A 26-year-old local activist and his friend were attacked by five men right on 4th Street in downtown Austin, Texas – where several gay bars are located – at about 1.30am on Sunday morning.
The Dallas Voice, a gay newspaper, reported that Bobby Beltran an activist who helped organise this year’s QueerBomb in Austin and his friend had hugged each other goodbye on the sidewalk after leaving a gay bar when some men in a passing vehicle yelled, “Fucking faggots, stop that queer shit!”
As Beltran yelled at the men to “get out of here,” all five of them jumped out of the vehicle which they left in the middle of the street, and attacked him and his friend for several minutes.
Beltran said he fought back but sustained cuts and bruises and a black eye while his friend may have suffered a broken jaw, the Voice reported. Their attackers then quickly drove off.
He told the paper: “I’ve never in my life been in any kind of violent situation, especially a hate crime, so it’s been pretty traumatic. Austin is supposed to be a gay haven, especially on 4th Street. What scares me even more is that nobody even helped.
“I come from Brownsville, Texas. Even down there I was out since I was 13, and I never got picked on in high school. To find out that it’s here in Austin on 4th Street, and knowing that fellow gay men were not doing anything about it, is just shocking.”
Beltran also said he yelled out the license plate of the vehicle as he ran after the attackers, but no one wrote it down and he doesn’t remember it.
The incident is the third anti-gay attack reported in Austin this year.
What Would You Do?
American television network ABC's "hidden camera, ethical dilemma series" What Would You Do? decided to see how people would react if they witnessed a hate crime – in this case a Hispanic man being attacked on the street.
This experiment was inspired by a real life incident when Jose Sucuzhanay was walking home from a party in Brooklyn, N.Y., in December 2008 when two strangers attacked him with an aluminum bat. The Ecuadorian died a week later from his injuries.
From a control room nearby, his brother Diego Sucuzhanay watched people's reactions and many of them walking on by as the "victim" was attacked and on the floor begging for help.
"Some of them appeared Latino themselves," the host of the programme John Quinones himself noted. "You would think they would jump in."
But why didn't they? It's interesting to watch men decide to do nothing and/or say they were afraid that the gang would turn on them while a petite young woman got out of her car and physically intervened.
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Reader's Comments
But Texas is one of the least gay-friendly states here in the USA - most of the southern states share this view. It isn't really surprising to me to read this, however shocking and dismaying it is. People down there are just anti in a lot of ways, and it's sickening to be reminded of it. Some Texans and other Southerners still think they can make a comeback from losing the Civil War, for crying out loud! :(
The city feels safe because its just an absolute dead town (it comes alive really because of regularly held International Conferences). So many of the local homophobes would probably just seek entertainment bashing us up.
Poor thing - get this guys. Dont even bother visiting that city. Its really quite a sad place. And now with this, even sadder. Tragic!
Get a firearms licence and carry a gun it,s your right under the american constitution. Freedom Liberty Justice for all. god bless the USA
Let's see how those idiots would like staring down the barrel of a 38 special as they got out of their car.
I continue to be humiliated by my own countrymen.
Be less superficial, take time to see the wonderful people within less attractive shells.
That's a daily reminder to myself.
I would say that I wished someone fought for me while coming out, but that would be redundant in this circle, considering everyone probably feels the same way.
Ken Mehlman: "the former Republican Party chairman who ran George W. Bush's gay-bashing 2004 presidential campaign, has come out ..." see www.metafilter.com/95124/Ken-Mehlman-comes-out
SURELY the response that should be advocated is to call the police?????
Stop wasting time...and phone for a damn ambulance!!!!!!!!!!
I grew up in LA and whether you're straight or gay, you always get these guys driving by calling names. You just ignore and move on. If I was there, I would not help him.
As for myself, I was the kid who got his ass kicked regularly by bullies and my older brother. After years of weight lifting and martial arts training I no longer get hassled and when I do (got yelled at by a moron in a car in my home town of San Jose, no wonder I moved) I don't back down, I say bring it on and I will send you crying back to your mommy.
Coming to the aid of those who are in need in humane my fellow humans. Yes, you take a risk of getting hurt as well but I have come to the aid of a half a dozen people over the years, and with one exception I never had to use force to resolve the situation just my presences and the fact that someone questioned what was happening was enough to end it.
I am not suggesting we gather up pitch forks and have at the thugs but sometimes the police are not available. We profess to live in a civil society and as such we are by design suppose to look out for one another so intervening during such an attack could mean the diffeence between life and death. For all those bible thumps who would rather hide behind the coats of th cops remember what Kan asked God after killing his brother, "what, am I my brother's keeper?" Indeed ladies and gentleman YOU ARE your brother's keeper!! This is not a world of magic, so if you want society were there is no crime YOU MUST participate!!! Community Watches work and serve to reduce crime, so why not expand that to the world around you, where ever you go?!?
Just a thought ....
Glad to know we value life so much that we are reluctant to risk our own!!! What if it was your mom, your father, your brother?!? Would you be so reluctant then, I should hope not, but whose to say that the life you save won't have amazing impact on the future, more than yours or your family's lives?!? That said, why shouldn't you risk it all for a stranger?!? For God sake man up!!!
As far as helping out in a situation like this; it's a difficult call, we'd all like to help, but better a live coward than a dead hero. Unfortunately killing and bullying seem to be a way of life in America. From books to computer games to cinema, it's fed to Americans from a very young age and the weak minded soak it up.
Austin is VERY gay friendly, more so than San Francisco or Los Angeles or even New York. The city of Austin has ZERO tolerance for gay bashings. The Dallas Voice hates Austin because it is much safer than Dallas. I used to live in Dallas (1992-93, 1994-95). Dallas is jealous since it has a gay area and Austin does not (gay people live and work anywhere they want in Austin).
I bet this story does NOT have all the facts.
That being said, when someone yells at you. You ignore them. You do NOT taunt them; taunting someone anywhere in the world is stupid.
It's a shame that Fridae would only promote something like this. 3 bashings in 1 year in a metro area of 2 million people; very small. The city is very friendly and lots of gay positive things. Why does Fridae ignore those?
If you believe the facts in this story, you are missing out on a lively and fun city.
those gay onlookers were most probablly gay activists more concerned about kinky sex programs then helping gay men at the most critical movement of need
my daddy taught me to fight for myself and others in distress
that's why super heroes have secret identies
now there are gay mayors in Texas so its a very tolerant place
but guys fight sometimes, so learn to protect yourself and your brothers
Texas Cowboys are such hotties, I love going to the country western bars and doing the Texas two step, real gay men are from Texas the long horn state
Kind of like the cowboys in Madonna's Don't Tell Me Video
One of the biggest lawsuite pertaining to gay education happend few years ago in Vancouver. The school board introduced Gay love story book for 7 years old kids, which was opposed by religion grounds and parents. The fight went all the way up to The Supreme Court. The ruling was so encouraging to gay people. The court could not see what is the different between gay love and straight love since Canadian constitutions are no longer differential gay and straight people, they are the same. Therefore educating about LOVE (gay or straight) can be as young as they can understand. As far as the rights of parents pertaining to this school program, well, The School board and government are responsible and have the right to education all Canadians in the way in line with our Constitutions, Not parents. Cheeeeeer!!!
This is the ultimate way for USA. Legalize gay marriage is very important step to produce gay friendly americans in next generation, otherwise it is hard when the laws against it.
Canadian gays are very lucky. We have everything from the highest laws to protect our equal rights. Well, We fought for years to get to this level. Never give up, Americans. You will be like us soon. Eventually The Supreme Court of USA will change entirely what kind of gay future there; either to hell or heaven. We all pray for the best outcome. I believe it should be heavan unless the Supreme judges are blind and humanless. I have 80% of confident that Gay marriage will be legalize before 2020 in USA.
Time and time again I feel that if everyone has a "gay friend" or a "gay relative", somewhere close to them, they'd understand, that we're all just humans like them just with a different preference.
Life brings us to many interesting situations but never something too big to overcome and from this case, we all here will continue to learn and grow from it. Its encouraging to see that people are continuing to step up to gay rights everyday and surely it will only get better.
As long we all play our part in encouraging and spreading sincere and genuine Love, care and concern, I really do believe an understanding will grow from all these someday.
There will always be an "ideal" world that we want, but lets be real and accept that there will always be a defect and wrong somewhere somehow, but its about minimizing these injudicious events.
Till then, spread Love my friends :)
For example hunting down an attacker after the fact isn't covered, that truly is the job of your locate law enforcement. And though I am no fan of guns the Good Samaritan laws actually proves for payment of the bullets you fire to stop someone from committing an unlawful violent act. That said, it must be in the moment and because firearms are considered 'deadly force' you must only use them if you feel someone's life in threatened.
Also if you are injured defending someone acts like Victims of Violent Crime in California pay for your injuries. Protect yourself and know the laws!!
Why do I know all of this all too well, because I did get seriously injured defending someone in front of my own home in a quiet suburb of Los Angeles. Violence can happened anywhere and though I bear the scars of my action to this day (lost a tooth and have a nice half inch scar under my left eye) my actions saved a nurse who was being threaten while rendering aid and averted further violence.
I could say, "I have done my part, sustained injury myself and no one came to my aid! To Hell with the world!" Instead I see my actions as part of the greater good, so regardless of what others do or don't I refuse to lay down my values and sit by helplessly while people suffer before my eyes. Such shame would weigh heavier on me than any physical scars!
so saying the world are getting selfish, no matter what sexual preference is, we just need to live with it :)
It's only in the LGBT community's interests if the public become more aware of, and responsible for, the price of hate crimes. In simple words, we need to make sure that more of such offenders get prosecuted and jailed so that the public know that the hate crime laws are not just for show. We can never eliminate hate crimes, because mentally ill people like these gay-bashers do live amongst us. But what we can do to protect ourselves is to remind them that there's a legal price to pay for gay-bashing.
In order to accomplish this, gay businesses (including pubs, pride parades, etc.) in those places where gay-bashing is a threat must take the necessary steps:
1) CCTV installed to monitor the surroundings
2) Quick access to security personnel (e.g. pub's own security guards, the building's security guards, police posts)
3) Other security equipment such as siren, spot lights, electroshock weapons, etc. which are permissible by law
Patrons should also be educated as to how to respond in such situations. For example, they should inform the pub's manager immediately. The manager should be trained to respond appropriately. For example, turning on a siren and a spotlight; calming down the customers; calling for the most accessible security personnel; ordering the abusers to stop the assault using a loudspeaker and informing them that security personnel had been alerted and will be arriving in a short while.
Better still, the music could be stopped and the manager/organiser could request all the customers to assemble at the scene and use their camera-enabled hand-held devices to capture the actions and become eye-witnesses to the crime (at the customers' own risk; the pub makes it clear they are not responsible for any injury or losses arising from such participation).
If the above steps are taken, such gay-bashers wouldn't dare to bully us at our 'territory' (i.e. gay pubs and pride parades). More of such gay-bashers need to be arrested and jailed so that public awareness about the price for hate crimes can be raised.
So what's the rule then - shoot first, then think and ask questions later?? In this case, you would have killed 3 actors for chrissakes!
And what's the situation? 3 thugs attacking an innocent bypasser, who happens to be gay or Hispanic, or 3 members of one drug gang, possibly armed, attacking a single guy from an encroaching gang? And if you succeed in hurting one of the attackers, he can sue you for assault!!
Does your medical insurance cover you leaping into a street brawl?
I am not defending the inaction of the bypassers, but we shouldn't be too hasty to condemn them. After all, what did you do last time you walked past a street fight?
I lived in Austin for 10 years immersed in the gay life. I felt I was in the most liberal of Texas cities, but......... it's all relative.
Like #24, I equate queer to faggot in connotation and feel gay use is similar to black races using the word "nigger" amongst themselves and then expecting the world to change around them. Sensibility?
Look for an opportunity to challenge your safety instinct...... We can find power in giving.
The love in this world is dying .. There is no compassion for humans any more only hate ..
That's why people like us in the GLBT must learn to love each other & build this community stronger ..
We must help out & reach out to each other & the new generation , give them guidance & love (^_−)−☆
All we need is REAL LOVE in this world .
If you notice, there's a lot of internalised homophobia even amongst the gay community, all thanks to society + an often low self-esteem. I hope we can all work on this together; by that I do not mean the superficial "we're-here-we're-queer-we're fabulous" crap; it's about substantial and positive acknowledgement of our sexuality as a matter of fact, just like our nose is a part of our face.
I believe that together, we will achieve this psychological Holy Grail better...Happy Valentine's Day to all!
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