St. Lucia: Gay Men Survive Brutal Attack

By Advocate.com Editors

A gay couple and their friend were brutally attacked while staying at a rented cottage on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia last week.

Michael Baker, boyfriend Nick Smith, and their friend Todd Wiggins were returning to their mountaintop cottage Wednesday after taking in the sunset that evening. While Baker and Smith were in the shower, they heard Wiggins scream, warning them to stay in the bathroom. According to Baker's Facebook account, he looked into the cabin's common area to see two men with knives and guns, wearing masks, beating Wiggins.

Despite a struggle to keep the violent intruders out of the bathroom, they broke through, assaulting Smith and Baker, while telling them they hated white people, gay people, and Americans. The attackers tied the men up, threw them in the shower, and ordered them to get off the island.

"They said they would check on us in five minutes, and if we had untied ourselves, they would kill us," Baker wrote. After the attackers left, the men freed themselves from the bindings, and fled the cabin through a back exit, forced to leave their shoes behind, as they left them on the front porch. The three, without shoes, climbed down the mountain, and then walked down an unpaved gravel road until eventually arriving at the home of Wiggins's friends. Baker and Smith returned to the U.S. the following day, and Wiggins came back the day after.

"I don't know the full motivation that drove these five men, but I do know that I can feel pity for them," Baker wrote. "As Todd said, how horrible that this was the only option that they felt [they had]."

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Gay Couple Bashed at Burger King Awarded $3.15 Million

By Winston Gieseke

Los Angeles – A gay New Jersey couple who were chased and beaten by Burger King employees following a 2007 altercation have been awarded $3.15 million by a Hudson County jury.

In a civil trial that began Feb. 7, victims Peter Casbar, 43, and Noel Robichaux, 46, testified that a dispute with the person taking their order escalated to involve other workers and then became violent, even after the couple had left the Union City restaurant.

"The manager and a group of angry restaurant employees chased the couple and then mercilessly kicked, beat, and spat upon the two men while screaming hate-filled anti-gay invectives," the couple’s attorney, James F. Fine said in a statement.

Casbar and Robichaux said they were victims of a hate crime and brought the lawsuit under New Jersey's antidiscrimination laws. The jury agreed and ordered Food Service Properties Corp. and Union City Restaurant Corp., which owned the Burger King where the incident occurred, to pay damages.

"Violence against anybody, including gay people, cannot be condoned,” said Fine after the verdict. “The jury spoke to this issue."

Read the full story here.

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Update on lesbian TN couple who were victims of arson and hate crime

 We talked with Carol Ann Stutte on Saturday morning, learning more about the case and getting a sense of how the GetEQUAL community couple help out — I can’t tell you how wonderful these women are…they’re amazing. Here’s the situation:

Carol Ann and Laura Stutte owned a beautiful home on a beautiful piece of land in rural Tennessee — outside of Knoxville. Together for 16 years with a grown daughter, these women had developed a community for themselves in the heart of a very, very red state.

Their next-door neighbor began threatening them, repeatedly making direct threats that she would burn their home, poison their dog, and kill the couple. Shortly after each of the threats, those things came to pass — their dog suddenly died of poisoning and their beautiful home had been reduced to ashes.

It gets worse. The house was burned down while Carol Ann and Laura were out of town, celebrating their anniversary. When they returned, their home was burned to the ground and the word “QUEERS” was spray-painted on their free-standing garage.

It gets even worse. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation deployed staff to the scene…four days after the fire and following two rainstorms that destroyed much of the arson evidence. After the men drank coffee, cracked jokes, and kept their investigation dog in the truck, Carol Ann asked if they were going to investigate. The response? “I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but we have more important things to do right now.”

And, believe it or not, it gets even worse. The Stuttes immediately filed a claim with their insurance company and the insurance company didn’t send a team of investigators until a week and a half after the fire. After initially honoring their claim for living expenses while the Stuttes waited on the investigation to take place, the insurance company — American National Property & Casualty Company — kicked them out of their rental home and told them they were on their own.

It’s been almost six months since the fire, and American National Property & Casualty Company will now no longer return calls from the Stuttes — and have made clear that they will not honor their homeowners policy. Last week, the company offered to pay $610.18 — yes, $610.18 — toward the living expenses for the couple, which are now over $5,000 for the past 6 months. And it’s clearly nowhere close to the $206,000 property claim and the $155,000 claim for personal items.

