Andrew Anthos, a 72 year old Michigan gay man who was viciously beaten with a pipe outside his apartment, has died from his injuries. He survived for several days, paralyzed and barely able to breathe. Here's my post on the original attack.
This man was riding home from the public library on a public bus. You don't get more benign than that. Then he helps a wheel-chair bound person manage through the snow. Then he gets hit on the head with a pipe and left for dead by someone who thought he was gay.
That's what you get in a society that wants to keep an entire group of people in second-class status. When you say we don't deserve to be married, we don't deserve civil rights protections, we don't deserve respect and dignity and freedom ... you send a clear message to the maniac pipe-wielding idiots in society that we are fair game.
I'm looking forward to the Christian right wingers speaking out to condemn this act of violent hatred. I'm looking forward to the bus driver and the other riders helping to identify the murderer. I'm looking forward to a local church starting a fund to help the Anthos family. The gay community has already stepped up on that one so maybe the local churches can join that effort.
God rest Andrew Anthos.
