Just one more gay man beaten

The BBQ Pit
1

Well, it finally made our local paper. The weekly free newspaper has been reporting on it for a month, and the local gay papers had the story the week after it happened, way back in February of 2000. Nobody outside of Tucson will hear about it, of course, because it’s just not news.

All quotes are available from The Arizona Daily Star, but only for today, 10/22/01; after that it’s for paid subscribers only.

The perpetrator in this case is a fireman for the city of Tucson, and just happens to be the “son-in-law of former Tucson Fire Chief Fred Shipman, who retired in January.”

They’re thinking of pulling the fireman’s EMT license, thus costing him his job, because he didn’t render aid to the man he’d just assaulted.

I’m posting this in case anyone ever again asks me, “What the hell are you bitching about? You gay people don’t have it so bad, the way things are.” I’m posting it as a small example of what the rhetoric of hatred being thrown around constantly in our culture can inspire. To me, it’s a reminder of how easily prejudice can turn into violence. And it’s a reason to live in fear.

In the U.S., in the year 2001, there is a group of people so despised, that they are randomly assaulted for simply being members of their minority, or being in places where their minority is known to frequent, or even seeming like they belong to that minority group. Even in Tucson, known as a tolerant city, gay people are assaulted with shocking regularity.

Think it’s getting better? The number of anti-gay hate crimes reported to the FBI has almost doubled since 1992. There are kids being assaulted in our schools regularly. If you think the climate in this country is predominately tolerant, that homophobia and gay-bashing are receding into the past, think again.

In this most patriotic of times, when American flags wave at me from every home and business, every desk and cubicle, and we are congratulating ourselves on being the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave, we are only really free from fear if we are straight, and gay people live in fear. If this was happening to any other minority, racial, religious, or cultural, it would be decried throughout the media, and legislated against. But since it’s just gay people, apparently, the situation is good enough, and we should be grateful that our fine fellow-citizens, moral as they are, let us exist at all.

Even on this board, supposedly here to eradicate ignorance, there has been debate as to whether it is moral to use the word “gay” as an insult.

I’m sick of it. Sick of the kind of “morality” that allows for the condemnation of people who aren’t hurting anyone, but who offend sensibilities simply by existing, and loving each other. Sick of the hatred spewing from religious leaders, who even have the temerity to lay the blame for terrorism at our doorstep. Sick of people telling me they’re hurting others, denying them rights and keeping their existence on the margins of legality, because their morality tells them that the gay lifestyle is wrong.

You know what’s wrong? Hate. You know what’s insanely, irrevocably, despicably sinful? Hurting people for loving each other.

I am afraid every time I’m out in public, and my boyfriend looks at me lovingly. I’m scared to hold his hand. I’m scared for his life, and mine, every time we’re out on a date, and having fun; the spectre of fear is over me, the threat of immediate, senseless violence. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be able to love, without fear.

Want to do something about it? Next time you hear someone use the word “gay” to trash something, tell them you find that term offensive. When you hear someone express indignation that the gay community can take offense at a gay slur written on a bomb in an AP photo, tell them the Navy released the photo for publication; that in itself is offensive. If you have it in your heart to accept your fellow human beings, no matter who they choose to love, then please, tell people about it. Because all the homophobes are loud as hell, and it’ll take a lot of vocal tolerance to get rid of the hold their hatred has taken on our country. It makes a difference, every time you stand up for gay people. And if you’re afraid to do so, imagine what gay people go through.

I know that most people out there are decent human beings, tolerant and wise, with no hate in their hearts for anyone. But we’re letting the ignorance win in this case, and we need to work hard to gain back the ground that we’ve lost.

2

Hear, hear, MrVisible.

I am Canadian and my honey is American. She was shocked that we could hug and smooch in the airport and hold hands on top of the table at Red Lobster in Toronto. She is too scared to do that when we are together in her home state.
We went to see Madonna perform in Philly and I couldn’t convince her to give me a kiss outside the arena - she was afraid of being arrested. Arrested!
It was all so shocking to me because I can’t imagine getting arrested in Canada for kissing another girl in public.

