Gay Boston Man Claims He Was Attacked On The 'T' Due To His Sexual Orientation

A Boston man who was allegedly attacked by a group of teenage girls at his local transit station told police he believed he was targeted because he was gay.

As local news channel WHDH is reporting, the victim, whose name has not been released, said a group of girls not only beat him up, but also hollered a series of racial slurs at him before stealing his backpack. Police say the victim was found with cuts on his face and bleeding from his nose, and are now investigating the attack as a possible hate crime.

One 18-year-old suspect has so far been questioned, although police say they are looking for at least two other suspects.

"[The victim] was on the receiving end of two kinds of violence: one, the physical violence against his body, and the other, the hate violence against his spirit," one passenger declared.

The incident follows an earlier attack on a Bridgewater State University student who wrote a pro-marriage equality piece in her campus newspaper and is also being investigated as a hate crime.

(via Towleroad)

Comments

[bighead227]

08:41 AM on 03/20/2012

Why is this not a racial hate crime? Racial slurs are a tip-off. The victim doesn't report or at least it isn't indicated that gay slurs were used, yet he seems convinced it was because he's gay. I'm confused.

[Professor Wagstaff]

12:37 AM on 02/28/2012

Interesting - the article mentions racial slurs shouted by the attackers, the victim believes it was because of his "sexual orientation", and of course the attackers were of another gender - we may have a Trifecta hate crime here!

[LazzOsp]

07:10 PM on 02/26/2012

I have sympathy for this guy, but couldn't he defend himself against these teenage girls?
They don't sound like the most menacing demographic group in the country...

[jankantius]

09:52 PM on 02/26/2012

I've seen girls attack guys before. It's easy. Most guys will resist fighting back because it's embarassing.... plus if they get seen shoving a girl THEY might be the ones arrested, or worse, get beaten up by some guy who thinks he's a hero.

[Paul Replogle]

04:00 PM on 02/24/2012

Will this stuff EVER stop?

[MarkBoston]

04:05 AM on 02/24/2012

I have lived in Jamaica Plain for over 25 years . It's a very safe place for LGBT people . This is something that is not apart of our community .... these 3 women came looking for trouble .

[Godweiser]

05:59 AM on 02/24/2012

I'm not entirely shocked. I mean, different neighborhoods of Boston can compare in sharp contrast to each other.

[Godweiser]

05:58 AM on 02/24/2012

You clearly need treatment.

[Ganji]

03:03 AM on 02/24/2012

it's hard to have any empathy for gays when I read this stories about gay judges refusing to marry straight people, not cutting a person hair because they don't believe in gay marriage..

[Godweiser]

05:58 AM on 02/24/2012

You can join elpasoslim in group therapy.

[Robbert Bricker]

07:48 AM on 02/24/2012

so you have a problem with a gay judge that won't marry a straight couple, but do not have a problem with straight judges who won't marry a gay couple?

and you have a problem with a gay hair designer refusing service to a straight politician who legislates against glbt people, but don'y have a problem with the thousands of glbt people who have been refused service or lost their jobs because they are gay?

wow. hate to tell you, but the street goes two ways. they glbt community did not start this "culture war", it was the religious right.... but you can bet that it will be the glbt community who wins in the end.

[Ganji]

07:08 PM on 02/24/2012

I am just being honest. I'm from a conservative state and upbringing. Even though I am not relgious I respect the tradition of marriage and I find it absurbed to have two people of the same-sex be called a "marriage" in the way I grew up seeing it. Also even though gays can do what they want in private, it doesn't mean I don't find them.....repulsive..i find it odd how gays get angry when i say this..no one has to accept a behavior or sexual act..to me it's like someone getting mad at me because I don't like soccer..just because i don't like soccer doesn't mean i want others to not be able to play or watch it, but i don't want to be forced to accept it by soccer lovers or the government either. I don't want soccer rules to be forced on American football and everyone saying it will still be football with these changes and being labled a soccerphobe simply for having an opinion.. a gut feeling..they don't like.

[jankantius]

09:54 PM on 02/26/2012

Um, Rob, I think Gangi was joking.

[dcm510]

08:16 PM on 02/23/2012

So horrible to hear about this. I was a bit paranoid after kissing a guy after a date last week (in Boston) at a T station and finally calmed myself down recently after telling myself that this is a relatively safe city. While the area while it happened (Forest Hills) is in a different part of the city that's considered a little more dangerous from what I've heard, it's definitely going to be bothering me...

[elpasoslim]

03:35 AM on 02/24/2012

pervert

[Godweiser]

05:58 AM on 02/24/2012

Someone needs to take their xanax.

[Robbert Bricker]

07:48 AM on 02/24/2012

jealous? sounds like it.

[roger g]

04:58 AM on 02/24/2012

Good luck and a happy life being yourself---I am posting this so the only response you get isn't from the other homophobe who replied.

[lacrosselamore]

08:23 AM on 02/24/2012

I would fan you again if I could.
Nice.

[Ted Pierot]

07:46 PM on 02/23/2012

lock them up....

[Helen Greenfeld]

06:31 PM on 02/23/2012

Any crime where a person is physically attacked is a hate crime. No distinction. These attackers when caught should be charged with whatever did and not get any leniency.

[unimatrix0]

11:07 PM on 02/23/2012

Yes, a crime is a crime, but when some one burns a cross on the lawn of a black family's home it is not just an assult against them, it is an assult against all african-american families in that community, as that act makes them all fearful. It's like how most American's felt after 9/11, especially when flying. They worried that every Muslim or Arab they saw was a terrorist and was going to attack them, yet they had no link to the twin towers. The GLBT community in Boston, especially now those who ride the T are now doing it with a much higher anxiety level because these girls yelled out slurs that indicated they were attacking him because of his sexual orientation and not because he was a random person.

[Helen Greenfeld]

08:35 AM on 02/24/2012

You are right. If one kills a person in a heat of racial, hateful passion or just kills someone the result is that the person is dead. The murderer or murderers, should get the same punishment with no leniency. So the racial killer or the vicious killer is off the streets with no chance of parol because he won't have a chance to kill again.
Those girls need to be punished to the fullest extent the law allows. This poor soul they attacked. If it hadn't been him it would have been someone else shortly down the line and not necessarily because they were gay but something else about that person that caught their eye.

If someone has hate in their soul it will come out. These are not nice girls that were raised well.

As for the Arabs and Muslims. All those that were cheering as the towers went down should have been flown out of the country. That was massive hate and celebration of 3,000 lives going down in flames in the worst. way and I believe an ultimate threat against our national security.

[wmad]

12:57 AM on 02/24/2012

Not necessarily; you don't have to hate a person to attack them. I think hate crime perpetrators should be charged more harshly than others because that hate is going to remain after any attack and puts them at risk of committing other, similar crimes.

[Bill J4321]

04:09 PM on 02/23/2012

I am willing to bet that the three teenage girls who did this all have 1 trait in common.

1 trait.

We should take a look at what that trait may be, and then legislate against that trait by banning it and passing legislation to be sure that every U.S. citizen knows it is morally reprehensible. An abomination.

I can only wonder what 1 trait they share...

[ponderingmuch]

08:42 PM on 02/23/2012

This being Boston, there are a number of traits they could share. What are you hinting at?

[O K Ali]

08:55 PM on 02/23/2012

Untuck you tail from between your legs and say it. Your code talk has been broken years ago.

[fratricide08]

09:21 PM on 02/23/2012

Truth. Except his code talk was never anything more than "plausible deniability" for the legalistic thinkers out there convinced that only the crassest terms prove someone's intentions.

[Theophilo Oliveira Damio]

04:06 PM on 02/23/2012

How can someone commit a crime against his spirit? Is there anything on any law in the whole world which states that? That's so easy, He was embarrassed to say that he was just stolen by teenage girls and said that or because They stole him and call him bad words, presume that They hate Gays.... that's so superficial..... Most of bad words use words far before any word called homophobia and most of bad words are based on prejudice and judgment.... as I said it's superficial just judging by that.... You probably gonna say that these teenage girls were a Chrisitian Extreme Right Girls Group against Gays or how we call CERGGG

[BooBoo Bob]

04:46 PM on 02/23/2012

Yes. They're called Hate Crime laws and they exist for a reason. You appear to be proving that reasoning.

[Theophilo Oliveira Damio]

05:26 PM on 02/23/2012

If you read my comment and the article I didn't say hate crimes doesn't exist, I say what the so-called witness said

¨"[The victim] was on the receiving end of two kinds of violence: one, the physical violence against his body, and the other, the hate violence against his SPIRIT," one passenger declared.

It was the victim minor, what's the reason people didn't reveal his name? The ¨passenger¨ was considered a witness or just a passenger at all? The point is the claim that He was beat because He is gay isn't conclusive but the new is undoubtedly confirming that.... I am not supporting violence, I just don't support propaganda.... As I read, the girls stole his backpack, that's something to consider... It's about justice and not about fabricate something in regard of some agenda... Media is just repeating as a parrot that any opinion against is a hate crime, I can't stand that... The girls stole and beat the guy, that's completely wrong and they deserve been punish by the law but this case doesn't have to become a ¨false¨ (if isn't proved) pro-gay agenda against true justice....

[Jason N]

02:55 PM on 02/27/2012

"They stole him and call him bad words"

Stole him? Hey Theo, 1998 called and they want their slang back...

"Most of bad words use words far before any word called homophobia and most of bad words are based on prejudice and judgment"

This is the most incomprehensible thing I've read on here today.

[dogtac69]

04:03 PM on 02/23/2012

This must stop. Everyday, there is a report of someone being beaten, raped, killed, spat on for being gay/lesbian. The legal system needs to stop giving a slap-on-the wrist punishment in these cases. Giving the harshest punishment possible would send a message.

[Leander Robinson]

07:25 AM on 02/24/2012

I agree but they need to find something besides puting them in jail because all that does is cause us tax payers to pay out more they need to have to work in a treatment center or something like this

[dogtac69]

08:37 AM on 02/24/2012

Leander Robinson

I long have though criminals should have to pay for their upkeep, plus the costs of their arrests and trials. If they do not have the money, and most of them probably will not, then they could pay for it after serving their sentence by working it out.