A woman in Ypsilanti Township was attacked by three male assailants Monday for marrying her same-sex spouse.
The woman, whose identity was not disclosed, had recently been on the local news in a segment highlighting the brief 1-day window in which it was legal for persons of the same sex to marry within the state of Michigan.
She was minding her own business, disembarking from a bus and walking home through an apartment parking lot, when the three men attacked her, first calling her derogatory names (sexist & homophobic), then punching her so hard that she lost consciousness. She woke to one of the men kicking her in the torso.
That this could happen in my backyard, Washtenaw County, sickens me.
Yvonne Siferd is director of victim services with Equality Michigan, an advocacy organization for the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. She said she expected crimes of this nature to happen after the ruling.
“I was actually surprised it took this long,” she said.
Just this weekend, while I was riding the bus, there was a woman having a loud conversation with a fellow passenger, decrying same-sex marriage. Her ignorance was astounding. She kept referring to either spouse as husband or wife, as though sex didn't matter (e.g., if the union were two females, she'd designate one of them as the 'husband'; with two males, one had to be the 'wife'). I live in Ann Arbor, a liberal stronghold. That such ignorance traffics here saps my hope for the local political climate.