3

MrVisible, as another gay man, I, too, am sickened by anti-gay violence, but I disagree about living in fear. I don’t let the possibility of getting bashed for my sexuality keep me from living life. Yes, it sucks that same-sex couples are not able to secure the same benefits as straight couples, and it sucks that my BF and I can’t be as casually affectionate in public as hetero couples are.

Still, life in the US is a lot easier for gays than it is in other countries, like Egypt, China, or Saudi Arabia. Here, one has to worry about getting bashed by a lone madman; in Saudi, convicted homosexuals are beheaded after Friday prayers.

4

Getting bashed by a lone person (or pack in some cases) or being beheaded? I’ll take C, none of the above, please. I think what MrVisible is saying is not that American gays have it the worst in the world. We probably have it among the best in the world even though it could be a lot better. Still, even in the safest places in the country for gay people, that shred of fear remains. I know exactly what he’s talking about. I wasted way too much of my life being afraid of what might happen if anyone found out. It’s exhausting. And I still worry about it. Even though I live in a city, county and state where anti-gay discrimination is illegal, I still feel I have to check myself through at least one employment evaluation before coming out at a new job, just in case, because I have been discriminated against previously. Someone who thinks he’s my friend hit me in the face not too long ago because I pecked him on the cheek. This is the kind of fear I think MrVisible means. Not the constant intense fear that an Egyptian homosexual must feel, but the low-level background fear that informs the decisions we make about how to conduct our public lives. Knowing that at any moment someone might decide that we’re “flaunting it” and that it’s time to put us back in our place.

5

Dunno what the law says on the subject, but I see lesbians engaged in “public displays of affection” fairly often here where I am (Delaware). Gays, quite a bit less frequently. Of course, this is a college town, so it may not resemble reality. :wink:

As for the OP: Speaking as a staight Christian male, I’m truly sorry that crimes like this continue. It’s a blot on all of us, as a society, and as individuals. I’m trying, and failing, to comprehend the mind-set of a person trained in the saving of life, no less, that can encompass so much hatred.

6

I have never really understood “gay phobia of straight people” as a “straight” guy I find it to my best interest to get as many guys out of the closet as possible :wink:

But seriously violence and vile thoughts against ones sexual preference are a disgrace and show nothing except severe stupidity, and as an experienced traveler something I have noticed <my opinion> is that the cities that have the most boring nightlife are usually the ones that do not have an “open gay culture”

I say let it not bother you what people do in their bedrooms, focus on your own and stand up when there is ignorance and if possible mildly educate the bastards, talk s.l.o.w.l.y. and if you have kids talk to them about tolerance.

Respectfully
The Unbeliever

7

To the extent this kind of hateful behavior comes from Christians, based on supposedly upholding Christian principles… it constantly amazes and dumbfounds me. The classic “WWJD” bracelets … apparently we are to believe that Jesus, who was a model of forgiveness and loving, would have encountered a homosexual and immediately told the Apostles, “OK, let’s beat the crap outa this fag.” The very image is ludicrous; why, I always wonder, to supposed Christians act this way?

That said… while I grieve that we’re not yet at the point of responding to sexual orientation differences without violence… I have to suggest that the trend is towards the positive. The malefactors in this case were arrested and prosecuted. Thirty or forty years ago, would that have happened?

So I guess my response is: yeah, we’re not there yet… but hey, we’re making progress.

  • Rick
8

The number reported has doubled, not necessarily the number occuring. I think this shows that gays are getting more acceptance, because now more of them feel that if they are assaulted, they can go to the authorities and get some sort of protection and/or justice. I think things really are getting better, even if it is taking a long time.

9

At least this guy got justice - my friend Randy’s murder still lies unsolved.

{hoists a pitcher of beer in memory}

Esprix

10

I assume most of the people here are in support of hate crime laws.

But how is getting randomly beaten by some psycho for no reason any less disturbing than being black and/or gay and getting walloped for being black or gay?

Stiffen the punishment guidelines for assault charges if you want to get violent assholes out of the population, but this idea of a federal victim caste system is laughable.

