Gay Bashg |

Contents:

• GAY BASHG AT A SPORTS BAR: WHAT DO YOU DO?
• FAY SEEKS $20 LN AFTER GAY BASHG CINTS AT WASHGTON SCHOOL
• VIO: SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE OF WT VILLAGE GAY BASHG
• GAY BASHG

GAY BASHG AT A SPORTS BAR: WHAT DO YOU DO?

March 24, 2009— -- The gay marriage iative and Sean Penn's Osr-wng performance "Milk" have stirred up emotns on both sis of the gay rights bate … but 's one thg to al wh an issue at a distance and que another when you're forced to choose sis, or do nothg. We hired actor Vce Augt to play a homophobic patron. Amand and Domic Benevento, a gay uple real life, played the targets of his slurs.

Two addnal actors, Traci Hovel and Brad Lee Wd, played a heterosexual uple at the oppose end of the sexual orientatn hate crim nsistently on the rise the past , we wonred whether or not bar patrons would e to the fense of a gay uple beg verbally tt Amerins' creasg open-mdns, we staged a verbal gay-bashg scenar at a lol sports bar Ln, N. Two addnal actors, Traci Hovel and Brad Lee Wd, played a heterosexual uple at the oppose end of the our dns, we met many homosexual upl who had experienced prejudice and anti-gay rhetoric.

They were all too faiar wh the kds of language our actor Augt an age when many still don't regnize rogatory language toward homosexual upl as a hate crime, we wonred if anyone would even regnize the attacks, let alone nont the Friday at lunchtime, a group of six men entered the bar for a quick break before headg back to work.

FAY SEEKS $20 LN AFTER GAY BASHG CINTS AT WASHGTON SCHOOL

Amand and Benevento entered, takg seats nearby, Augt's meanor changed markedly and he lnched to a steady stream of anti-gay Gay Couple Should Leave, or Else"Is this mon for the area? I'm gettg tired of hearg you, jt shut up, " Ball told then rorted to an ultimatum: Eher the gay uple leav or he leav.

"Carrie Keatg, profsor of psychology at Colgate Universy, explaed that terveng on behalf of a gay man is often harr for heterosexual men than seems.

VIO: SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE OF WT VILLAGE GAY BASHG

"'They're Not Dog Anythg Wrong'As our experiment ntued, we found other headstrong patrons who weren't aaid to nont Augt, or our gay uple, the eveng, we add one addnal twist by tellg bar owner Robert DeStefanis to ask the uple to tone down their affectns bee they were makg other ctomers Steele, a lol real tate agent, was out celebratg her birthday wh a large group of iends. "Steele was unmovable, even posng herself between the uple and their the urse of our two-day ethil dilemma, we saw a diverse suburban muny stand up for a gay uple who was beg verbally crime laws exist both ferally and at the state level to protect victims of crim based on genr, relign and race. Gay Bashg Taxi Driver | What Would You Do?

On Sunday, 26-year-old Damian Furtch was beaten outsi the Wt 4th Street McDonald's the Wt Village by two men spewg homophobic slurs, possibly bee of his brightly lored clothg. He said, "The attack agast me is part of the larger issue of vlence agast gay and transgenr people New York Cy. "There have been two other gay bashgs reported the area the past few months, one at the cy's olst gay bar and one at the cy's most famo gay bar.

Sign up today for our ee To TopUnfortunately, many of the high-profile news stori volvg LGBT people are stori of gay bashg. From middle schoolers beg tnted wh antigay slurs to lbians beg murred for showg affectn public, bias-related vlence ntu to threaten the LGBT muny.

GAY BASHG

But some good has e out of too: Some of the more poignant gay-bashg cints have l a fire unr policians to help clu sexual orientatn and genr inty the tegori of thgs that make an act of vlence a hate crime.

The Advote has all the latt news on gay bashg and the fight to end anti-LGBT vlence. He scribed his first exposure to the ps' gay bashg when he was told to meet a group of six to ten officers at a lol Sydney park while uniform. Moore Park was a known hangout for gay men at the time, and the bathrooms were a favored cisg spot.

Higgbotham quickly realized was not a legimate police operatn, but stead a brazen and public mob attack by uniform police targetg gay men.

"Eventually, I unrstood that this was beatg gay people and was beatg gay people wh alumum tncheons and was done by on-duty uniformed police.

"The cliffs surroundg the greater Sydney area NSW were popular wh members of the gay muny lookg to hook up durg the 1970s and '80s. Homophobic groups of men and youth would asslt and often murr gay men, throwg them or forcg them to leap om the cliffs onto the rocks below.

As many as 80 gay men were killed the area durg the perd.