Gay Man In Coma After Hammer Attack

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/11/111605alaAttack.htm

A 52 year old Alabama man is clinging to life in a Jackson hospital after what police call a homophobic attack.

A 26 year old man is charged with attempted murder in the beating Billy Sanford.

Police said that when he was arrested Marcus Dewayne Kelley confessed saying that he attacked Sanford with a hammer because the slight older man had made sexual advances toward him.

At the time of the attack Kelley was working as a handyman for Sanford and his roommate

[Maraya1969]

1. You forgot this part

"Police said that they would have liked to have charged Kelley with a hate crime, but gays are not covered under the state's hate crime law."


I wonder if Dobson, Robertson, Falwell and Perkins know about this. Someone should shove it down their mouths.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Why are men homophobic?

I mean, I hear about this type of attack, but never about a straight woman attacking a lesbian. I've talked to my husband about it, and he says he thinks it has to do with men's shaky self-esteem. The way they are raised, showing any form of affection for other men is considered out of bounds when it is a natural thing. Some men think that if they don't act like beasts or something they'll become "gay" (like acting like a person is a bad thing!). One of the techs in my company said he was homophobic and didn't like to go to houses of gays to do pest work because of it. And yet he has good friends who are lesbians.

If we could ever figure out how to change the situation, tragedies like this won't happen again.

[ET Awful]

4. Real men aren't homophobic.

Immature little slimeball boys who never outgrew their junior high locker room bullying on the other hand, are a compltely different story.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Hadn't thought of it that way

My husband is a man, and one who has no problem hugging his gay (and straight) male friends and in showing his emotions. Come to think of it, the tech I work for is, at times, a bit immature, though I think at least he's thoughtful and wondering what he can do about his homophobia, especially since he is sympathetic and supportive of his lesbian friends.

I guess my next question is: how come so many males never grow up?

[kweerwolf]

7. Why so many males never grow up?

Here's part of the answer in a study done at Cornell University called "Men overcompensate when their masculinity is threatened, Cornell study shows."

Threaten a man's masculinity and he will assume more macho attitudes, according to a study by a Cornell University researcher.

Robb Willer

"I found that if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq War more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle," said Robb Willer, a sociology doctoral candidate at Cornell. Willer is presenting his findings Aug. 15 at the American Sociological Association's 100th annual meeting in Philadelphia.

"Masculine overcompensation is the idea that men who are insecure about their masculinity will behave in an extremely masculine way as compensation. I wanted to test this idea and also explore whether overcompensation could help explain some attitudes like support for war and animosity to homosexuals," Willer said.

Willer administered a gender identity survey to a sample of male and female Cornell undergraduates in the fall of 2004. Participants were randomly assigned to receive feedback that their responses indicated either a masculine or a feminine identity. While women's responses were unchanged regardless of the feedback they received, men's reactions "were strongly affected by this feedback," Willer said.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug05/soc.gender.dea.html

[ET Awful]

8. Because they are encouraged by society not to.

Whether it's through constant reinforcement of the idea that physical activity (i.e. sports) is more important than mental activity (such as reading a book, writing a poem or song, painting, etc.) or through insipid dreck marketed as entertainment such as TV's Jackass or Punked.

The general perception shoved down the throat of male children is that immature behavior is manly.

No, I'm not saying sports are bad, I'm saying the constant reinforcement in children that they are more important than other activities helps contribute to the immature mentality. If a better balance were encouraged (instead of discouraged like it is by many parents, coaches and students), this wouldn't be as big a factor.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. That explains why my husband is mature

He was born with a heart defect and couldn't play in sports. So he missed that whole "macho" thing, and took up music, drama, and mechanics. When he was approached by gays, he simply politely turned them down. And guess what? They didn't continue hitting on him, and didn't "make him gay".

[kweerwolf]

6. Maybe if straight women would start ...

... bashing the hell out of drunken straight guys who paw them and try to pick them up in bars and them claim "heterosexual panic" as a defense, society in general might wise up to how stupid the whole "gay panic" defense really is.

It's always seemed ironic that these macho straight guys are so afraid some gay guy (whom they view as weak sissies) is going to overpower them and have his wicked way.

