Man Charged with Hate Crime in Brutal Colorado Gay Beating
Jared Olson, victim of anti-gay hate crime, before and after the Labor Day Weekend assault.
Denver, Colorado – After several weeks, a 20-year-old suspect in the savage beating of an openly gay man outside a hookah lounge has been formally charged with an anti-gay hate crime. Tilo Sandoval, who turned himself in to police for attacking 23-year-old Jared Olson, was charged Thursday with second-degree assault, third-degree assault and bias-motivated crime, according to 9News.com.
The assault took place around 2 a.m. on September 2 outside Denver’s popular Sam’s Hookah Lounge at the corner of Alameda Avenue and Zuni Street. Olson told police that he and his friends left the lounge to get in their car when two men, one of them Sandoval, approached them, cursing them and shouting anti-gay slurs. Olson says that Sandoval yanked open the car door, yelling epithets, and hit him so hard that it dislodged some of his teeth. KDVR.com reports Olsen’s account of what happened: “They were just cussing at us and slurring, then one guy walked to my door and opened it and hit me in the face,” Olsen said. “We drove off right after that.” Besides losing and chipping his teeth, Olson’s face sustained severe injuries which, though not life-threatening, will likely require plastic and reconstructive surgery. The cost of the surgery to set his face right again may cost as much as $50,000–a health care crisis for Olson who does not have insurance to cover the expenses. Commenting on the attack on her son, Melody Olson told KDVR, “It’s so disheartening and disgusting that anyone would do that to anybody. Not just my child, but anybody’s. And it’s just because they don’t approve of (their sexual orientation).”
The severity of his wounds shocked Olson, he told 7News. “I didn’t think that I looked that bad, until my mother had taken the picture and shown me. I didn’t think it would ever happen to me. I thought people were more sensible than that in this day in age,” he said. “I just remember looking over, and looking up at the guy and getting hit square in the face right here. And you can clearly tell my nose is like over here,” said Olson.
Tilo Sandoval, charged with bias motivated hate crime against Olson.
Scott Levin, Mountain States Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed his dismay and outrage over the attack against Olson. In a prepared statement, Levin said: “The Anti-Defamation League is disheartened to learn of this tragic instance where a victim was allegedly targeted because of his sexual orientation. We applaud law enforcement officials for taking quick and decisive action to investigate whether this was a bias-motivated attack, and if the evidence supports it, we urge them to prosecute this crime to the full extent permitted under Colorado’s hate crimes law.”
Levin went on to say, “Hate crimes have an impact far beyond the individual victim of the crime. When a victim is chosen because of his or her sexual orientation, other members of that group feel unsafe and unwelcome. Hate crimes resonate throughout the victim’s community and threaten the safety and well-being of every member of that group. ADL calls upon the Denver community to speak out loudly against hate crimes and declare Denver no place for hate.”
Sandoval has been released on $30,000 bond. While the hate crimes charges are in place now, it will be up the Denver District Attorney to determine how to prosecute the case, and whether this particular situation meets the criteria of the Colorado Bias Crimes Law.
Florida Woman Brutally Raped for Being “Dyke” and “Lesbian”
Orlando, Florida – A rape victim says she was violated by three men under a downtown Orlando overpass on Sunday. The woman who remains unidentified for her own protection, told police that her assailants attacked her as she paused to do a good deed after leaving a popular LGBT club. As they pressed the attack, and raped her, the victim said the men yelled anti-lesbian slurs at her: “dyke” and “lesbian.” One of the rapists reportedly snarled, “I’ll show you what a REAL man feels like!”
According to News 13, police are investigating the attack as a bias-motivated hate crime. The woman, who had left Club Revolution, stopped under the overpass to give a homeless man some change and a cold soda, when the three rapists charged up in their vehicle, caught her, ripped off her clothes, and assaulted her as they heckled her for being a lesbian. Huffington Post’s “Gay Voices”, in all the reports of the assault they gathered, says nothing to confirm or deny that the victim is indeed a lesbian. It does not matter. The woman’s sexual orientation was assumed to be lesbian by the homophobes who raped her. The crime is heinous in whatever case, and the Orlando Police Department is correct to investigate it as a hate crime.
