Some sick freak beat up a 72 year old man in Detroit. With a pipe. Because he thought the man was gay. Now he's paralyzed and reported to be slipping away.
The victim, Andrew Anthos (right), was riding a city bus back to his residence at Detroit's Windsor Tower apartments on Feb. 13 when another male passenger asked him if he was gay, Anthos's niece, Athena Fedenis said. Anthos was followed by the man from the bus and beaten with a pipe in front of his apartment, Fedenis said."
Due to the repeated beating, Anthos is now paralyzed from the neck down and cannot speak above a whisper.
Some insight from Shakespeare's Sister:
This shit doesn't happen in a void. Like the sexualization and objectification of women in the media being psychologically damaging to girls, the constant drumbeat of negative stereotypes and exploitative hatred issued by the GOP and social/religious conservative leaders is dangerous for members of the LGBT community. And the hatemongers' faux-na?vet? at the reality that you can't continually put a target on someone's back but expect no one to shoot at it is growing really goddamned old. The hate-the-gays schtick isn't just infuriating and spiteful and wrong; it's irresponsible. There's a paralyzed 72-year-old man and a severely injured 21-year-old woman this week because someone, somewhere, communicated to their attackers the message that gays are not equal, transmitted fear and hatred and claimed they were moral and good.
Let's revisit that last sentence:
[S]omeone, somewhere, communicated to their attackers the message that gays are not equal, transmitted fear and hatred and claimed they were moral and good.
This is why secondclass civil rights should never be enough. When you say we don't quite deserve what the rest of you have, you reinforce the hate-speak of Big Daddy Dobson and Rick Santorum and Archbishop Peter Akinola. Its a slippery slope of intolerance and bigotry.
