Anatomy Of A Hate Crime

In the post I did yesterday I told you about my friend Corey getting beaten in a Gay bashing. I passed on information I got from Ryan's post about it. This morning I had a conversation with Corey about it via Yahoo! Messenger and the facts are even more disturbing than the original post that Ryan did. I have Corey's permission to tell you the story. First let me tell you a little about Corey. He, like too many other gay youth, was cast adrift by his parents at age 15 simply for the fact he was gay. Unlike many of those who succumb to drug and or alcohol abuse, Corey did not fall into that trap. He did do what he had to do to survive, which for a 15 year old pretty boy is fairly limited as far as options. This does not make him a bad person, just a survivor. The fact that he had survived with sanity and sweetness intact until he met Ryan and Mike is a testament to his character. Now that his real family has chosen him and wrapped them in their loving arms, he is making progress toward the person he is meant to be. Young, good looking and intelligent, he has a quick wit and not above poking the fundies in the eye when they make an ass of themselves, just read some of his posts at Boys Are Ugly. That makes the following story that much more disturbing.

Yesterday morning Ryan gets Corey up to go out to breakfast so he can spend some quality time with him before going out of town. They go to a cafe that Ryan has frequented so they felt safe going there and it was daylight after all. While they were enjoying breakfast, Corey excused himself to go to the Rest Room. When he did not come back right away, Ryan went looking for him and found him on the floor. Ryan called the police and the emt's and they took Corey to the emergency room for treatment. I asked Corey what transpired in the men;s room and this is what he had to say:

"I went in to pee. This big guy came in wearing a leather vest with patches on it. I didn't think anything about him or his kind. I had never had a problem with them before. There were two urinals in there so he came up and I guess started peeing. He then said nice bracelet. I have a rainbow bracelet that I wear. I got scared then. I said thanks, zipped up and started to walk away. He said Hey queer, want to suck this? He moved away from the urinal and showed me his dick. I was like no thanks. That was when he went crazy and said: What, may dick 's not good enough for you fag? He hit me right in the nose and I went down. He then kicked me calling me names as he did so. Then he dumped the trash on me and pissed on me before he walked out. I was too scared to move so I just lay there until Ryan found me and some others came in, then the police and the emt's, they put me on a stretcher and took me to the hospital. I thought I was going to die in that bathroom. Three years of doing things I didn't care about but I never got hurt. I go to eat with a friend and get beat up for being gay."

I told Corey that essentially you got beaten for not sucking dick and he said "I don't think he really wanted his dick sucked, I think he wanted to beat up a queer. I would have sucked his dick if it would have stopped him from hitting me." I replied to him that the guy probably could not have gotten it up. The beating just "proved" he was a man to himself and how much he wasn't a man to everyone else. You have to picture Corey, 18, under 6 feet and only 120 pounds. Not a frightening picture to a big dude. What is frightening is the un-enlightenment that caused such an action on the man's part anyway. This is why educating people is important. This is why passing our history down is important, and this is why we must ensure the Matthew Shepard Act recently passed by Congress is signed into law by that idiot in the White House of his veto overridden.

There is no reason for things like this to happen and the only way to stop them is through education and legislation. This is why Matthew Shepard and an all inclusive ENDA are important. We are mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore. Write your Congress Person and Senators, donate to the cause in time or money, get involved and show your brothers and sisters you care enough to stand up for our right to exist without fear and prejudice. Ryan and Corey should be able to eat breakfast in daylight without getting the shit beat out of them.