry us through, but to be lasting and genuine, it has to be built on shared respect and mutual concern. Unity does not require giving up our individuality. Real unity honors our core American promise: freedom exists to protect individual rights.

Now is the moment to reinforce that freedom and build a living tribute to the lives stolen on September 11. We can start by passing the expanded federal hate crimes bill. Doing so will let us stand taller and more united, both at home and across the globe.

What happened on September 11 was an act of terror, but it was also a massive hate crime. We were targeted simply because of our perceived collective identity as Americans. People far from New York, Shanksville, or the Pentagon suddenly fear for their personal safety. That is the exact psychological mechanism of a hate crime. When an attacker targets someone based on who they are, the entire group feels the threat. This tragedy also claimed lives from dozens of other nations, which mirrors how street-level hate crimes frequently harm unintended bystanders.

Passing pending federal hate crime legislation belongs at the center of our national response. It demonstrates our deep, practical commitment to human liberty. Faced with violence, we have choices: we can seek raw vengeance, we can let despair crush us, or we can choose repair. In the Jewish tradition, this work is called Tikkun Olam—repairing a broken world. We must choose that path of repair.

Real change requires action. Stay informed through the National Leadership Conference for Civil Rights at unitedagainsthate.com. Reach out directly to the White House, the Department of Justice, your senators, and your congressional representatives. Urge them to sponsor and pass the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act. Passing this measure gives all of us a stake in the real work of national healing.

Certain inflection points in history challenge us to demand better of ourselves. This is one of those times. We have an opportunity to turn shared grief into real protection, to pull our communities closer together, and to honor the spark of the divine in every single person.

#LGBTQHistory #NeverForget #HateCrimesAct

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