Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Lesbians Thrown Out of Texas Bar, Then Beaten in Possible Hate Crime

Julie Ward says she and her friends were held and beaten for being lesbians (KVUE News image)

Weir, Texas – A group of lesbians say that they were thrown out of a local bar and then held and beaten because of their sexual orientation. Weir, Texas is a town of 500+ souls in Northeast Williamson County, east of Georgetown and north of Austin. Julie Ward, her sister, sister-in-law, and another friend stopped in the Bunkhouse Bar, the only place to get an adult drink in the town, late on Sunday, according to the Dallas Voice. Ward, one of the victims in the crime, said to KVUE News that she and her party got beers and started playing pool.  A female employee of the Bunkhouse approached them to tell them the bar “didn’t serve [their] type,” that they were not welcome there, and to see them out the door. When the group of women moved outside, patrons of the bar followed them into the parking lot, seized them, and commenced to beat them while hurling anti-lesbian slurs at them.

Ward says that women held them while the men from the bar beat them.  She told KVUE: “As we came outside into the parking lot, we were followed by the patrons of the bar and our arms were held back by women and we were beaten by men. A man told me if I was going to look like a man, I better be able to take a hit like a man, and I was punched in the face at that moment and hit the ground.” Ward continued: “We’re just people too. We’re normal people that wanted to be in a bar. We wanted to spend our money there. We wanted to play pool there and because of our sexuality we weren’t welcome.”  Ward, her friend, and her sister suffered multiple scrapes, bruises, and cuts on their arms and legs from the beating.

A bar spokeswoman says that “sexual preference” didn’t cause the attack.  In her version of the incident, the lesbians were “rough housing,” and were asked to leave.  No explanation was given of why patrons of the bar followed the victims outside, held and beat them. Weir residents are making the customary defense of their hometown, saying that things like a lesbian beat-down don’t occur in their close knit community.

The Williamson County Sheriff’s Department says that the investigation is ongoing, and if a hate crime was perpetrated, then the case will be treated as a bias crime at that time. No arrests in the beating have yet been announced.

April 24, 2012 - Posted by | Anglo Americans, Anti-Gay Hate Groups, Beatings and battery, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, Slurs and epithets, Texas, Unsolved LGBT Crimes | , , , , , , , , , ,

2 Comments

  1. ttp://www.kvue.com/news/local/Williamson-County-woman-claims-she-and-friends-beat-up- because-theyre-gay-148612225.htm Apparently the owners wife thinks it is ok to kick a group of girls out because they are gay. Then she ed other patrons out after them and orchestrated the women holding the girls down and the men beating them. Stand up against hate crimes

    Comment by Cassie Padgett | April 24, 2012

  2. I love these girls! They’re customers at the bar I tend in georgetown, wonderful sweet people. They love every face they know; great tippers. They don’t “rough house” but their not calm either. They just enjoy having a good time, and know who and what they love. Whats the problem with that?

    Comment by Elizabeth | May 7, 2012


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