Gay Benton Harbor man says he's a victim of hate crime

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ACLU-Tom wrote:

Calling the victim "queer" and other anti-gay epithets is what makes it a hate crime, not knowing that the victim is gay.
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medic0506 wrote:

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Is there any indication of what provoked the incident?? There seems to be no witnesses, that I saw in the article. HE said it's a hate crime. There have been cases of over-dramatization, ya know. He's got a couple bumps and bruises...but he says it's "torn my life apart". He got his ass beat...How many thousands every day get their ass beat, but it doesn't tear their life apart. The article says he just has a couple bumps and bruises...walk it off.
You get all fired up because it's a gay person, when you don't even know the details.
Sure shooting a woman is a perfectly justifiable way of reacting.

Curteese wrote:

<quoted text>Why are you so heartless? I have felt the sting of homophobia. I have been attacked for no reason. So far, luckily for me, nothing super serious, but for those few moments when all that I knew was going assunder, the world was not right. I wondered how far it would go, if this was going to be "it". It is more dreadful than you can ever imagine.
How would YOU feel if you were simply minding your own business, when out of the blue a vicious hater came out of nowhere, threatening you, calling you vile names, screaming at you? There is no reason for it. No defense. Once I was walking along the highway in Laguna Beach and someone threw a bottle out of a speeding car at me. It hit at my feet and cut my ankles. The day was ruined, I can't recall anything before that moment that day, or afterwards. All I know is that I just went home, sick at how vulnerable I felt all of a sudden, and though it was 20 years ago, I still feel that glass hit.
As for him getting "his ass beat" not causing any harm? Are you INSANE? When was the last time you had YOUR ass beat? How much fun was it if you ever did. You are the type to blame a woman for her own rape. Shame on you. Don't speak of things you do not understand or experience.

medic0506 wrote:

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I'm not heartless, but I'm opposed to saying that violence is worse if it's perpetrated against a certain group, than it is if against another group...This whole concept of "hate crimes" is a joke. Violence against any human, by another human, is a hate crime and should be treated as such. To say that it's a higher crime against a gay, than it is if it's against a white man is absurd.
I've had my ass beat a number of times, I use to fight alot for fun, then worked as a bouncer for a while. It hurts for awhile but you live. It's not "life altering".
I, too, have had things thrown at me from cars, for no apparent reason. People are mean, Curt, not just against gays, but against anyone, for any reason.

Curteese wrote:

<quoted text>All of a sudden I am not mad at you anymore. You actually come off more compassionate than others on here. Sorry if I am gun shy. You have been hurt by others. I understand that. Your car tossing incident was random. Mine was aimed at me for a reason. There is a difference.
Try to live it every day of your life. I am hardly the most macho fork in the box and since my early teens, I have been mocked and belittled. Even today, when meeting new people, I wonder what is on their mind. I have heard coworkers and others, from around corners and when they thought I could not hear them, speaking of me, and not in nice terms. The worst is when they forget I am in the room and speak of someone else as the lovely "F" word, or "Q" word. I want to just curl up and die at that point.
It just gets so wearying. A lot of my hetero friends have teens and I prefer them. NOT for the lurid reasons some will accuse me of, I'm talking girls anyway!, but these kids GET it and have ZERO problem with the whole gay thing. ZERO. My hope is no them.

Short Left Index Finger wrote:

Heterosecticide to a handy thing to have.