WESH/NBC News Orlando reminds us that seven people were reported by the FBI as attacked for their sexual orientation in Central Florida last year alone, and the number of unreported anti-LGBT hate crimes would undoubtedly be higher. This summer has been particularly deadly. Randy Stephens of the Center, a local LGBT advocacy organization, said to WESH, “There are still people out there that hate us. Even with all the victories wave had, we may have let our guard down.”
There have been no arrests in the case as of yet.
Harlem Transgender Woman Succumbs After Five Day Battle for Life: NYC’s Latest Hate Crime Victim
Islan Nettles, 21, removed from life support after brutal anti-transgender attack in Harlem.
New York City, New York – A 21-year-old transgender woman of color was removed from life support after five desperate days in a coma from a savage hate crime attack in Harlem. Islan Nettles, an aspiring fashion designer, was assaulted by a man allegedly enraged when he learned that Ms. Nettles was not a biological male. She and her transgender friends were walking near 148th Street and Eighth Avenue on Saturday night when the barbaric attack took place at around 11 p.m.. One of her friends ran for help to a nearby police precinct as Ms. Nettles struggled for her life with the assailant, shouting transphobic and homophobic epithets, on top of her in the street, according to NY1. She was rushed to Harlem Hospital where she was initially reported as conscious, but soon fell into a coma from which she never woke up. NYPD reported that Ms. Nettles was determined brain dead, and she was removed from her ventilator on Thursday.
New York Police are investigating the assault as a bias-driven hate crime. Mayoral candidate, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer issued statements decrying this latest violent incident involving LGBTQ New Yorkers, according to The Gothamist. De Blasio said, “This is a horrifying and painful moment for our city. Ms. Nettles’ murder was crime rooted in hate and ignorance. My heart goes out to her family and her friends as they come to terms with this inexplicable act of violence.” De Blasio continued, “Make no mistake: The denial of fundamental rights to transgender New Yorkers fuels the appalling violence this community continues to face. That must end. Delivering justice here requires we investigate this hate crime and hold the perpetrator or perpetrators fully responsible. But it also demands we finally affirm the rights of transgender New Yorkers as full and equal members of our city, state and country.” Stringer added his outrage at the crime, “The savage beating death of a transgender women in Harlem this past weekend was an appalling and unacceptable crime that has no place in New York City. We pride ourselves on tolerance and generosity toward others in this City, but the murder of Islan Nettles is a reminder of how far we still have to go in ensuring that all New Yorkers can walk the streets with dignity and safety.”
A suspect named Paris Wilson, 20, was arrested by police and charged with the beating. Wilson was initially charged with misdemeanor assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree. Since Ms. Nettles’ death, upgraded charges are expected on Friday. The Black Youth Project called the murder “horrible,” and lamented the awful waste of a talented young transgender woman’s life. Ms. Nettles, who worked for a time at Ay’ Medici, a Harlem design house. On her LinkedIn page, she wrote movingly of her love of fashion design: “Fashion became a definite decision for my life after my first show with my hand designed garments in high school at the 11th grade.”
Ms. Nettles’ hate crime murder is the second fatality in a wave of violence against New York City’s LGBTQ community that has racked up record numbers of violent attacks each year for the last three years in a row.
Homophobic Gang Member Sentenced in NYC Anti-Gay Torture Case
Nelson Falu, 20-year-old member of Latin King Goonies, sentenced for sexually torturing three victims. Six more gang members remain to be sentenced.
New York City, New York – Nelson Falu, 20, was sentenced by the Bronx Supreme Court to seven years in prison for his role in a horrendous 2010 gay torture case that rocked the Big Apple for weeks. Falu is the first of eight Latin King Goonies to face justice for his role in the sexual torture of three persons the gang believed to be gay. According to Gay Star News, Prosecutor Theresa Gottlieb told the court on August 9 that Falu’s victims would rather have a plea bargain settle the issue rather than be forced to “relive” the horrors they endured at the hands of the Goonies in October 2010.
