Think Big: Where Do We Go From Here?
A horrifying story out of Detroit — a 72-year-old man pursued and beaten in a sick attack that appears to have been motivated by the man's perceived sexual orientation.
WDIV reports:
"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.
Said the victim's aunt: "It just doesn't make any sense. Why do people have to hurt each other?"
Detroit police are investigating the attack and asking for anyone with information to come forward. Unfortunately, sexual orientation is not covered under Michigan's hate crime statutes.
Whoever says that this world is becoming increasingly more tolerant - well - I just don't believe it. I've never been convinced that progress is linear, and right now, I personally feel like a deep and severely harmful level of hate in the world. We're taking steps backwards, people.
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1 comment:
How the hell can you have a hate crime statute designed to protect individuals against violent crimes, speech, etc. motivated by feelings of hostility against an identifiable social group and leave out sexual orientation? Doesn't that then defeat the purpose of the statute? Aren't gender and sexual orientation identifiable social groups? They should change their state motto from "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you” to “If you seek a peninsula where you can hate gays and women, look about you.”
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