Beating of Homosexual Man in Vancouver (long, sorry)

[Kirkygirl]

It's RageAgainstTheManagement from CS. Long story short, I like this name better. Anyways...

Yesterday, I heard that a guy holding hands with his (male) friend was not only accosted by a group of people, but also got a pretty bad blow to his head. Thankfully, he only got knocked out, but he was pretty shaken by it.
The cops bagged the (explitive) punk a few blocks away. They are not only going to charge him with Assault Causing Bodily Harm, but the Crown (prosecution in Canada) is also going to treat this as a hate crime. Think of the hate crime treatment as a sort of multiplier of punishment. In the news story that I saw on TV, the one cop that was interviewed said that this (explitive) was going to be in some very deep stuff. And that the Crown was going to get him in jail or the correctional system for as long as they could.

Quite frankly, I'm disgusted at the fact that not everyone can do what they want (but within reason of course). It's not appropriate, nor needed, to go and taunt and hurt someone just because they are different. This is also coming from someone who was considered to be "different" when I was a child, and I was teased, harrassed, and bullied for it. If homosexuality is so rotten and horrible and ugly, then why do we have homosexuals in the first place? I believe its because they bring a different perspective to the world, and they also bring so many talents and skills that are really useful to society as a whole. And by the way, homosexuality is not wrong, it's just another form of humanity that opens our eyes to how people can interact and live with one another.
I'm sorry, but I don't understand why homosexuality is such a bad thing. Your thoughts?

[Greenday]

The world continues to show how full of intolerant people it is. What a surprise.

[Flyndaran]

I don't believe the issue really is about gays.
The issue is about those that are looking to hurt others and will find some form of group labeled as outsiders to abuse.
Gays are just western society's scape goats of today. Tomorrow it will be some other group. The spanish inquisition tortured jews and atheists.

[Sylvia727]

Well said, Flyn. Certain mindsets just need an outsider/inferior to hate. Now that religion, race, and sex aren't as "different" as they used to be, the bigots have turned to LBGTQI as the new "different"s.

[Kirkygirl]

I have an update on the gentleman who was hurt. He actually had his jaw broken in three places from hitting the pavement. He was supposed to undergo surgery today.

[BlaqueKatt]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand why homosexuality is such a bad thing. Your thoughts?

Love between two adults is a beautiful thing, no matter who they are-I actually have a pin with the saying "love is never wrong" and the male-female, female-female, and male-male symbols linked. I love that pin.

[powerboy]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand why homosexuality is such a bad thing. Your thoughts?

Homosexuality is not a bad thing. It is only viewed as bad because most people does not want to understand. They cannot wrap their minds around the fact that two people of the same sex can be in love with one other.

[The Shadow]

I never cease to be disgusted and saddened no matter how many stories I hear about this. I'm also ashamed that gay bashing is so prevalent in Vancouver... the city I called home for 13 years.

But I also wonder when the homophobes are going to catch on....you know, the old saying "methinks one does protest too much"... or something like that. People have always suspected it, and now there's scientific evidence to back it up:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/en...t_uids=8772014

Adams HE, Wright LW Jr, Lohr BA.
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-3013, USA.

The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies

Yep...everyone seems to understand this except for the homophobes themselves.

[Difdi]

I've always found two things about homophobia fascinating:

1) When people are caught by surprise, and need an insult, any insult, as fast as possible (to avoid feeling stupid), they tend to flash to something they themselves are ashamed of being or afraid of becoming, and use it as an insult. With this in mind, the people who SCREAM "gay/faggot/homo!" as an insult interest me. Was that really the first insult that came to mind for them?

2) Everyone feels at least a little attraction to the same gender. You almost cannot help it. That little hint of attraction is socially useful -- it lets you evaluate beauty. Without it, you would be incapable of judging the attractiveness of your own gender. Or your own attractiveness. The only 100% heterosexual people on the planet are walking fashion disasters; They can't help it, since they totally lack the ability to know what looks good on them. Unless someone else picks their clothes, makeup, hairstyle, etc, for them, they will be, at best, horribly unstylish and at worst, the ugliest people on the planet.

[Flyndaran]

I've always found two things about homophobia fascinating:

1) When people are caught by surprise, and need an insult, any insult, as fast as possible (to avoid feeling stupid), they tend to flash to something they themselves are ashamed of being or afraid of becoming, and use it as an insult. With this in mind, the people who SCREAM "gay/faggot/homo!" as an insult interest me. Was that really the first insult that came to mind for them?.

Hee. That explains why during childhood the worst insult my brothers and I could think of was calling eachother normal. That usually ended the fight as we realized that we took it too low and should cool off.

I've 2) Everyone feels at least a little attraction to the same gender. You almost cannot help it. That little hint of attraction is socially useful -- it lets you evaluate beauty. Without it, you would be incapable of judging the attractiveness of your own gender. Or your own attractiveness. The only 100% heterosexual people on the planet are walking fashion disasters; They can't help it, since they totally lack the ability to know what looks good on them. Unless someone else picks their clothes, makeup, hairstyle, etc, for them, they will be, at best, horribly unstylish and at worst, the ugliest people on the planet.

I don't like the look, and certainly hate the odor of other men. I don't like how you call me a fashion disaster. The self is always a different category from others regardless of gender or sex.
I am me. That trumps all other categories to which I may technically belong.

[otakuneko]

I'm in the US. I don't really care for the whole "hate crimes" thing. Assault/Murder/What have you is still the same thing whether it's white on black, straight on gay, or whatever. As far as I'm concerned it's just a prosecuter's wet dream to push for extra sentencing. Who cares if the crime was really motivated by hate or not, push for it because the victim is a different color/sex/orientation than the suspect!

I'm a conservative, and normally as a group we're typically thought of as intolerant.

I don't really believe that fits, though. Conservatives who are intolerant are, to borrow from lolcats, DOIN IT RONG. See, the US constitution says something along the lines of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness being unalienable rights. Now, one man's rights end where mine begin, and vice versa. If homosexuals are happy with the same sex, good for them. It doesn't affect me directly at all, not one bit. Ergo, I've no right to demand that they change. I see it the same as music choice. Yeah sure, I don't like that punk's choice of music, but you know what? I don't have to listen to it.

So there you have me: a conservative who's tolerant of homosexuals and in fact, supports their rights. I'm also non-religious, so nyah.