What these laws are essentially saying is, next time you want to beat someone within an inch of their life, you better make damn sure he’s the same race and sex as you.

11

I know it’s the Pit, but {{{{Esprix}}}}

12

The point is, if the guy hadn’t been gay, he wouldn’t have gotten beaten. Re-read the OP.

If it was a personal conflict, it would NOT be a hate crime. It is foolish of you to imply otherwise.

13

Come on Mr. V, don’t you know that faggots like that deserve what they get?

As a Christian I believe in loving the sinner and hating the sin, and of course I don’t believe in violence or advocate it, but what do you expect when people allow their perversions to be on display?

14
  • The point is, if the guy hadn’t been gay, he wouldn’t have gotten beaten. Re-read the OP. *
    So? If a rape victim hadn’t been near the rapist, he/she wouldn’t have been raped.

I didn’t say it wasn’t a hate crime. I said it’s a joke to equate one form of vicious bodily harm as being less acceptable than another form.

15

I’m not in favor of federal hate crime laws.

I’m not generally in favor of state hate crime laws either; assault, wounding, murder - these are already punishable under state law. However, since we recognize - correctly - that different motives affect the seriousness of the crime, I am all for statutory aggravators that can enhance the sentence for such offenses.

In other words, it’s not a separate offense to attack someone because he’s gay; the offense is assault. But if you did it because he’s gay, that should merit a stiffer sentence than someone who assaulted someone because he tried to pick up your girlfriend, or scratched your car in the parking lot.

And to Andygirl’s post-as-a-hypocritical-Christian… what I “expect” when people “put their perversions on display” is the same display of tolerance Jesus had for the woman who was to be stoned for adultery, the same love Christ showed to prostitutes and even tax collectors, clearly the lowest of the low. :slight_smile:

  • Rick
16

DNFTTroll

17

UHM excuse me? No, no.

First of all, I am a woman.

Secondly, I am not saying ‘that gay guy deserved it.’

I am drawing a distinction between the MOTIVATIONS OF THE PERP.

The fireman beat up the guy BECAUSE he was gay. This is not the same as some guy who pounds another guy in a bar for grabbing his gf’s ass.

They are NOT the same crimes; one is a crime of passion (righteous anger at someone you care about being mistreated) the other is motivated by hate.

18

Bricker, I want you to know that my post was not in any way directed towards you. I hadn’t even read your posts when I wrote it.

Venoma, just so you know, I’m a lesbian.

[sub]goes over to ogle the Whore of Babylon[/sub]

19

In that same spirit, you must agree that there should only be one class of murder: manslaughter and second degree murder should be done away with. Is that your stance?

Motivation does matter.

20

Sometimes it doesn’t even take the knowledge that a person is gay:

Last Thursday I was doing volunteer work with some kids, and evidently these kids have two definitions for gay: gay happy and (I quote them here) “Gay nasty.”

The reason I know this is because most of the kids there think I’m gay (partly because of the long hair, I think) and really want to know if I am. Long story made short, it ain’t none of their business and I’ve made that clear, yet they keep asking me if I’m gay. I keep saying “What if I am?” and smile.

This past Thursday things got ugly (or uglier than they have been). I’ve been hit before (none of the kids is especially large or strong), but this time they started throwing things at me. One of them had a stick (I think he might have been ten), and several of them got things like pinecones and the like. So while I was playing basketball they were throwing these things in my general vicinity. A good number of them were trying to hit me or jump on me or things of that nature, and though many missed some did hit.

While sticks and pinecones didn’t break my bones, what they did bring that hurt most were words. I had forgotten how hateful people can be, and the scary thing is that the lines they had sounded incredibly rehearsed.

I, as many of you know, am not gay. But in this case all they had was their suspicions, and sometimes that’s all that’s necessary. I shudder to think what might have happened had they been older and/or stronger.

Now, obviously this is far from the level of violence as the cite from the OP, but it is not necessary for a person to actually BE gay to be assaulted for “being gay”.

And if the man was assaulted because of his orientation, then it IS a hate crime.