Homophobic Hate Crimes Both Here And Abroad

Posted on | February 2, 2006

Some lovely, well adjusted individual decided to get his Thursday off to a bloody start by attempting to kill four people in a New Bedford, Massachusetts, gay bar. A young man with blonde hair wearing a black coat walked into Puzzles Lounge and managed to shoot two individuals in the face, a third in the chest, and struck a blow to the head of a fourth man with a hatchet. All four victims are alive at this point with the gunshot victims having been airlifted to Boston hospitals and the hatchet victim at St Luke’s in New Bedford. While witness accounts have varied, the suspect entered the bar, inquired about it being a gay establishment, and opened fire. Eighteen people were in the bar at the time and police are gathering accounts of the incident. The suspect fled the scene.

I can only speculate to this guy’s motive beyond the obvious, deliberate targeting of homosexuals. While there are internal explanations like an extreme reaction formation, chances are he will cite some anti-gay belief commonly held by conservative groups. How many more times does shit like this need to happen before the conservative right-wingers finally wake up to what their anti-gay rhetoric does? With so-called "family groups" like Focus on the Family, American religious terrorists like Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps, and other such individuals these people feel justified in their hatred and feel that it is perfectly acceptable to take that hatred to the next level and begin their mini-cleansing. Sweden is having a similar problem with a website that posts the names, addresses, jobs and calls for their murder. Sweden has laws against hate speech but since the threats are in the form of biblical quotes there is nothing authorities can do about it at this point. The UK is also reporting that there is a spike in hate crimes against homosexuals there and police are warning about going out alone. Things have got to change and it has to start now.

But bullshit like this raises yet another point in the tired "biology versus choice" war about homosexuality. Would we as homosexuals willingly submit ourselves to this kind of hatred and violence? The sex is great, but it is not that good.

External Links:

Filed Under Gay Rights, International, News |

Comments

3 Responses to “Homophobic Hate Crimes Both Here And Abroad”

Michigan-Matt
February 2nd, 2006 @ 10:15 am

AFag, a parody of sorts: And how many more times do the left wing wackos in the gay community have to hoist every single purported hate crime to the level of “see what anti-gay rhetoric does to us”.

Victims again, eh?

Instead of playing the vicitm card, maybe we should be playing the justice card. Motivate the New Bedford community and its leadership to rally and protest this crime after the police investigate it properly. If it was a hate crime, charges should be filed. Stand up and be part of New Bedford –which is the scene of multiple gang related shootings every year, rampant violent felony offenses, an outrageously high AIDS infection rate, and staggeringly poor public services for a city in Massachusetts in the shadow of uber liberal-mecca Boston.

Play the justice card; not the victim card.

For me, though your post brings into focus a different issue. How about this: YOU should be ashamed of trying to use this incident for cheap partisan political gain. To link a brutal, irrational act to “conservative right wingers” is just silly, dude. And wrong.

In our culture, positive gay and negative gay images abound >> linked to popular movies, to billboards for jeans, to the lust to look youthful and fit, to AIDS prevention, to drug crazes and addictions, to shallow sex, to drag queens hooting it up in Pride Parades. Negative and positive, dude. And to suggest that this incidence is somehow connected to free speech-protected comments of conservative right wingers is using the grief in that bar for cheap partisan gain. And trying to silence the very people we need to engage in a dialogue IF we’re going to make progress and change.

The problem isn’t with the incident or with what it means. The problem is with left wing gay whiners who use any opportunity to advance their partisanship to the exclusion of reason, prudent assessments, or an opportunity to rally community support for gay concerns.

Was this a hate crime? Sure sounds like it. Should the police investigate and press charges if warranted; hell yes.

But keep the “shooting-from-the-hip” and armchair punditry for partisan gain in check. There are much bigger issues at stake than your “feeling good” about being outraged.

“Things” –as you call societal attitudes– won’t change unless the gay community compels them to change through strong, demonstrated advocacy. That doesn’t come when we use these kind of incidents to bitch-slap the right for partisan gain. It doesn’t come from throwing a hissey fit because groups who don’t like you pushing your political agenda down their throats in the Courts, in the public square, or on the TV screen in their bedroom. “American religious terrorists”? Can you even say that with a str8 face?? Good God, we have REAL terrorists hiding in America and willing to kill our own people indisciminately. Get a grip.

Progress doesn’t come from posts or attitudes like yours. It comes by hard work in the community, persuading others to change opinions, and by winning in the public marketplace of ideas.

Put away the pity/victim card. Your use of it has been revoked.
The Angry Fag
February 2nd, 2006 @ 10:47 am

Actually, you caught a content error of mine. The laptop BSoD’d before I saved the entry’s HTML code so the first part of the paragraph you are referencing is missing. I left that out when I had to re-write the post and I did not edit it very well.

It is supposed to start “I can only speculate to the motives of this attack beyond the obvious anti-gay bias…” and I will be making those corrections shortly. This incident is not “playing the victim card” because this is an anti-gay hate crime since the suspect specifically inquired about the establishment being a gay bar before he started his rampage.

And yes, I can say “American religious terrorists” with a straight face. Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps are Osama bin Laden Lite. They are real terrorists just like the same people who call for the murder of doctors who perform abortions and scream at women going into Planned Parenthood for female health care services. Rhetoric there has a very nice correlation with escalations of violence such as websites like “The Nuremberg Files” which served as a hitlist for abortion doctors.

And in case you have forgotten, terrorism is not exclusive to Arabs, Muslims, and other such groups that we currently associate with the concept. Such associations are racisist, stupid, or both. Terrorism is “the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion” according to Merriam-Webster. Both Phelps and Robertson are guilty of that. Whether their methods are effective are moot, they still use the tactic.

You know what is funny though? If we followed your thought, then Osama bin Laden might technically not a terrorist then. He personally has not been involved in attacks that I have heard. He did not fly a plain into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, he did not pilot the boat that blasted a hole in the USS Cole, and he did not plant the bomb that blew up a USAF barracks in Saudi Arabia. The real terrorists would be the individuals who do that hands-on work.

And if you do not believe me about rhetoric having an effect on individual’s behavior, then explain to me why Pat Robertson’s views on homosexuality have been used as reasons to justify anti-gay behavior? The one case I can remember off of the top of my head is where someone in Florida vandalized decorations for gay days in Orlando because he was following Robertson’s teachings.

And this is a “partisan issue” only because one party has made it a plank in their platform. If the Republicans treated homosexuality with the same hands-off attitude the Democrats have shown, it would not be so. You will note that this comment is the first instance I have used the word “Republican”. Referring to the individuals as “conservatives” as I did is an accurate descriptor. If you do not like it, that is hardly my problem.
Joe Brummer
February 2nd, 2006 @ 10:54 am

Michigan-Matt,
I am so sorry you are uniformed on the sunject of hate speech and its effect on the climate gays and lesbians live in. Perphaps you could take a trip over to hatecrime.org and read the bit they have there on “hate speech”.

Religious leaders and anti-gay political figures vilify gays on a regular baisis, but then try to claim innocence when principal meets practice.

Where do you think these people get the message in the back of their heads that they can committ these crimes against gays. Where did they get the message that gays are so subhuman it is okay to shoot them, beat, and leave the for dead.

I would agree with your comments if it wasn’t for the fact this happens daily in America and the Right Wing refuses to add “sexual orientation” to the Federal Hate crimes bill, why? because right wing leaders say we don’t need it.

The above list of crimes show we do need it.