From the New York Daily News:
Friends are rallying around a Williamsburg man who was viciously beaten in an anti-gay hate crime - and is now facing massive medical expenses with no insurance.
Barie Shortell, 29, was walking home from the subway late last month when he was attacked by a group of teens who shouted anti-gay slurs.
"They said, 'Oh, what the f--k, is that a guy or a girl?' And then they attacked me," Shortell said. "My head was slammed against a wall. ... It was so violent that I was in shock."
The attackers broke his jaw and nose and other bones in his face - requiring 10 hours of surgery and five days in the hospital.
Shortell said he'll need more surgery and four months of followup care - and doesn't know how he'll pay bills that will add up to tens of thousands of dollars or more.
I feel so angry when I read things like this. And unfortunately, I read them a lot. Even just in New York City.
But increasingly, I feel weary. I wonder if it will ever end. What motivates this?
Why must my people be hunted like animals?
Will it ever end?
Is nowhere is safe?
And it can happen "here," wherever you are:
"I grew up in a really small town in Wisconsin where there was a lot of abuse," said Jack Ferver, 32. "I was shocked that it happened in Williamsburg, which is where I live and seemingly a really progressive and out-friendly community."
One of the first comments I saw on a gay blog was, "And in such a gay friendly neighborhood!" Indeed, that area of Brooklyn has become something of a gayborhood. Home to artists, musicians, it is hipster-central of New York City and where you go to be free.
You Can’t Go Out For A Drink In Texas
Days ago it was announced Fort Worth, Texas City Council is on the verge of
disbursing a $400,000 settlement to Chad Gibson, a young man who sustained brain damage from a police brutality incident in a gay bar in June 2009. The raid of the Rainbow Lounge occurred—almost certainly not coincidentally—on the
40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. No doubt it seemed a good time to go into the bar and teach the homos a lesson about their place. Sure, Stonewall Riots were 40 years ago, but Texas gays need to understand, it's still 1968 there.
$400,000 seems meager compensation for a lifetime of struggling with brain damage. I suppose, faced with the prospect of finding a Judge or Jury in Texas that didn't think the homo had it coming to him, it seemed best to settle.
You Can’t Go Out For A Burger In New Jersey
From the
Miami New Times:
46-year-old Noel Robichaux and 43-year-old Peter Casbar. The gay couple entered a Union City Burger King in 2007, and a trio of employees, including Angel Caraballo, 28, and Christopher Soto, 19, verbally abused them and then chased them outside and pummeled them. Caraballo and Soto pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.
"They beat us, they spit on us, and they threw us around like rag dolls," Robichaux said. "It was insane. We were astounded by the words they used. I was floored by the amount of anger and hate."
From the Jersey Journal:
"The manager and a group of angry restaurant employees chased the couple and then mercilessly kicked, beat and spat upon the two men while screaming hate-filled anti-gay invectives," [Plaintiff attorney James] Fine said in a statement.
The couple filed a civil lawsuit against the parent of the local franchises, Food Service Properties Corp, and last month was
awarded $3.1M dollars, including $1.7M in punitive damages.
Restitution is a moment of victory for sure. But anyone who's ever been a victim of a violent crime knows that the scars from such trauma can be more than physical and last a lifetime. Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act seemed to offer a promise of relief, but unfortunately, has yet to be applied to any LGBT-related violent incident since its passage.
And no amount of restitution can compensate for some crimes.
You Can’t Stay In And Be Safe In Your Dorm Room
Clementi, Ravi and Wei.
Tyler Clementi thought he was safe in his dorm room. He thought he was alone. Described as shy and quiet, he was likely scrupulously attempting to protect himself from the hatred he saw around him. But he couldn't escape it, he couldn't hide from it. It pries and insinuates itself into our lives.
Because unknown to him, his roommate had placed a hidden video camera, and was live feeding it to the internet.
Two students, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, have been charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy after allegedly placing a camera in Clementi's room and livestreaming the recording online on Sept. 19, according to a written statement by New Jersey's Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.
Ravi Tweeted:
"Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."
Upon discovery the "prank" Clementi threw himself over the George Washington Bridge, dying in the cold waters of New York's Hudson River.
When Will The Bigots Stop Making The Rules?
Eva Kruse has a post up at Pam's House Blend, she says:
Oh, I get it. You get to claim the "high moral ground" of religion. You get to tell me who I am. You get to tell me how to live. You get to devalue my humanity.
She references the Amish and her respect for them and their commitment to living their values, some might call them "lifestyle choices." And this got me thinking, most of us would not live as the Amish do. Certainly most of us here would be lost without our cable modems, computers and cell phones.
But you know what we don't see? We don't see anyone passing laws requiring every home to have a phone or internet access. We don't pass Constitutional amendments requiring they get cable and electricity or a Chevy sedan in every driveway. No, for the most part, we Americans recognize the Amish and groups like them have the choice to live what many would consider an odd manner and in a way we personally would never wish to pursue. Our government doesn't tell the Amish, "You must live as we live, or you will be punished."
We leave them alone to live their lives.
Oh, but not the gays.
We too, just want to be left alone. To share a drink with our friends in the comfort of our own spaces without police raids. To enjoy a date at the theater, like anyone else. To walk home safely from a night out. To have a private, quiet night at home.
But they won't let us have that. They pursue us relentlessly, with their raids and surveillance, with their fists and violence and with their du jure discriminatory laws. Laws like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," they rifle through our personal emails. And they pass laws to stop us from growing our families with children, in Florida and Arkansas.
And there's DOMA and Prop 8 designed specifically to set our love apart, marginalize our families and lock us out from the mainstream. From Judge Walker's ruling:
Proposition 8 stigmatizes gays and lesbians because it informs gays and lesbians that the State of California rejects their relationships as less valuable than opposite-sex relationships. Proposition 8 also provides state endorsement of private discrimination.
Whether that belief is based on moral disapproval of homosexuality, animus towards gays and lesbians or simply a belief that a relationship between a man and a woman is inherently better than a relationship between two men or two women, this belief is not a proper basis on which to legislate.
And sodomy laws that
Kansas and other states are still hanging on to. Why? For what purpose? So they can eventually hope to reinsert themselves into our bedrooms and tell us where we can put what?
So they can arrest us and charge us even if they can never convict us? Sodomy laws are just another tool in the box to use to hunt us down, and in Kansas and other states, they just don't want to let go of that tool.
Will people ever stop hunting us down like animals and killing us for sport?
• Donations to a fund
benefiting Barie Shortell can be made here.
• New York City's Anti-Violence Project is here.