Gay California Man Brutally Beaten Unconscious in Hate Crime Attack

Mikey Partida, 32, savaged in anti-gay hate crime in Davis, California [Facebook image].

Davis, California – A gay man whose account is supported by eyewitnesses says he was savagely beaten and knocked unconscious because of his sexual orientation. Mikey Partida, a native of Davis, recounts for CBS 13 Sacramento that he was verbally harassed by local men before the assailants launched the actual physical attack that put Partida in the hospital last Sunday. As he was walking down the sidewalk from his relatives’ home with his cousins, Partida, an openly gay 32-year-old, said that men followed them, aiming the “f word” at him, over and over. The savage attack came when he turned back to retrieve a set of keys he had left behind in his cousins’ house.

The assault came “out of nowhere,” Partida told reporters. “[I] was just an easier target for them. They knew I was gay. They knew they were taller and bigger, and knew how to fight,” he said. “I couldn’t fight them off. I’ve never been in a fight. They were just saying the f-word — the gay word — but f.” According to his cousin, Vanessa Turner, the men kept shouting anti-gay epithets as they beat, punched, and kicked him unconscious, leaving him a bloody mess with multiple fractures, a severe concussion, cuts, bruises, and a dangerously swollen eye. Partida was rushed to UC Davis Medical Center, where his doctors say he should make a full recovery. But the emotional damage done to him will take much longer to heal, he told CBS 13. “Even if you think it’s your back doorstep, it’s a scary, scary world. You’d think in your hometown, which is Davis, you wouldn’t think anything at your doorstep would hit you that hard,” said Partida.

In an interview with ABC News 10, Ms. Turner, Partida’s cousin, said that one of the assailants, a man from their neighborhood, came back to the scene of the crime and knocked on their door, bragging about what he had done to their gay cousin. She said what they did to her cousin was an expression of ignorance and arrogance. Like Partida, she has no doubt that the assault was an anti-gay hate crime. His main attacker kept shouting the epithets repeatedly. “I heard him, personally, yelling slurs at him,” she said. “I know it was unprovoked.”

On Thursday, Davis Police arrested 19-year-old Clayton Garzon, in the case, a local student with a record of offenses. Garzon has been charged with assault causing great bodily injury, assault with deadly weapon, commission of a hate crime, stalking, commission of a felony while on release from custody and infliction of bodily injury during the commission of a felony. He was put on $75,000 bond, which he met soon after his arrest, and now walks free until his date with a judge. No other arrests have been made. In the meantime, Partida is attempting to put his sense of security back together again. But he is not going to allow homophobes to dictate whether he can visit his own cousins, he says. Davis is his home, too, and he is looking for justice to be done.

March 15, 2013 - Posted by unfinishedlives | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, California, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, LGBTQ, Slurs and epithets | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, California, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino / Latina Americans, LGBTQ, Slurs and epithets

1 Comment »

Everytime I read the “unfinished lives” I get intensely sad. The violence I see in the USA is not very different than in nazi Germany in the 30′s. All forms violence are against spirituality. Insn’t it strange that 2000 years of false indoctrination by Christian churches about sexuality is coming home to roost. Christianity is supposed to do the opposite, but has gone astray with false doctorates which they don’t seem to be able to overcome. They cannot forgive themselves from the mistakes they have made. It is better to follow Jesus than the churches. Have repentence, purify, forgive and set the spirit free. All violence is a sin and this includes the so called ‘legal’ violence like wars.

Comment by Gerald Moonen | March 15, 2013 | Reply

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If you are a first-time visitor to the Unfinished Lives Project website, we invite you to read A Welcome Message introducing you to our project. We are truly grateful for your visit.

The Unfinished Lives Project website is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBTQ hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation. LGBTQ people in the United States are suffering a slow-rolling decimation of terror and murder all across the country. Every locale and demographic of society are affected: First Nations, Anglo, Black, Latino and Latina, South and Southeast Asian, Transgender, Bisexuals, Gay men, Lesbians, disabled, young, and mature. Homophobia has a long, crooked arm, and it is reaching out to snatch the life away from women and men whose tragic stories are under-reported to begin with, and whose memories are swiftly forgotten.

The horror of these killings transcends the shock and bereavement of loved ones and friends. These are not typical homicides; they are not killings for money or drugs, incidents of domestic strife, or crimes of passion. The vicious nature of hate crimes against LGBTQ persons is extremely brutal, grotesquely violent, and egregiously hateful.

Each murder serves the LGBTQ population as a sobering warning about the actual level of danger in our communities. The message these killings send is that freedom and open life for LGBTQ people is a cruel dream. Every time we remember one of these victims, however, the intentions of their killers are frustrated. To remember these women and men is to begin the process of changing the culture that killed them.

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Stephen V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBTQ person to be tenured there. Read More…

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Sprinkle @ Tarrant County Courthouse Protest Summer 2009 – Dr. Sprinkle responded to the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay bar, on June 28, 2009, the exact 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Dr. Sprinkle was invited to speak at three protest events sponsored by Queer LiberAction of Dallas. Here, he is keynoting the Rainbow Lounge Protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse on July 12, 2009. Read More…

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Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims