Focus On The Rainbow

A Fort Lauderdale couple is accused of twice attacking a man, and on Friday police labeled the attack a hate crime.

Ricardo Rivera, 53, and Bedsaida Rivera, 49, are each charged with one count of battery.

Having their attack labeled a hate crime doesn’t change the charges, Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa said, but it does mean they face stiffer penalties if found guilty.

The first attack happened on Sept. 6 in an apartment building in the 2100 block of Northeast 56th Street. Barry Jones, 45, told police that he heard loud noises and banging coming from the neighboring unit.

He went over and asked the group to keep down the noise, which led to an argument between him and Ricardo Rivera. Then Rivera began hitting him, according to an arrest affidavit.

“Jones stated that River knocked him to the ground and up against the wall,” the affidavit said. “Jones stated that Rivera was yelling `faggot’ over and over while hitting him.”

Read the full article at The Miami Hearald

Back in September it was reported here on FOTR that New York City WPLJ-FM Blake Hayes and others were attacked in an anti-gay bias incident. Now according to the New York Daily News an Air Forcebomb expert has been tracked down in England and is being charged with the incident.

A West Side gay bashing has turned into an international incident with the NYPD in England tracking down the suspect – a Bronze Star recipient.

One of the victims, Blake Hayes, a 24-year-old deejay for WPLJ-FM radio, noted the conflicting portraits of the suspect.

“On paper, he’s a hero,” Hayes said of Air Force Staff Sgt. Benjamin Ford. “But when it comes to what happened … he deserves to be punished.”

Ford, an expert in defusing bombs, was part of a military contingent that was in town last September while President Obama was speaking to the UN. His job: to help protect the President and other world leaders.

The Hate Crimes Task Force was assigned to the case and eventually identified Ford as the suspect and learned he was assigned to an Air Force base five hours outside London.

In an added twist to the case, the NYPD and Manhattan prosecutor’s office, after consulting the three gay victims, have agreed to let the U.S. military try Ford and dole out any punishment if he is found guilty in the attack, sources told The News.

Ford has not been formally charged.

Read the full article at The Daily News.

Two New York men accused of brutally beating an openly gay man have been indicted on hate crime charges, authorities said.

The indictment filed Thursday morning charges defendants Daniel Aleman, 26, and Daniel Rodriguez, 21, both of College Point in Queens, New York, of 14-counts of assault and robbery as a hate crime, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown. If convicted, both men face up to 25 years in prison.

Police say the two men shouted “anti-gay remarks” while viciously beating victim Jack Price, 49, as he left a 24-hour deli on College Point Boulevard in Queens in October 2009. After the assault, the two men stole Price’s wallet and other personal property from his pockets.

Price was treated at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens for a broken jaw, several broken ribs, two collapsed lungs and a lacerated spleen.

Aleman and Rodriguez are being held without bail. Their arraignment is scheduled for January 25.

Source – CNN – previous postings with video here.

Eyewitness News Video 10/15/09

In the span of two months — inside a small South Beach radius — at least three violent attacks against gay men have taken place. One victim was a European tourist who walked away with bruises. Another was a popular club owner’s boyfriend, who was told, “Get out of here, fag” before an attack.

The violence is a symbol of what the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) circle has felt for years: South Beach isn’t the free-spirited haven of gayness it once was. According to state records, 75 percent of countywide gay hate crime in the past year occurred in Miami Beach, a place the rest of the world sees as a big, happy gay rainbow. In a five-year span, the State Attorney’s Office reported 26 incidents, half of which were in Miami Beach. Victims include a lounge singer who was stripped naked and hogtied and a magazine publisher who was viciously beaten.

It’s surprising when you consider South Beach’s heyday as a sparkling gay playground, where oiled-up boys frolicked between wild foam parties and the hub of hedonism that was the Versace mansion. Nobody thought twice about casual sex in Flamingo Park or flamboyant public fashion shoots, and — at its peak — MTV was even there to glamorize it all.

