(USA) - For teens living in a shelter for abused and neglected children, school can provide a daily dose of normalcy, a place to fit in, a chance to be just another kid. It didn't turn out that way for Lawrence King. The anti-Gay taunts and slurs that Larry endured from his male peers apparently had been constant, as routine for him as math lessons and recess bells. The stinging words were isolating. His friends say the verbal cruelty persisted for months, and grew worse after the slightly built Larry pushed back by "flirting" with some of his mockers.
Note: Read more on LA Times
(Australia) - A new report reveals a steady undercurrent of hostility during and after large-scale Gay and Lesbian events. The University of Newcastle's Cultural Institutions and Practices Research Centre report titled "When the Glitter Settles: safety and hostility at and around gay and lesbian public events", shows 40 per cent of people attending these events had witnessed abusive or violent behaviour. Read more...
(USA) - Lawrence King, 15, was shot at a junior high school Tuesday. A classmate faces murder charge. Lawrence King, 15, was declared brain dead by two neurosurgeons about 2 p.m. at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, said Craig Stevens, senior deputy Ventura County medical examiner. King's body remains on a ventilator for possible organ donation, he said. He was shot early Tuesday in a classroom at E.O. Green Junior High School. Bullying in schools has long been a problem. But recent studies show that a student who comes "out" as gay or lesbian is far more likely to suffer abuse than others, said Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network based in New York. A student thought to be gay was five times as likely to be threatened or injured by a weapon, a 2002 California Department of Education study said. Jennings said other studies have found similar results.
Note: Read more on LA Times
(Brazil) - The President of Sao Paulo's Gay Pride Association was hospitalised after he was attacked at their offices yesterday. Alexandre Peixe dos Santos was gagged, hooded and beaten by an unknown number of attackers. The association organises one of the largest Gay rights parades in the world. Last year three million revellers packed the streets of the Brazilian city in what officials have called the largest party in the world. Mr Peixe dos Santos was beaten unconscious in the attack and called police when he regained consciousness. In September LGBT activists in Brazil spoke about the high levels of homophobia in their society in the wake of the brutal sexual assault and murder of a Gay teenager who was attacked in a street near a bar where he had just won the local "Miss Gay" competition.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(UK) - The home of a Gay couple in Greggan, Northern Ireland, has been attacked for the second time in a week. The attacks are said to be part of a homophobic hate campaign that has been ongoing for three years. The couple, one of whom is registered disabled, had their window broken last Friday – and then on Monday night their door was kicked in. Now the pair, who live in fear after being verbally abused, are considering leaving the home they have shared of 17 years. The verbal abuse, the Derry Gay support group, Rainbow Project says, include threats to burn them out. Both men have said they have been very happy living in Creggan and have had good neighbours all the time they have lived there. But now they say they have to really consider leaving for their own safety and mental health.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(Jamaica) - A homophobic mob attack in Jamaica that left one man severely injured and another missing and feared dead shows yet again that authorities must take urgent action against violence and hatred, Human Rights Watch said today. This incident is the latest in a string of homophobic mob violence over the last year, including an attack on mourners in a church. Read more...
(Jamaica) - The Jamaican government is being urged to tackle mob violence against Gay people in the country after an attack on a group of men alleged to be homosexual. The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-Sexuals and Gays, JFLAG, is urging the Jamaican government to action. "This has become a blot on Jamaica’s human rights record," said a JFLAG spokesperson. "No modern democracy can afford to revert to jungle justice. "We must give real meaning to the rule of law through our constituted authorities and institutions." "We must give real meaning to the rule of law through our constituted authorities and institutions." The attack took place on Tuesday in the town of Mandeville. Two men were hospitalised, one with serious injuries, while another man is still missing.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(Iraq) - Seven Gay and three transgendered Iraqis have disappeared in the past month and a half and are presumed to be the latest victims of the lethal campaign of sexual cleansing by anti-Gay Shiite death squads, according to the London-based group Iraqi LGBT. Ali Hili, the 33-year-old Gay Iraqi exile who is the founder and coordinator of Iraqi LGBT, which has members, supporters, and informants throughout Iraq, told Gay City News this week by telephone from London, "New reports tell us that the seven Gay men were arrested by the police in the cities of Karbala, Najaf, Basra, and Ammara, and no one has been able to obtain any news of them since December 2."
Note: Read more on Gay City News
(USA) - Daniel Yakovleff, 20, was found early Thursday with a fatal stab wound in a multifamily house in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and now Boston homicide detectives are investigating. In Ashford, Yakovleff's distraught family is struggling to understand what happened, while also planning a memorial service to remember the outgoing, trusting and talented young man they loved. The brother of the victim said his parents have expressed concern to him that police will not take the crime seriously because Daniel was Gay. The family also has heard talk from some of Daniel Yakovleff's friends of predators targeting Gay people in Boston.