Falu and seven other Goonies tortured a 17-year-old gang recruit they assumed was gay, and then lured another 17-year-old and a 30-year-old man they assumed was having gay sex with the teens into their Bronx safe house that served as a makeshift dungeon, where they were sexually tortured, as well. As reported by Unfinishedlivesblog.com, the Goonies fell upon their victims like wolves, sodomizing one of the 17-year-olds with the wooden handle of a toilet plunger, solely because they suspected them of being gay. The victims were berated with homophobic slurs and burned with cigarettes, beaten with chains, and repeatedly sodomized with a wooden bat for hours. The suspects were arrested and charged with with sodomy, abduction, imprisonment, menacing, assault, and robbery as bias motivated hate crimes.
LGBTQ Nation quoted Mayor Michael Bloomberg as saying at the time of the arrests of the Goonies, “Like many New Yorkers, I was sickened by the brutal nature of these crimes and saddened by the anti-gay bias that contributed to them. The heartless men who committed these crimes should know that their fellow New Yorkers will not tolerate their vicious acts, or the hatred that fuels them.”
Falu, who was 18 at the time of his crimes, and two other gang members accepted plea deals in June. It remains to be seen if the five others will accept plea bargains, or face trial in court.
Gay Couple Attacked in Heart of Gay-Friendly New York Neighborhood
NYPD sketches of suspects in Wednesday’s attack on a gay couple in Chelsea.
BREAKING NEWS: New York City, New York – Police have released sketches of two principle attackers who savagely assaulted a gay couple as they walked holding hands in Chelsea, one of the gay-friendliest sections of the Big Apple. The suspects, according to CBS Local, are described by the NYPD as a black man wearing a white tee shirt, and a younger Hispanic male, probably in the 16 to 20 year old range, sporting tattoos on his arms. The attack is being investigated as a bias-motivated hate crime by New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force as part of the wave of murder and assault taking place against LGBTQ people in New York this spring and summer.
Wednesday, August 14, shortly after midnight, Peter Notman, 53, and Michael Felenchak, 27, left the Chelsea Bowtie Cinemas on 23rd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues holding hands. As they walked along after turning down 24th Street, a two men shouting anti-gay slurs attacked them. Four other men joined in the attack on the couple, according to Huffington Post coverage of the incident. Notman said to CBS TV reporters, “It was six of them against the two of us. Typical of the cowards they are.”
One of the assailants used brass knuckles to strike the pair, and both Notman and Felenchak required hospitalization at Beth Israel Hospital, spending the entire night in the emergency room. Notman said, “I was hit with brass knuckles down the side of my face, and I had contusions; had to have an MRI, and Michael received several stitches in his mouth where they punched us.” Felechak required seven stitches to close his wounds.
By Thursday morning, the couple were passing out fliers and appearing before the media with local politicians to protest this latest hate crime attack against LGBTQ people. “We have our complete faith in the NYPD — they are great guys; they’re amazing. They’re going to find the guys,” Felenchak said.
Micheal Felenchak (l) and Peter Notman (r), attacked while holding hands.
Christine Quinn and Bill de Blasio, both candidates in the hotly contested New York Mayor’s race, spoke out against the rise in violence against LGBTQ people in the very city that gave birth to the modern human rights movement in Greenwich Village, not far from the site of this latest outrage against LGBTQ dignity. “I am appalled by reports that two men were senselessly beaten in Chelsea simply because they were perceived to be gay,” Council Speaker Quinn said. “The cowardly individuals who committed this crime do not represent New Yorkers and our community will not be cowed by such violence. New York City’s greatest strength is our diversity, and we will not stand for attacks against anyone, for any reason.” NYC Public Advocate de Blasio issued his statement to Huffington Post: “We won’t let hate work its way into our communities. LGBTQ New Yorkers have the right to walk any street in this city free from violence or intimidation. We have to meet any bias attack against the LGBTQ community with aggressive action—both in our condemnation, and in our police response. I applaud the NYPD for doing exactly that. The community needs to know the City will meet its fundamental obligation to protect its people.”
Meanwhile, residents of Chelsea were still recovering from the news that their once highly touted gay-friendly neighborhood was no longer a safe place for gay men and lesbians to live open lives without fear. Upper West Side resident, Corbin Reid told CBS New York, “A lot of homosexuals live here, and they feel safe here and I think they live here because they feel a sense of community. So to get attacked here is definitely disheartening, and it’s like getting attacked in your own home.” Chelseaite John Flippen said, “I suddenly have to be very aware of what I’m doing and restraining myself from anything that might draw attention and that’s no way to live. I didn’t come to Chelsea to live that way.” Toby Berkowitz, another Chelsea resident, chimed in, “Chelsea of all places? Really? You’re here because it’s a very homogenized mix of people. We love that. But if you don’t feel safe in front of your local movie theater, where would you?”
