Pride Under Fire

C.E. Dorsett

This is what happens in a country whose leaders attack a minority,
scapegoating them for the ills of the nation:

Five men were attacked with baseball bats and taunted with anti-gay slurs over the weekend after leaving San Diego's LGBT Pride Festival, the first violent attack associated with the 32-year-old event (Gay.com).

Anti-gay violence...   Not covered in the mainstream news because my community doesn't matter to those who pick the news.  I have often been asked, "Why do you write so much about Gay stuff?"  This is why.  People like me are attacked all too often for the simple crime of loving someone.  We love... they hate.  I will shout from the from the rooftop until the hate crimes stop!

Police said three young men attacked the victims with baseball bats and a knife. Authorities said the assailants taunted their victims with antigay epithets as they were beating them. One of the victims remains hospitalized with a fractured skull and may need reconstructive surgery. Another suffered superficial stab wounds (Gay.com)

My prayers go out to the victims.  I hope they have a full recovery.

A 16-year-old boy was taken into custody Tuesday night, just hours after a 17-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the attacks. Police are withholding the two minors' names.

James Allen Carroll (24), a convicted felon, was arrested Monday on suspicion of participating in the attacks (Gay.com).

Beliefs matter.  Rhetoric matters.  As long as it is acceptable in polite society for people to hate any minority, blood will be spilled somewhere as a result of those idle words.  We need to push forward the concept of IDIC, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination.  Until we make Justice and Equality our highest moral ideals, things like this will continue to happen.