Note: Read more on Courant
(South Africa) - Even by South African standards, the Sizzlers massacre on January 20, 2003 was shocking. Nine men were slaughtered in one night. They were bound, their throats slit and then shot in the head before being left in pools of blood in the white Sea Point house with matching picket fence. There was a definite increase in attacks on black lesbians and effeminate men. Marlow Valentine, manager of community engagement and empowerment programmes at the Triangle Project, says: "People are being stalked and harassed and often end up the victims of brutal murders."
Note: Read more on IOL
(Latvia) - An assistant to one of the members of the Latvian Saeima (Parliament) was found guilty today in a criminal case of “hooliganism” during the Riga Gay Pride in 2006 when participants had excrement thrown at them. Janis Dzelme, a 32-years old married man with two young children, was sentenced to 100 hours of “compulsory labour” by the Vidzeme District Court of the city of Riga for “gross public disorderliness as manifested in an obvious lack of respect toward the public by ignoring universally accepted norms of behaviour”. He works in the Saeima for Dainis Turlais of the Latvia First Party (LLP) and is a member of the New Generation Church, a homophobic Christian sect based in Riga with branches world-wide.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(UK) - A 43-year-old man who attacked a Gay man in a park as he was walking his dogs was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Tony Hoare, 49, died after the attack in Charlton Park, Charlton, where he was punched to the ground by Lesley Kingshott. The blow to his face on the evening of September 11 last year tore an artery at the base of Mr Hoare's brain which caused a fatal swelling. On the night of the fatal attack Mr Hoare, a market researcher, had been drinking in the White Swan pub in Charlton village where he had suffered homophobic abuse. He was later found unconscious in the park and died shortly after being taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.
Note: Read more on Newsshopper
(Ireland) - A teenager attacked a woman he mistook for a Gay man because of her hairstyle, a court has heard. The State was given more time to complete a book of evidence in the case against the man who launched a serious attack on the woman, and a man. He mistook both for two Gay men. Thinking the couple were men because of the woman's hairstyle, he attacked them on one of Dublin's busiest streets, calling them "f***ing Gay bastards". "He asked 'are you two Gay guys?'. He then hit the man on his face and knocked him to the ground. He attacked the woman, threw her to the ground and kicked her in the back and stomach. He then jumped on the man's back." When the woman, who had been repeatedly kicked, got to her feet, her face was punched.
Note: Read more on Independent
(New Zealand) - Convicted fraudster Martin van der Reit stood expressionless in the Auckland District Court this morning as Judge Josephine Bouchier sentenced him to two and a half years in prison for taking $35,000 from the Auckland Pride Centre in 2003-4. Van der Reit's defence lawyer told the court that her client wanted to work and pay off his debt to the Pride Centre, but was unable to do so as his most recent work permit had expired. "He accepts the Pride Centre has been harmed through his actions, and is keen to make amends," the court heard.
Note: Read more on Gay NZ
(Brazil) - Three suspects in the beating of a Gay teen in Rio De Janeiro have been identified through phone calls, according to local media reports. Police are also reviewing surveillance video footage from the Niterói neighborhood where the teen was attacked. Student Ferrucio Silvestro was leaving a Gay club in Niterói on Nov. 30 when three youths between 18 and 25 years old chased him shouting, "We do not want 'viados' around here." "Viados" is an anti-Gay slur much like "faggot" in English. Ferrucio ran 400 meters and hid in a gas station bathroom but was found and beaten by the three attackers.
Note: Read more on Gay News Watch
(Sweden) - Centre Party member of parliament Fredrick Federley was the victim of a homophobic attack in central Stockholm on Saturday night. The assault took place at the Klara Grillen hot dog stand on Drottninggatan, where Federley went with two acquaintances after leaving the Pigalle nightclub. But as they approached their destination, six or seven men in their twenties began shouting "here come the fags". "Then they screamed that we were disgusting and a threat to Sweden and that they were going to beat us up," said Federley. Just as he tried to convince his assailants that fighting was a bad idea, he was struck with a punch to the left jaw.
Note: The Local
(USA) - Somerville police last week were investigating an alleged hate crime and possible police error after outcry from a Gay-rights group. Don Gorton, chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, said Lisa Daloia of northeastern Massachusetts and two other women were beaten up in the early hours of Nov. 18 while leaving a friend's house. A man started taunting Daloia and her group of six friends earlier in the evening at the On the Hill Tavern in Magoun Square. Daloia was knocked unconscious, Gorton said; her friends, he added, received "bruises all over their faces and parts of their bodies." Daloia has been experiencing post-traumatic stress since the incident.
Note: Read more on Boston.com
Hate drove Terry and Ryan Hamilton out of Bothwell.