The Stuttes were hoping to follow the rules, resolve the situation peacefully, and just wait on this investigation to end — but it’s clear that American National Property & Casualty Company believe that lesbian lives are worth a small fraction of the value of straight lives. And the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation refuses to give any updates, preventing this from being designated as a hate crime…while their neighbor not only walks free, but has been sighted on the property repeatedly since the fire.

The Stuttes were recently forced to file a lawsuit against their neighbor while they live in hiding in another area of Tennessee, since this woman remains free. They’re suing the neighbor for damages — in the hopes that it forces the investigation to move forward and they can again return to their normal lives.

The Stuttes have reached out to GetEQUAL for help, and we’re determined to make it very difficult for American National Property & Casualty Company to conduct business until/unless they honor the Stuttes policy. We’re starting a campaign targeting the company, and we’ll periodically be asking you to take coordinated action in order to make things very difficult for this company. We don’t believe a lesbian home is worth less than a straight home — and we’ll make it clear to American National Property & Casualty Company that they have a lot of work ahead of them.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If you’d like to make a donation to help the Stuttes out, please head here: http://knoxvillepridefest.com/2011/02/03/insulin/. They’ve raised enough money to live on for the past few months, but they’ve reached the end of that money — and their daughter is in need of a new insulin pump. This is clearly an immediate need.

Additionally, we’ll be hammering away at the insurance company in a variety of ways this week, both online and offline. For now, start the calls — their 24-hour customer service line is 1-800-333-2860. Word is that they have a prepared statement at the ready — be sure they read the whole thing, and feel free to ask questions. We’re completely happy with tying up their phone lines all day long!

When you call, add a comment on this Facebook post with the results, including any new information you learn. We’ll be setting up a way for folks to quickly send emails to all/most of their staff, actions at their offices in Missouri, etc. But, for right now, call their offices and prevent them from doing business!

Original Source

Nightly Wrap Up With New Mexico GLBTQ Centers

Montana couples want partner recognition.

Wyoming forwards another antigay bill regarding same-sex marriages performed out of state.

Paintball attack on a San Diego LGBT Center will be investigated as a hate crime.

Oscar nominations for The Kids Are All Right is a nod for Marriage Equality.

Rahm: Back in the Race for Now.

Gay Doritos Ads Won't Air.  Of course!

Racer: Bar Gays From Dancing on TV.

"But it's not about your work. It's about how you exist as a person in the world, and the idea that your work is more important than you as a person is a horrible, horrible message." - Alan Cumming

Iowa House Committee Backs Marriage Ban.

Marriage Equality Bill Introduced in Maryland.

Jason Mraz: No Wedding Until Marriage Equality.  Didn't Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie already say something like this a few years ago?

Bening, Franco Score Oscar Nods.

Illinois Gov. to Sign Civil Unions Law.

Obama’s Gay State of the Union.

Obama’s flip-flop on gay marriage: What changed between 1996 and 2011?

Oscar celebrates gay films, roles and females - oh my! 

In El Paso hate crimes few, but gays are majority of victims (4:50 a.m.)

by Daniel Borunda \ El Paso Times

A man allegedly beaten up by men who told him they didn't want gays in their Lower Valley neighborhood is one of three hate crimes reported to police this year.

Though the number of hate crimes in El Paso is less than in similar-sized cities, El Paso mirrors a national analysis that found gays are more likely to be the victims of violent hate crimes than other minorities.

Gays were victims in two of three hate crimes reported this year and in three of four cases reported in 2009, according to information from El Paso police. The remaining cases targeted a black Baptist church and a synagogue.

Police point out the number of hate crimes is small but local gay rights activists feel cases are going unreported. A hate crime is defined as a crime motivated by a bias against race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

"We know there is more than three or four a year. Those who are harassed or victims of hate crimes are afraid (to report) because of the stigma from mainstream society," said Jonathan Kennedy, chairman of the gay rights group Rio Grande Adelante.

"I am an African-American gay man and I hear more from within the gay society from victims because of their homosexuality than from the African-American community," Kennedy said.

A national analysis by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report stated gays are more than twice as likely to be attacked in hate crimes than blacks or Jews, more than four times as likely as Muslims and 14 times as likely as Hispanics.

The recently-published analysis looked at 14 years of federal hate crime data. The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center tracks hate groups.

The cases in El Paso did not appear to be connected to each other.

The most recent case was Aug. 2 when a woman and her gay best friend were driving on Prado Lane in the Lower Valley when they were waved down by acquaintances to talk.