There have been no arrests as of press time today. The search for the gay bashers continues in America’s largest city, where anti-LGBTQ attacks are up 70 per cent over last year.
Wilson Cruz, national spokesperson for GLAAD, summed up the outrage of the LGBTQ activist community over this latest attack, saying, “The rising number of anti-LGBT attacks around the country is staggering and needs to be addressed immediately. Nobody should have to fear simply walking down a street in their own neighborhood because of who they are.”
Notorious Gay Panic and Trans Panic Legal Defenses Must End, Says American Bar Association
Gwen Araujo’s mother, Sylvia Guerrero, cradles her portrait. Thanks to the ABA, the so-called Gay and Trans Panic excuses for violence may one day be a thing of the past.
San Francisco, California – Gay Panic and Trans Panic legal defenses must go, says the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association at their annual meeting this past week. The delegates voted to follow the lead of California legislation calling for the cessation of excuses for violence against gays, lesbians, and transgender persons allegedly because of fear of homosexuals or the identity of transgender persons, according to eNews Park Forest. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the President of the National LGBT Bar Association, D’Arcy Kemnitz, sponsor of the cessation resolution at the ABA convention, called upon lawmakers throughout the United States to frame legislation banning the use of the Gay Panic and Trans Panic defenses, saying, “Legal professionals find no validity in these sham defenses mounted by those who seek to perpetuate discrimination and stereotypes as an excuse for violence.”
The Resolution, 113A, which had previously been vetted and passed by the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section, says in part that the ABA “urges federal, state, local and territorial governments to take legislative action to curtail the availability and effectiveness of the ‘gay panic’ and ‘trans panic’ defenses, which seek to partially or completely excuse crimes such as murder and assault on the grounds that the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for the defendant’s violent reaction,” according to the report of Gay Star News. The Resolution goes on to say, “Such legislative action should include requiring courts in any criminal trial or proceeding, upon the request of a party, to instruct the jury not to let bias, sympathy, prejudice, or public opinion influence its decision about the victims, witnesses, or defendants based upon sexual orientation or gender identity; and specifying that neither a non-violent sexual advance, nor the discovery of a person’s sex or gender identity, constitutes legally adequate provocation to mitigate the crime of murder to manslaughter, or to mitigate the severity of any non-capital crime.”
Californians passed their 2006 law banning the use of Gay and Trans Panic defenses in response to the infamous 2002 slaying of transwoman Gwen Araujo of Newark, California by four male assailants who claimed that they panicked in “the heat of the moment” when they discovered Araujo’s biological identity. The trial uncovered the truth, that both main defendants had sexual relations with Araujo for months prior to the gruesome murder, which they perpetrated by bludgeoning her into unconsciousness with a can of tomatoes and an iron frying pan. Her attackers finished Araujo off by strangling her with a rope and beating her with a shovel. Gwen’s murderers then drove her body four hours away from the San Francisco Bay area to bury her in a shallow grave in the Sierra Nevado mountains, where her remains lay undiscovered for several days. All four defendants were found guilty of the killing, and were sentenced to prison after a series of three trials. The two main defendants were sentenced to 15 years to life for second degree murder. The consensus of legal opinion is that the Araujo trials went a far distance toward discrediting the Trans Panic defense for perpetrating violence against LGBTQ people.
In 2009, on what would have been Gwen Araujo’s 25th birthday had she lived, her mother Sylvia Guerrero called upon the American public to commemorate her transgender daughter’s life. Speaking to the Examiner.com, Ms. Guerrero invited everyone to honor her child though acts of joy and service: “Light a candle, release a balloon, or do a good deed for someone less fortunate than yourself. Thank you for keeping her memory alive.” Now, Gwen Amber Rose Araujo has an even more lasting legacy with the ABA’s campaign to end the Trans Panic and Gay Panic excuses for violence in the American legal system forever. Rest in peace, Sister.
Gay Texas Hate Crime Victim Appeals for Help…But Where’s the Community?
Jimmy Lee Dean, after the brutal July 2008 hate crime attack that nearly took his life.
Dallas, Texas – Jimmy Lee Dean deserves help from the North Texas LGBTQ community. In July 2008, he was brutally attacked by two young men bent on robbing and savaging a gay man in the storied Cedar Springs neighborhood. The heroic act of bouncers from a nearby bar, and a local passerby saved Jimmy Lee from dying, then and there. But the injuries he sustained that night ruined his life.
Now, his face a wreck from failed surgeries, Jimmy Lee Dean has reached out to the LGBTQ community in his longtime Dallas home. But despite coverage by the Dallas Voice commemorating the Fifth Anniversary of the attack that nearly stole his life away, and an Indiegogo campaign to raise the money to set his ravaged face right again, only three anonymous funders have risen to the challenge, and reached out to Jimmy Lee. What is going on here? Besides the usual American aversion to remembering difficult events for longer than a news cycle, or perhaps background problems with this particular case-gone-cold, could there be something else preventing LGBTQ people from responding positively to the pleas of a home-grown hate crime victim who barely escaped with his life?
Jimmy Lee tells the story of his need on the Indiegogo campaign home page he originated two weeks ago. Here is his statement, as he wrote it, in its entirety:
“On July 17, 2008 I was the victim of a hate crime in Dallas, Texas. Through the kind act of everyday people like you, I did not die that night. The criminals were stopped, prosecuted and the good people of Texas provided $50,00.00 from their crime victims fund to repair my physical damages and any phycological [sic] help that might be needed.
“Problems started when I left Parkland County Hospital intensive care unit. Up to that point everything seemed to be going ok. Then After some 16 visits to the Oral Surgery Clinic, 2 surgeries and one attempted surgery that never took place and 27 visits to Parkland crisis center I am in the same phycical [sic] situation as at the crime scene.
“Work done in the second surgery at Parkland Hospital has all come undone. My jaw and cheek bone are no longer attached. Teeth have never been dealt with. No one has followed up on my broken back. I have headaces [sic] every other day. My eyes are having problems. I walk with a causious gate [sic]. I get light headed all the time. I don’t reallly go anywere because of the facial disfigurments and the way I look when I eat.
“I never asked for what happend. It could have been anyone of us at that spot at that time.
“My dreams and identity are gone along with my alillity [sic] to smell, but maybe there are medical procedures that might restore me to a point where I can have some kind of a normal life.”
The anti-gay hate crime attack on Jimmy Lee in the heart of the “Gayborhood” was an outrage. The two defendants in the case, Jonathan Gunter and Bobby Singleton, were brought to justice. Gunter received a 30 year sentence, and Singleton got 70 years. Jimmy Lee Dean moved away from Dallas to try and put his life back together, but his orphaned story has largely been unremembered and unattended, despite the efforts of a few LGBT activists who went court in support of Jimmy Lee, and the efforts of the Dallas Voice editors and staff.
Who knows if Jimmy Lee’s assailants will serve their whole sentences–sentences achieved by the Dallas D.A.’s Office without hate crime enhancements for the usual reasons that hate crimes are hard to prove in Texas? But what Jimmy Lee is asking for is something more tangible than answers to opaque questions of law and right and wrong. He is asking for financial help. And, as of this writing, only three donors out of the thousands and thousands of queer folk in North Texas have done anything. The Indiegogo fund stands at $100.00.
Shaming, of course, does little or no good. But the broader question behind the non-response to the pleas of a bona fide hate crimes survivor is whether there is anything like an LGBTQ community to appeal to in the first place? Has the loose association of interest groups and tavern patrons, the merchants and real estate developers in Dallas who are happy to claim to be progressive LGBTQ community members when it suits their self-interest, actually never matured into a community at all? Is the reason for the non-response to the call of a former member of the Gayborhood for help actually because there was no real LGBTQ community in Dallas to begin with? And, what are the signs that a gathering of people on the margins of heterosexual society have begun to attain the seriousness and sacrifice for their own people that denotes a community of character and concern?
Jimmy Lee Dean now (Indiegogo Campaign page image).