Not because of what they did, but because of who they are.
"Die fags," was spray painted on the couple's home at 341 Main St., sending a clear message they weren't welcome.
"There was no way we could stay, we were suffering such tremendous hate crimes," Ryan Hamilton said.
"They were doing everything they could to make our lives a living hell."
The couple made more than 30 complaints to the Chatham-Kent Police Service after incidents including mischief, vandalism and threats.
Note: Read more on London Free Press
(UK) - A Lesbian couple were subjected to such an intimidating tirade of homophobic abuse that they dreaded stepping outside their front door, a court heard. Fireworks were hurled at Carol Cashmore and Nina Meffen's house and into their garden and youths regularly gathered outside to shout anti-Gay insults. The catalogue of abuse took place last year, starting with a vicious attack in July in which a 20-year-old man and two teenage girls armed themselves with wooden chair legs and rained blows on the two women until they were barely conscious. Miss Cashmore, 42, told the court the two girls had hung around outside the couple's garden fence and shouted homophobic abuse. On two occasions, fireworks were thrown into their garden, one of which struck a bedroom window.
Note: Read more on Daily Echo
(Barbados) - The founder of the United Gays And Lesbians Against AIDS In Barbados feels he is being targeted. Darcy Dear was the victim of a recent stone-throwing incident that left two windows in the upper level of his home broken. The Gay rights activist, who is on break from his restaurant in New York, said it would cost $900 to replace the sash windows and pay for labour. Dear, who is in the process of completing his apartment complex and home, said he was in his room on Wednesday night watching television when he had to dodge two large stones thrown through his windows. As he pointed to the shattered glass in the room, he told the SUNDAY SUN team that was the second time in a week his home had been attacked.
Note: Read more on nationnews.com
(UK) - A straight man who set fire to his neighbour’s flat in an allegedly homophobic attack was yesterday locked up indefinitely. A court heard how Alan Pollitt went to the nearby Rhyl flat of a Gay couple who had been together for 18 years, and threatened one of the men with a metal bar. The victim then left the property seeking his partner to tell him what had occurred. The couple went for a drink to discuss the matter and while the flat was empty, Pollitt broke in and started five fires. Karen Mullin, prosecuting, said Pollitt, who had a previous conviction for arson following a similar incident in Preston, later told how he planned to kill one or both of his neighbours. He expressed no remorse for his actions. Miss Mullin said that from the comment he made, it was the Crown case that his motives were based on hostility to their sexual orientation.
Note: Read more on Daily Post
(USA) - A Brooklyn judge handed down stiff prison terms yesterday for three men convicted of causing the hit-and-run death of a Gay man after luring him to a deserted beach to rob him. Anthony Fortunato, 21, the mastermind of the scheme, was sentenced to 7 to 21 years, while John Fox, 20, who lent his AOL screen name to the plan, was slapped with 13 to 21 years. A third defendant, Ilya Shurov, 21, received 17˝ years after pleading guilty to chasing the victim, Michael Sandy, onto the Belt Parkway. All were convicted of second-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. Fox was also convicted of attempted robbery as a hate crime.
Note: Read more on NY Post
(USA) - Hate crime incidents in the United States rose last year by nearly 8 percent, the FBI reported Monday, as racial prejudice continued to account for more than half the reported instances. Crimes against Gays and Lesbians were the third larges reported, at 15.5 percent. Of that figure, more than half of the crimes were committed against Gay men. The FBI includes bias crimes against Gays and Lesbians in its report although currently there is no federal hate law that includes the LGBT community. The Matthew Shepard Act, which would add sexuality to the list of categories covered under federal hate crime law, passed the House in May and the White House threatened to veto it.
Note: Read more on 365Gay.com
(UK) - The Queen's nephew, Viscount David Linley, has been named as the victim of an extortion plot as it emerged the bail hearing for one of his accused blackmailers will be held privately in an attempt to prevent more details from leaking out. Viscount Linley, 46, is the son of the late Princess Margaret and is 12th in line to the throne. Two men were arrested during a meeting in September with an undercover detective at the Hilton Hotel in Mayfair. They reportedly showed the officer mobile phone video footage of a royal aide who claimed to have engaged in a sex act with the viscount and said that the royal had supplied him with cocaine, which the aide snorted on camera.
Note: Read more on The Age
(Croatia) - Croatian prosecutors on Tuesday indicted a 25-year-old man on hate crime charges for allegedly attempting to attack a Gay parade in Zagreb earlier this year. The man is the first person in Croatia to face hate crime charges since it was introduced into the Penal Code last year. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison. Police spotted the man as he prepared to throw homemade Molotov cocktails - bottles containing gasoline - at the parade participants gathering at Zagreb's main square. He fled the scene, but was tracked down later at his home.