According to complaint affidavits filed by police, an argument erupted regarding hickeys a man had left on the neck of one of the assailant's younger brothers. The man was beaten while two other men grabbed the woman to keep her from helping her friend.

During the beating, the attackers said they did not want gay people in their neighborhood.

One of the attackers allegedly took out a knife that the man kicked away before managing to run away.

Police spokesman Detective Mike Baranyay said officers arrested Tomas Madrid, 36, Moises Lopez, 31, and Edgar Lopez, 25, in connection with the beating on suspicion of engaging in organized criminal activity-assault.

The other cases this year were:

Shortly after 2 a.m. May 18, a 25-year-old man was arrested after allegedly breaking stained glass windows and attempting to bust down the door of the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church at 7615 Matamoros in the Lower Valley.

Alex Guzman, using racial slurs, told police he hated blacks, according to a complaint affidavit. "Take me to jail I don't care," he told officers. "I broke the windows. I know it's a hate crime. I don't give a (expletive)."

On April 7, a man punched another man in the 1900 block of Olive Avenue on the South Side because he thought the victim was gay, police said. Baranyay said detectives talked to the victim but he did not want to prosecute. The case is now inactive.

A police spokesman said there were four hate crimes reported in 2009, though the FBI data only shows three. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

The four cases reported by the Police Department were:

A man accused of slapping a woman who, according to police documents, he said didn't count because she was gay after she defended a female friend in the Cincinnati Avenue Entertainment District. Aaron Levar Haynes, 32, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after an assault charge was reduced because the victim was unavailable for trial, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said.

A case in which a gay man received harassing phone calls, threatening to burn him alive and kill him. The calls stopped and the man did not want to prosecute, police said.

Graffiti spray-painted at a house in Sunset Heights using a slur and stating that two gay men lived in the residence. There were no arrests.

And an unsolved vandalism case where swastikas and tagger-style graffiti were spray-painted outside the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue. There are less than a handful of hate crimes reported each year in El Paso, keeping in line with the city's overall low violent crime rate. Police reported two hate crimes in 2008 and four each in 2007 and 2006.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.

Hate crimes

Hate crime numbers in 2009 for select regional cities and incidents per bias motivation:

City - Race - Religion - Sexual Orientation - Ethnicity

El Paso - 0 - 1 - 2 - 0

Austin - 3 - 1 - 4 - 3

San Antonio - 3 - 1 - 3 - 2

Midland - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0

Fort Worth - 3 - 2 - 0 - 1

Odessa - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1

Albuquerque - 3 - 0 - 5 - 1

Tucson - 3 - 6 - 2 - 0

Source: FBI's Hate Crime Statistics, 2009.

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Anti-gay attack reported on 4th Street in Austin

by John Wright

A 26-year-old gay man says he and a friend were the victims of a hate crime outside the bars on 4th Street in downtown Austin early Sunday morning.

Bobby Beltran said he and his friend had just left Rain, a gay bar, at about 1:30 a.m. When they hugged each other goodbye on the sidewalk, some men in a passing vehicle yelled, “Fucking faggots, stop that queer shit!”

After Beltran yelled at the men to “get out of here,” all five of them jumped out of the vehicle and attacked him and his friend. Beltran said he fought back but suffered cuts and bruises and a black eye. His friend may have suffered a broken jaw. The attackers quickly jumped back in the vehicle, which was parked in the middle of the street, and drove off.

“I’ve never in my life been in any kind of violent situation, especially a hate crime, so it’s been pretty traumatic,” Beltran said. “Austin is supposed to be a gay haven, especially on 4th Street. What scares me even more is that nobody even helped.”

Beltran, an activist who helped organize this year’s QueerBomb in Austin, said it was at least the third anti-gay hate crime in the city this year. In a high-profile case in February, two gay softball players were attacked near Austin City Hall.

“I’m just trying to get the word out there that this is going on in Austin and it’s not safe right now,” Beltran said. “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 said the police responded and took a report but didn’t seem too concerned about the crime and haven’t contacted him since then.

He said the attack lasted for about three minutes and was witnessed by at least 20 people, but none of them tried to help. Beltran 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.

“It was the most unsafe I’ve ever felt in my entire life, knowing that not even my community stood up,” Beltran said. “I’m so afraid to go back down there.”

Beltran described the five attackers as three black males, one Hispanic male and one white male. He said the vehicle was an older-model gold Chevrolet that was low to the ground and had fancy rims.

Witnesses are asked to call the Austin Police Department at 512-974-5000.

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