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Loading ...Two teens charged with gay boy beating
08.21.2009 11:48am EDT
(Portage, Mich.) A 15-year-old Michigan boy says two other teenagers beat him because he is gay.
The boy says the 15- and 16-year-old males called him slurs as they struck him about 20 times in the head and face Aug. 13 in the parking lot of a Portage apartment complex.The Kalamazoo Gazette reports the two teens were charged as juveniles with aggravated assault. The 16-year-old pleaded guilty to the charge Tuesday and will be sentenced in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Family Division on Sept. 14.
Police say the suspects may have targeted the boy for his sexual orientation. But Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Fink says the suspects aren’t charged with a hate crime because the state’s ethnic-intimidation law doesn’t address sexual orientation.
I believe that all violence is a form of hate. The parents may or may not be responsible for the actions that these youths have taken. The question is what is the social enviroment like that let them think that beating anything or anyone is acceptable.
It does not matter whether or not the victim is gay: He was a victim of the ignorant belief that violence is acceptable in any form.
Don’t believe the prosecutor — juries can and do make laws. He just can’t be bothered wasting his precious time helping a gay child. I bet he’s active in the Church.
What a sad commentary on the great “Land of the Free.” Each day I grow more rightfully angry at the outright hypocrisy of Washington and sadly the “Christian-Right.” If our young brother was other than GAY, this would have been a definite hate crime. However, standards fluctuate to benefit the victimizer. I grew up in the 70s when the closet was the only safe way to live. I was 15 when I was attacked by 3 stoned out classmates. I had a few ropes thrown around my neck, lit cigarettes and stone hurled at the “faggot.” All I could do was stand there and take it until someone in the neighborhood intervened. She took me in and only let me go when a family member came to pick me up. All this just for being gay!!! Perhaps its time we begin to “arm” ourselves and fight back. We can always claim “Temporary Insanity with the need for “Self Defense.” Another solution might be to all emigrate to Canada with all our talents, businesses, and Billion$. I am sure we would be welcomed by a country who has stronger morals on Human Rights and Dignity than this Nation that considers itself to be the role model… What a joke!
Today in Baltimore 2 teens and an adult were charged with beating up on a 77 year old black man just because he is black. I am sure that if the man was Gay it would not have been news worthy.
If you look at the Hate Map at the Southern Poverty Law Center you wll find 13 hate orgs. in Maryland and one is right next door to us.
The parents shuld be held accountable for their kids actions and the adult should be jailed for a VERY long time.
This country allows these hate groups to continue to spread their distorded views.
We know that they are here and we allow them.
As long as there are no extra sentences for hate crimes and no ban on hate groups we will all have to suffer.
Freedom of speech and assembly should not allow for hate. The UK does not allow it. They will not allow Fred Phelps in the country. Good for them.
When our founding fathers drafted the rules of government they did not forsee this. Times change and the law changes, slowly most times, but we can and need to do something to stop groups from forming and come down HARD on those people that can not control their misguided anger.
people just need to learn to defend themselves there is no two ways of hating someone. i hate this damn stigma of people thinking that us gays cant defend our selfs.
everyone is protected against violence, but no one can protect them selves. see i dont see this as a gay issue i see this as two immature boys that don’t know there right from wrong. the victim happens to be gay. a convenient target for most boys trying to beef up there man hood. but if the boy knew how to defend him self then this wouldn’t even be a story.
It amazes me that people will always excuse wrong doing.
Wrong is Wrong. This activity is not necessarily taught by their parents or guardians. These are BAD KIDS. Treat Them As Such. Punish Them As Such and Be Done With Them!
Jeesh!
I swear . . . If people (teens included) just went around bashing everybody they didn’t like, for whatever reason they didn’t like them, there would certainly be few people standing. What have we, as a collective people learned over the past twenty-five years about religious, racial, or sexual tolerance? Apparently not very much. When will it ever end? Certainly imposing stiffer sentences for these types of crimes are necessary if we are to ever achieve respect for minorities. I strongly believe that the schools must address homosexual lifestyles as simply an alternative lifestyle instead of having youngsters grow up believing that homosexuals are freaks. When will it ever end?
Someone in the Michigan legislature needs to sponsor a bill to include sexual orientation as a class subject to hate crimes charges. There is a federal hate crimes law that does include sexual orientation, but a federal prosecutor would have to press the charge and charge the teenagers in a federal court.
These boys learned it from their parents and other adults. This kind of hatred isn’t inherited, it is TAUGHT!!
Hate is hate, there is no two ways about it, and this was very obviously a hate crime directed at the victim because he is gay. The picture could be no clearer then that, especially when at the same time as the beating, these bullies are also adding insult to injury by their homophobic slurs. Bullying and hate crimes must be eradicated, but what is the answer, how do we correct the terrible injustices that are committed upon people because of their skin colour or who they sleep with? Even with protection laws on the books, they have little affect on the people who have so much poison and venom in their souls. Maybe one answer in this particular case is for the guilty to be raised to adult court, name names, publish photos, let everyone know who are responsible for such a cowardly act. Bring the parent’s of the accused in, they are just as responsible for not teaching their kids that such behaviour is not acceptable and inappropriate. And finally, get the family’s church involved, they need to be held accountable and take responsibility as well.
In regards to this: “Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Fink says the suspects aren’t charged with a hate crime because the state’s ethnic-intimidation law doesn’t address sexual orientation.”
A 1994 FEDERAL law, Public Law #103-322A defines a hate crime as: “a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim,or in the case of property, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or SEXUAL ORIENTATION of ANY person”.
Regardless whether Michigan has a law that protects sexual orientation or not, federal law provides it.
It is a hate crime, prosecute as such!
“suspects aren’t charged with a hate crime because the state’s ethnic-intimidation law doesn’t address sexual orientation”
I think that Kalamazoo’s hate crimes units need to see, that anyone being beaten up because they are gay is a hate crime.
Harsher punishment for attacking people because of their sexual orientation might deter some of this behavior in the future. As it has for other minorities.