Note: Read more on International Herald Tribune
(UK) - Three men have admitted killing James Kerr, 51, in the South Inch park in April. All three, who were originally charged with murder, will be sentenced at the High Court in Perth today. The local authority worker had been out in the park late at night in an area known to be frequented by Gays. He entered into a conversation with a teenager, who was unknown to him. A short time afterwards the teenager phoned his two co-accused, who arrived just minutes later. Meehan and Soutar, both of Perth, then hunted down Mr Kerr and subjected him to an attack that left him in a pool of blood. Although he was still alive on arrival at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Mr Kerr, also of Perth, died that day.
Note: Read more on Scotsman
(Australia) - A young Gay man who vanished after partying at one of Sydney's trendiest inner-city dance clubs is feared murdered, his friends believe. Matt Leveson, 20, has not been seen since walking out of ARQ in Taylor Square, early on Sunday, September 23. The wildlife welfare officer, a regular at the club, was thought to be going home to Cronulla. His family reported him missing when he failed to show for work the following Tuesday. He had also stopped answering his phone. Two days later Mr Leveson's green 1999 Corolla hatchback was found dumped outside a public toilet at Waratah Park Reserve, Sutherland. Police said evidence suggested he did not park it there. They believe he "met with foul play".
Note: Read more on Sydney Morning Herald
(Australia) - A Spate of violent crime targeting the Gay community prompted three prominent politicians and a drag queen to take to the streets in the early hours of yesterday. As partygoers looked on, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Police Minister David Campbell, Labor candidate for Wentworth George Newhouse and local drag queen Maxi Shield wandered the clubs and back alleys of Oxford Street to gauge the impact of homophobic violence. Police said there have been nine reported instances of assault related to "sexual preference prejudice" around Oxford Street this year, while there were only two such instances in the whole of 2006. "This area has changed," Ms Moore said. "As larger venues have sprung up, many people from outside Oxford Street have begun to come in on weekends.
Note: Read more on www.smh.com.au
(USA) - A local gay bartender is in critical condition after being struck by a car in a hit-and-run incident on Sept. 18 in front of Ramrod bar in Fort Lauderdale. It was the second serious incident involving a pedestrian being struck on 4th Avenue near the bar in the past three months. Thomas Davis, 32, was crossing 4th Avenue to go to work at the bar when he was struck at about 10:15 p.m., according to a police statement. Davis suffered a broken leg, head trauma, a lacerated liver and bruised lungs. A witness who was working security outside the bar when the incident occurred said the car sped up and swerved to hit Davis.
Note: Read more on Express Gay News
(Australia) - Frustrated by a lack of official action on homophobic violence, the gay and lesbian community will organise its own security patrols at popular events and party venues. The GenQ Street Angels want volunteers with policing, military, security or medical experience to join. They could be patrolling in Sydney's Oxford Street precinct and the King Street strip in Newtown as early as the first weekend in November. Organiser and GenerationQ.net founder Andrew Stopps said he hoped the patrols would initially focus on Friday and Saturday nights.
Note: Read more on smh.com.au
(USA) - A 56-year-old New Bedford man is claiming that Provincetown police were negligent when they tended to him after he was assaulted Sept. 10. Richard Hall, who was vacationing in Provincetown with his partner, was attacked by unknown assailants in the early morning hours of Sept. 10. He said as a result of the physical trauma to his head during the assault he has no recollection of the aftermath of the attack, during which Provincetown police officers and a rescue squad were called to the scene by two men who witnessed him emerging from the beach access next to Bubala’s restaurant on Commercial Street. Hall, who suffered abrasions to his face and welts on the back of his head, said that he should have been taken to the hospital immediately for medical treatment.
Note: Read more on Bay Windows
(Brazil) - Gay activists in Brazil were saddened today by the murder of a 19-year-old who was sexually assaulted and murdered only hours after winning the "Miss Gay Arapiraca" contest in the northeastern state of Alagoas. The violence was apparently the result of homophobic violence. Osvan Inácio Dos Santos was killed in the nearby town of Batingas, by strangers who approached the victim in the street near the bar where the competition took place, police said. The teenager had participated in the "Miss Gay Arapiraca pageant and disappeared shortly after winning the competition. Dos Santos' body was found yesterday morning, naked and, according to a legal expert, with indications of sexual assault and the breaking of his skull.
Note: Read more on Gay News Watch
(USA) - A group of Lesbian women were asked to leave a bar in New York and were then assaulted by heterosexual mob. The dykes had "dared" to dance in a Long Island straight bar and were subsequently asked to leave by the bar's manager for their inappropriate behavior because it upsetting the bar's straight customers. About 10 to 12 young men and women, including several under-aged teens, followed the lesbians out of the bar and began screaming anti-gay epithets, spitting on the lesbians and then beating them.
Note: Read more on QueerSighted
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