Gay transplants morphed Miami Beach from a sleepy little island into Rio de Janeiro with an edge. There was a sense of easy living and infinite possibility. But most of that has vanished. Rents spiked, gays moved out, and tourists flocked in. Clubs that once hosted thousands of gay men per night closed, and hip-hop venues began to sprout. It’s the nightlife equivalent of erecting a mosque next to a temple.

Meanwhile, a bigger scene has emerged 25 miles north. In Fort Lauderdale, gay entertainers find work more easily, queer yuppies can afford spacious homes, and transgender ladies feel safer walking to the corner store. South Beach, they explain, has grown tense.

Says former Miami Beach Commissioner Victor Diaz, who’s gay: “I don’t think police realize the degree to which there has been an alarming increase of these types of incidents on South Beach.”

Read the full article at Miami New Times

During a weekly drop-in group held by the Albert Kennedy Trust in London, Suni, a 20-year-old London student, helps himself to a warm mince pie and a steaming cup of coffee.

In 2008, during a holiday to Pakistan to visit relatives, his parents suspected the truth about his sexuality. They believed marriage would “cure” him of what they considered to be a psychological disorder.

“They told me I’m going to be forced into marriage and they’re looking for a girl and I’ll be married in two to three months and I won’t be able to come back to London,” Suni said.

When he refused, he was imprisoned in his family’s ancestral home in a remote village of Pakistan and subjected to regular beatings and abuse as he had brought “shame” on the strict Muslim family.

“I stayed there for three months and he was always beating me. He was telling me I had blackened our family name and he was saying it’s a sin. I know it was just for honour.”

Read the full article at the BBC.

A hate crime investigation in Cheektowaga takes a dramatic turn.

Police say the victim has been threatened since the arrest of his suspected attackers.

Threatening text messages and a physical confrontation. Cheektowaga Police tell News 4 that’s what the victim has been dealing with in the past few days.

This all began outside the Walden Galleria on New Year’s Eve. Two women were arrested for harassing and assaulting the victim in a parking lot.

Police say 19-year-old Deonna Burnett and 18-year-old Joy Darden first yelled anti-gay slurs inside the mall. Then they followed the 20-year-old man outside where they punched, kicked and robbed him.

Police now tell that just a few days ago, a friend of the victim received a text message saying the victim better not show up for court. And then, the victim in this case was confronted by a guy in the hallway of the court building.

Source - WVIB-TV

Buffalo Police are urging people to come forward following a brutal attack near a gay and lesbian nightclub.

Lindsay Harmon was stabbed in the eye outside Roxy’s on Main Street early New Year’s Day. Witnesses say a group of men and women began used anti-gay slurs while harassing Harmon and her friends as they left the club.

Police say it’s too early to tell if this is a hate crime. Since the attack, Lindsay Harmon underwent surgery and is not sure her eye will fully recover.

Anyone with information on the attack is asked to call the Buffalo Police confidential tip line at 847-2255.

Source – WVIB-TV

Up to 18 gay and transgender men have been killed in Honduras in the six months since its president was deposed in a coup, human rights advocates have reported.

Since the recent murder of Honduran gay activist Walter Trochez , just days after he escaped a six-hour kidnapping ordeal, an unknown assailant fired at him from a moving vehicle, silencing one of Honduras’ most prominent voices in the gay community. Tróchez had also become a leader in the “Resistance Movement” that demands the return of ousted president Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, raising questions about whether his murder was related to hate — or politics.

Sunday in an extended article, the Miami-Herald looked at what is becoming a more dangerous place for members of the LGBT community.

The Human Rights Watch report suggests authorities are responsible for much of the violence. The report quoted several transgender sex workers saying they had been raped and even stabbed by police officers who demanded sexual favors.

The report cites an ambiguous Honduran law that allows police to pick up people for “immoral behavior” as a root of the problem.