Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine My friend got gay bashed on Friday night

Read all about it here!

www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-7-1341045,00.html

He's going to be famous! He's been booked it in to talk about it on "high brow" BBC news show Newsnight on Friday!

What has the British Boxing Board of Control got to do with Newsnight?

Andrew, that's a very sad story about what happened to your friend. However, it's also a very upbeat article (for such a crappy thing to have happened), and I'm glad your friend is able to look at the way he has.

Just like I did when I heard a reporter say last night that an Okalahoma Senator had won last night after being quoted as saying that lesbianism was so rampant these days that school girls can't be trusted to go the bathroom unless alone, I shook my head and thought "if aliens invade...I'm selling out Earth."

Wha?! That's mental!

He wouldn't have been Republican, would he?

:rolleyes:

Remind me to look on the bright side when you get your head smacked in with a glass bottle.

hey CK --
this is a scary little bit of news wrapped in a great article

your buddy has mixed humor and insight into a rough situation without turning to sentimental tripe, cliches, or simplifying any bit of it (i.e. "he called me fag and then he hit me") ... he went through the whole event, each aspect in such an entertaining & smart way

i'm glad he got off with the staples, kept his self-respect, and got a nice little article out of a particularly horrible friday night about town

by the way, is he cute?

When people say things like this, I feel funny inside.

It's like "wow, someone really does get me".

That was a great article. I'm really sorry about your friend.

I'm sorry to hear about it, too. I still get freaked out by the idea that this sort of stuff happens. I just don't get how you can have that level of hatred for people to do such a thing. I'm probably just biased because I really haven't had any negative experiences in regard to my being gay (no problems from family or friends - and my friends are typically straight guys). Anyway, I'm glad something positive can come out of this.

Yep, that Senator is a Republican.

1. He ran the absolutely nastiest innuendo, gay bashing, fear mongering, smear campaign I've ever seen.
2. He's being sued for performing sterilization proceedures on welfare moms without the consent of the patients.
3. He's an asshole of epic proportion.

I just happen to live in Oklahoma and and I haven't the foggiest idea what in hell he was talking about. Nobody does but somehow that didn't matter, he's a Bushie and that was all that mattered to the Bible Belt Fundamentalists. I was physically threatened several times this past year for daring to speak an opposing view.

Really, think about it, if there was actually a gay population that was that strong and that public do you think the anti-gay amendment would have passed here? There hasn't been even ONE gay marriage in this state but these homophobic bigots ran to the polls in a panic to "save" their "traditional" hatreds from the evils of the "liberal agenda".

This just makes me very discouraged and tired, because I'm afraid we'll see more of this as the fundamentalists flex their muscles.

I admire that guy for fighting back and speaking out about it, as well as poking fun at his own self-doubts (should I have hit my misguided assailant?). He was fortunate that there was only one attacker - even if he's strong, he'd have a hard time fighting off a gang.

Humanity can be so ugly sometimes. Hell, look at Sudan. But to know that this attitude is pervasive in the "land of the free" as well makes me sick. Someone needs to free the Republican party of these radical fundamentalists, but it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

Andy.

Thats really sad. Why is that some people feel the need to hate someone just because they are different to themselves. Nationality, race, colour, sexuality, politics, religion. It seems that any and all of these are excuses to hate. I wish we could use them as excuses to be inclusive, to find out about diferences and similarities instead.


Yellow,

Bible Belt Fundamentalist, Islamic Fiundamentalist, Jewish Fundamentalist, Hindu Fundamentalists. There seems to be a worrying thread of comminality here. They seem to say not just We are right, you are wrong, but we hate you for not being us and we will use violence to get our way.

So sad

Okay, 1 & 3 are pretty standard for policitians, especially Republicans, even if the extent is worse. But are you serious about 2? REALLY!?

Hope your friend has recovered from the headaches CK, and well done him for speaking up against the yob. The article is great in he gives a very honest account of the night and what he felt throughout it all. The Times is a Rupert Murdoch paper isn't it? I'm surprised they'd print an article like this. Good for them!

I'm a liberal pacifist normally but bigots just make my blood boil. Can their lives be so pathetic that they need to project their own weakness and fear onto others? I've seen some horrid things happen to friends and aquaintences and my sympathy is firmly on the side of the victim. A friend from a school I used to work at had his jaw smashed by a couple of evil gits. I don't know anyone in London with gay friends who hasn't heard of or actually been on the receiving end of this sort of shit.

In a similar vein, two guys tried to jump Keith (Sonnie) at New Year. If memory serves I think one of them received a broken nose and two black eyes and the other ran away when he realised that their drunken queenie victim actually wasn't about to walk away from their abuse.

Bless Keith, he said it was bearable and he was about to walk away until one of them slapped his forehead and called him a 'slaphead' That hit him where it hurt!

I'm not advocating violence, yet I have no problems with individuals defending themselves from unprovoked acts of aggression.

Harbinger, great story abut Sonnie kicking their asses. I wish I could have helped.

Puke is right. It's distressing that someone like that could be elected and disgusting that the G.O.P. allowed him to run. We're always going to have ignorant hate-mongers seeking office, but if the national party does nothing to stop them - or won't even sanction them - it's like an endorsement. I'm sure Karl Rove could have put the cabosh on this guy if he thought he'd be bad news for the party.

I don't think he'd need help actually and before you think it he's a very gentle guy normally. It sounds odd but Keith was in a terrible state afterwards - feeling guilty and totally shocked at his own actions. Not nice for anyone really.

That's only one of two stories I've heard where the aggressor became the victim. Croydon has a surprisingly large gay population but it also has a lot of eejits who want to project their own shit onto them.

As the author of the article wrote, it's normal the victim looks ahead and walks away, and that's what I'd advocate doing too. Why risk getting a knifing (or seriously fractured jaw like Alec got) just because some fool wants to mouth off at you?

I think Keith is back on Sunday, I'll ask him to post his side of it then.

The funny thing is that I've heard people say the voted for Bush because he was "for marriage". All I could think is that if he's so pro-marriage, why is he trying to stop people from getting married?

Anyway!

Back to the topic!

My pal was on Newsnight last night pp for about 15 seconds! It was quite a weak piece really, despite trying to draw connections between homophobic lyrics in songs by people like Beanie Man and Elephant Man and the 10% increase this year in attacks on gays and lesbians it only concluded that bashed gays "should report all attacks."

So that go no one anywhere...

Maybe he should just ban divorce.

"Why is that some people feel the need to hate someone just because they are different to themselves. Nationality, race, colour, sexuality, politics, religion. It seems that any and all of these are excuses to hate."


A lot of it was going on in my neighborhood about 2 years ago (and a bit of it continues to skulk about every so often). I live in a mostly-black, parlty-spanish, often drug-infested neighborhood. Seems every time a new family moves in, it's from a neighborhood even WORSE than this one, and the first thing they do is try to drag the place DOWN to their "standards".

There were a pair of 12-year-olds, for example, who wanted to start a "gang" and beat up other kids smaller than they were to get 'em to join. Anyone-- likeme, for instance-- who said anything against them, they labeled them "RACIST!!" in order to obscure what was really going on (including the fact that THEY themselves were racist). But a lot of people around here were SO DUMB they took the words of a pair of 12-year-olds instead of an adult. COUNTLESS calls to the police and a number of threats of legal action aimed AT THEIR PARENTS were required before things finally quieted down.


What can I say? I don't hate people of other races. I just hate STUPID people!!! (Unfortunatley, THEY'RE the ones having SO MANY KIDS.)