The last time some straight guy acted nervous around me I told him, "Don't flatter yourself. Besides, I only date guys who care about their personal hygiene."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. oooh! Good answer!!!!

Liked all of your comments, btw.

[Jamastiene]

13. Good one.

:rofl: I have noticed that the most homophobic ones are just fighting something inside that they do not want anyone else to notice. That is yet another reason why I say society's attitude about homosexuality is the cause of not only the homophobic violence, but also other crimes.

[closeupready]

11. Many men are homophobic because they suppress their own homosexual desires

and when gays and bis who do NOT suppress them cross their radar screens, they become resentful and fearful (fearful that they will be tempted to engage in gay sex and then, they will lose everything).

I watched "Before Night Falls" recently about Cuban poet Reynaldo Arenas, and one scene was him in a men's locker room and two guys showering next to each other were talking: guy 1: "I got a BJ from three guys in the ballet this weekend." Guy 2: "doesn't that mean you're gay?" Guy 1: "No, if you get paid for it, you aren't gay." :eyes: But that is definitely how many men look at it.

In other words, all men have homosexual desires, but they rationalize them away.

[Jamastiene]

12. Straight women do attack lesbians sometimes.

I was attacked by three straight women years ago. It does happen. It may be less often, but it does happen.

[Chovexani]

14. I was attacked regularly in high school

There was a gang of cheerleaders that used to trip me and push me down the stairs almost daily, after a so-called "friend" betrayed my confidence and outed me as bisexual to everyone she knew. A group of them followed and cornered me after school and beat the tar out of me one time, despite my martial arts training (there were just too damn many of them). When I tried to tell school officials about it, no one believed me and I actually had a guidance counselor laugh in my face. It didn't help that I was a goth chick and also openly Pagan (I had one teacher tell me to my face that if I really was being harassed that I got what I deserved).

Girls are every bit as vicious and violent as boys are, the problem is you will never hear about it because victims of girl-on-girl violence are more likely to keep these incidents to themselves. Why? Because no one believes us when we come forward about it. I actually ended up dropping out of school over it, and the psychological scars...well let's just say I'm in my 20s and I'm still not entirely right.

[Jamastiene]

15. I can totally relate. I'm 35 and the scars

have now become oozing festering sores that won't heal. I have also heard the "You were asking for it" bit from heartless people too. My scars from the way people have acted after I was attacked have really begun to give me problems. I find myself thinking horrid thoughts more and more lately. I used to push those thoughts out of my mind because they horrified me. Now, I just accept that the next attack on me will probably land me in a jail cell in solitary because I will go off so bad. Next time, it's going to be either me or them. I'm taking my rights whether they think I am supposed to have them or not. I've had it. Discrimination against glbt people has gone on long enough.

If you ever stop and think about the kind of bullshit we have to put up with, you either find yourself laughing or crying. We get blamed for terrorist attacks despite the fact that most terrorists think the same way as people like Falwell and Robertson. We get blamed for bad weather despite the fact that we really don't control the weather. I mean it would never rain during cold weather if I had my sayso, but obviously those Falwell and Robertson goons don't get it. I have to laugh at them at this point. The sad thing is they actaully believe their own bullshit. That's pathetic.

Like I said, I think it's high time we TAKE our rights and let juries decide if we really deserve prison time for defending ourselves, then appeal the hell out of the case if they do.

I'm sorry to hear you were ganged up on. That's the way it happened to me too. I ended up being pinned down by a bunch of straight women so I straight man could rape me. They were standing around chanting, "All that dyke needs is the right man to straighten her out." and "Show her the love of God." I haven't forgotten that either. I never will.

[ET Awful]

3. Fucking slimeball. Hell, if sexual advances were a legitimate cause for

attacking someone with a hammer, you'd see every cocktail waitress in the country carrying a sledgehammer in one hand and her drink tray in the other.

Why can't Marcus confess that he's a fucking lackwit homophobic scumbag?

Throw his ass in jail until he's too old and feeble to pick up anything bigger than a plastic spoon to shovel gruel into his gullet.