LGBT News Three gay men attacked in Columbus Ohio in four days

It always feels like news of these attacks steadily increases every year during pride month. :/

 

Hmm, I've never been to Ohio, but I've heard that Columbus is supposed to be one of the hipper, younger, more liberal cities in an otherwise somewhat socially conservative state. Disappointing.

Then again, we've had a spate of anti-gay hate crimes right here in NYC in the past few months.

I think Minx is probably right, that Pride month is contributing to this anti-gay backlash. Combined with the fact that we've been winning a lot of victories in terms of gay rights lately, the homophobes are getting desperate and turning to violence.

 

I hope this stops soon. Maybe as it becomes more accepted there will be less hate. I'd eventually like to be able to come out without having any fear of being attacked...

 

I think those are too very good observations: As the LGBT community makes legal gains, and is more vocal, a certain sector seems to be becoming increasingly prone to use violence. It recalls the civil rights movements of the 50s and 60s in aspects.

I wonder if SCOTUS ruled to legalize gay marriage in every state (a longshot right now), how much resistance there would be from certain states, and how it would be expressed.

 

I know people who live in or near Columbus, and well, they're all straight and don't hang around gay bars, so they'll be OK. I don't plan on going there any time soon since I hate city and highway driving (irrational fears of mine). I just wish all this anti-gay violence would stop! It's completely unnecessary, not to mention illegal. If the LGBT community gets more rights, people should just let it go. It's not threatening any of their rights. We're not out to get them. We're not going to and beat them up just because they're cis-gendered and/or straight. But if gay marriage does become illegal in every state, I bet people in West Virginia, especially where I live, would go bat shit crazy and start sending hate letters to the president or Congress or something. There might actually be protesting. This town is pretty ass-backwards and filled to the brim with fanatical Christians and homophobic drug addicts. Hell, I remember when I was going to church around the time The Da Vinci Code was coming to theaters, there was a whole surmon one Sunday morning on how everyone in the church needed to write letters to local theaters telling them not to show it. I even heard about people protesting outside one theater on opening night! I swear, there are so many people who just need to get a grip because they can't do anything about the fact that world is changing.

 

Gee, maybe I'm glad I didn't go to Columbus. A few years back there were KKK protestors across the street from our local Pride event. Insults and profanities were exchanged but no violence occurred. That was thanks to a very large contingent of police between the two groups

 

I live in Idaho and at school and such you always hear about whos gay and bi on the girls side but theres never an openly gay guy... We have a pride festival every year at the capitol (its on my birthday!) and as far as I know there haven't been any recent protests or violence there but lots of people are still set in old ways and the comunity as a whole is still pretty homophobic depending on where you are. especially the old people haha. I hate when a happy event is turned into SHAME GOD HATES YOU BLA BLA BLA. Seriously its not like we dress up in full rainbow pride gear and go protest your church services...

 

this makes me sick! its one thing to disagree with gay marriage and stuff but to go out and beat someone up for it, its less then human.I mean fine dont like us thats fine we could care less we havnt done anything to warrant beating us up.UGH!

 

It's honestly disgusting to see people treating others the way they do just because of sexual preference. These are the people that deserved to be locked up for years at a time and experience the other side of the rainbow if you know what I mean. (Yea, I went there)

 

This is getting way out of hand. These people deserve to get locked up. It's ridiculous how far people are going just because they don't accept us. They need to get a taste of their own medicine.

 

This is ridiculous!!!!!!

I've never been to Columbus, Ohio...and now here's a reason for me to go to go at all :/

 

I also was surprised to hear this occurred in Columbus OH. Hate crimes in NYC are surprising, but it's huge, with all mindsets.

Some people need to focus their own issues on a scapegoated person or group to give them a purpose in life, it seems.

 

it's a shame when america, the world's leader, does not set a good example

 

What people who come from foreign lands notice is that there's a church on every corner, of a different denomination, in the U.S. The level of conservatism and religiosity is high.

 

^ i actually noticed that the last time i visited the US, you make a good point

 

While your latter point is true and is at the root of this country's problems, a church being on every corner doesn't necessarily mean anything. Have you ever been to Europe? They have just as many churches on every corner, and there's no correlation to make with religiousity and conservatism. In both Europe and the United States, churches once filled vital community roles for generations making them necessary, roles which have since subsided, leaving them only their religious purposes.

The relevant point is how filled the pews are in those churches each Sunday. Ohio is a fairly conservative, religious state, although from what I've heard Columbus is supposed to be a somewhat liberal city. But the atmosphere of hate that religion creates definitely enables events like this to occur.

 

I have been often. They are relics of a religious past ... and the present in a way, as reflected by traditions. People over there are nominally religious. For some reason, they seem more laid back about sex than here.

True, if the collection of churches are largely conservative ones, then I can see how this can set off hatred and some people will feel justified to do something that is wrong. They are rationalizing.

 

In my humble opinion, it`s not really about how many churches there are, but to what extent state and church is separated, and whether this separation is actual or just an illusion. When people responsible for setting law set said laws after their own personal faith, while claiming to live in a country with religious freedom, then you have a problem. Norway is a tad bit communistic, but if our politicians gave the reason "I just don`t believe in it" for their political agenda, there`d be a rally. If there`s one thing we don`t have the patience for, it`s useless argumentation for political decisions. I don`t give a rats a** about what personal faith our Prime Minister has, he just better damned keep it out of the political arena. Or else :lol: