Friday, October 08, 2010

Updated title: Some thugs did this

Precluding gay people from marrying ostracizes them and sends a message from the society as a whole that we all believe gay people are less than, thereby emboldening horrendous attacks like this: Update: I'm agreeing with Michael's point from his first Comment and striking this.
There were nine attackers, ranging from 16 to 23 years old and calling themselves the Latin King Goonies, the police said. Before setting upon their 30-year-old victim, they had snatched up two teenage boys whom they beat, the police said, until the boys — one of whom was sodomized with a plunger — admitted to having had sex with the man.

The attackers forced the man to strip to his underwear and tied him to a chair, the police said. One of the teenage victims was still there, and the “Goonies” ordered him to attack the man. The teenager hit him in the face and burned him with a cigarette on his nipple and penis as the others jeered and shouted gay slurs, the police said. Then the attackers whipped the man with a chain and sodomized him with a small baseball bat.

The beatings and robberies went on for hours.

NYTimes story here.

Update: BUT, I hold to this proposition, which is a reason to allow gay people to get married: there will be more bullying of gay people in a society that doesn't sanction gay marriage than in a society that does allow gay marriage. There is a correlation, I believe.

8 comments:

Michael said...

I'm sorry, and I'm not even arguing with you about gay marriage, but the horrible acts of a group of thugs doesn't really say a whole lot about any "message from society as a whole."

Stephanie said...

What do you mean, you're not even arguing with me about gay marriage? You always argue with me about gay marriage.

Michael said...

Not anymore.

Michael said...

Mostly because I'm tired.

Michael said...

I just don't think that bullies care too much about the big picture. Aren't they by definition pretty self-centered people?

I seriously doubt the enactment or lack of enactment of a gay marriage law would affect gay bully.

Michael said...

Doesn't pop psych tell us that gay bullies are either 1) gay and they are fighting it or 2) afraid they are gay? Would a law legitimizing gay marriage change that person's thinking or behavior?

Stephanie said...

Those are two explanations for bullying behavior, but it's not the only two. Besides, why would someone be "afraid they are gay"? Because society -- through it's public policy, for example -- says that being gay is a bad thing.

Michael said...

I'm sure you're right that there are other motivators for gay bullies; I was really asking a, for once, not rhetorical question.

You're still off-base with the idea that opposition to gay marriage equates to a belief that being gay is "a bad thing." That's simply not true and I think you know it.

There are good faith arguments against GM, some of which I have, in the past, expressed, and which others, smarter than me, express. You can't simply dismiss them with "anti-GM = gay is bad."

BTW, I no longer oppose gay marriage.

And, following my brief, yet enlightening, exposure to Poe, I'm going to start using a lot more parenthetical phrases and commas.