Whether Jimmy Lee’s appeal finds its way into the generous heart of queer Texans remains to be seen. LGBTQ Texans are an able bunch, once they are motivated. But hate crimes victims are at least one important litmus test of a true community, as African Americans, Jews, and Buddhist commemorators of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can attest from their own histories of struggle and resistance. A community begins to become serious and exist in the real world when it starts to take care of its own whenever they meet crisis and disaster. Until then, it is a fair-weather association, at best.
Anyone wishing to contribute to Jimmy Lee Dean’s appeal can read more and donate here.
~ Stephen V. Sprinkle, Founder and Director of the Unfinished Lives Project
Gay Seattle Man Brutally Attacked by Mob; Police Call Bashing “A Hate Crime”
Jason Jacobs, gay 37-year-old, attacked in his own neighborhood.
Seattle, Washington – A 37-year-old gay man was attacked early Monday morning by a gang of women and men who yelled anti-gay slurs as they ran him down in the gay-friendly Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. KOMO News 4 reports that police are calling the attack a bias-driven hate crime.
Jason Jacobs told reporters and the Seattle Police Department that he was walking down the street in his own neighborhood a bit past midnight on Monday when two women and three men called out slurs about his sexual orientation, chased him down, and assaulted him with fists and kicks until he lay unconscious with a fractured eye socket, a broken nose, a major concussion, and two cracked ribs. Jacobs says he did not get a good look at his assailants, but knows other witnesses did–if they will only come forward. The attack took place in front of a Starbucks Coffee Shop, but only one witness has come forward to file a report with the SPD. Jacobs’ cries for help drew the witness to respond out of a feeling that, if he were subjected to such an attack, he would want someone to reach out to him. The witness stayed with Jacobs until an ambulance arrived to transport him to a local hospital.
Jacobs says that his pink shirt and shoes may have first attracted the attention of the gang of women and men, the Huffington Post reports. “Hopefully somebody saw something,” Jacobs told KIRO News. “Hopefully we can get some justice.” On Tuesday, he returned to the scene of his attack, seeking to encourage others to come forward and help police with the investigation. Looking at the stains of his own blood still on the sidewalk, Jacobs says that he has lost the feeling of safety and security he once had in the Capitol Hill area.
Seattle Police have assigned this case to their bias crimes division. In their report, investigators describe the three men suspected of the crime as being in their 20s and of “unknown race,” while the two women were described as “Hispanics” with dark hair. As of this writing, no arrests have been made.
Lesbian Couple Beaten By Mob in Chicago; One Suspect Arrested
![Terry Glover, 24, charged with anti-lesbian hate crimes and robbery in West Side Chicago neighborhood [Chicago PD photo].](https://unfinishedlivesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/terry-glover.jpg)
Terry Glover, 24, charged with anti-lesbian hate crimes and robbery in West Side Chicago neighborhood [Chicago PD photo].
In personal accounts of the harrowing attack, the women, who wish to remain unidentified, say that their assailants yelled that no “bitch dykes” were going to walk through their neighborhood. The assault, they say, was initiated by Glover who was a former school classmate of one of the women. The couple allege they were taunted for their sexual orientation, knocked to the ground, and kicked while they were down. “It was punches, kicks, everything being thrown at us,” one of the victims told the Tribune. “We just held onto each other until somebody said, ‘Here come the police.'” One of the women had her shirt ripped from her body during the attack, and the cash and cell phones of them both were taken. The mob ran at the approach of police officers.
By Monday, Glover was in custody, and was hauled before a Cook County judge, according to DNAinfo Chicago.
The younger of the two women told the Tribune, “It really shouldn’t matter who I like or who I love. I should be able to walk the streets wherever I want to go and talk to whoever I want to talk to.”
Meanwhile, in the wake of the Supreme Court decisions of last month, the violence against LGBTQ people in America continues, apparently unabated. Rick Garcia, policy director of The Civil Rights Agenda, a Chicago-based LGBTQ rights organization, told Tribune reporters, “We see cases like this all the time, all over the city and all over the state. It shows that animosity toward lesbian and gay people is just below the surface. We think we’ve made such big gains, but right below the surface we see this animosity and violence.”
Oregon’s “Pink Poodle” Gay Bashing Draws Federal Hate Crime Charges
Gay Bashing victim David Beltier (l), partner Jeremy Mark (r), and their poodle Beauty.
Hillsboro, Oregon – A bizarre anti-gay crime case at a busy highway street crossing has attracted national attention as Federal prosecutors issued hate crimes charges against a man whose homophobic rage was sparked by the sight of a pink poodle. The assailant, George Mason Jr., 22, was charged this week with a violation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for attacking a gay man with a heavy bolt cutter and screaming anti-gay slurs during a peaceful, midday stroll with his boyfriend and their pink-dyed poodle on March 1. Multiple witnesses say Mason shouted slurs at the gay couple from his SUV, did a U turn, raced back to the intersection, and allegedly attacked David Beltier with his fists and the bolt cutter. Beltier sustained blows to the upper arm, and to the back of his head. The assault could very nearly have cost Beltier his life.
Portland, Oregon court documents record the hate crime in legal language, but preserve the horror of the assault, coming from a complete stranger: “(Mason) willfully caused bodily injury and, through the use of a dangerous weapon, attempted to cause bodily injury to (Beltier), who is gay, because of (Beltier’s) actual and perceived sexual orientation.” The Associated Press, in a story carried by the Columbus (IN) Republic, also reports that Mason faces Oregon state charges including second-degree intimidation, second-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, and reckless driving. The intimidation charge is a bias-motivation charge in the Oregon state code. Mason’s wife, Saraya Gardner, who was in Mason’s vehicle at the time of the attack, has also been charged in the case for obstructing justice.
George Mason Jr. Alleged gay basher enraged by the sight of a pink poodle.
In an interview in Komonews.com, Beltier and his partner, Jeremy Mark, recounted that they were crossing the street with their pink-dyed poodle, Beauty, when the attack occurred. Beauty, explained Beltier and Mark, had been harmlessly dyed pink with Kool-Aid for a bit of pre-Easter fun, and to match their two other pastel-dyed dogs. The sight of the pink poodle proved too much for Mason, who screamed profanities at the couple from his moving vehicle. The intersection was filled with witnesses who blared their horns in protest of the attacker. Beltier credits the witnesses with saving his life. “If I didn’t hear all the other people honking, all the people seeing what was going on, he could have probably severely hurt me, maybe even killed me right there and then,” he said. The New York Daily News reports Mark’s account of the slurs Mason hurled at his boyfriend. “[Mason] was saying, “Your poodle is a weird color and that’s just un-American” and “f— you, you f–s” and shouting,” Mark said.
Beltier then picked up the story for Komo News: “After that, [Mason] turns around, he goes back to his car, runs back to his car and brings out this long wrench-looking crowbar tool or something like that, and he comes back after me.” Mason then struck Beltier on the upper arm and in the back of the head. Beltier’s boyfriend was frantic with fear for his lover’s life. “I just couldn’t believe it,” said Mark. “I was shouting at the guy to stop. There’s no need for violence. There’s nothing to provoke him. … I was fearing for his life.”
As Mason raced away from the scene of the crime, witnesses tried to block his vehicle, and one witness took off after him, capturing Mason’s license plate number. The information led to the arrest of Mason and his wife, Gardner.
Though officials advised the gay couple to eliminate the bright pink color from his pet’s fur, Beltier and Mark remain adamant. They say that they did nothing wrong, and they are not going to let fear dictate their lives. They just allowed Beauty’s fur to grow out naturally over time.
About
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.
Our Project Director
Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle (Keith Tew photo).
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…
Recent Social Justice Advocacy Activity By Dr. Sprinkle
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…
Contact Us
Communicate with the Unfinished Lives project team:
info@unfinishedlivesblog.com
Schedule a Presentation
Dr. Sprinkle will gladly present his acclaimed presentation to your organization. To arrange an Unfinished Lives presentation for your organization or group, please contact us.
Dr. Sprinkle has given his Unfinished Lives presentation to these and other community groups and organizations. Read More…
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Publisher: Steve Sprinkle (Project Director)
Steve Sprinkle
Unfinished Lives: Remembering LGBT Hate Crime VictimsBrite Divinity School/Texas Christian UniversityFort Worth TXprofessor, minister, author, blogger, LGBTQ advocate
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