The mob beating of a lesbian couple in the Austin neighborhood, which police are calling a hate crime, has gay rights groups calling for greater attention to what they say are routine acts of violence and discrimination against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
"We see cases like this all the time, all over the city and all over the state," said Rick Garcia, policy director at The Civil Rights Agenda. "It shows that animosity toward lesbian and gay people is just below the surface. We think we've made such big gains, but right below the surface we see this animosity and violence."
The women were beaten Saturday, clutching each other as they were pinned against a car by about 10 men who taunted them for being gay and took turns punching and kicking them on the dark street, one of the victims said.
"It was punches, kicks, everything being thrown at us," said the woman, who is 23. "We just held each other until somebody said, 'Here come the police.'"
Police have labeled the attack a hate crime, and one man has been charged. Other suspects in the attack are being sought.
According to the most recent Chicago Police Department data, there were 18 hate crimes based on sexual orientation in the city in 2011 and 14 the previous year.
The Austin attack occurred late Saturday as the women walked down North Leclaire Avenue on the West Side.
The 23-year-old woman described the violent encounter:
The couple passed a man they knew from the neighborhood who was standing with a group of other men. The men, commenting on the 23-year-old's masculine dress, shouted anti-gay slurs, calling her "dyke" and "bitch."
The woman's girlfriend, who is 25, told the men to stop, but they continued. Later, the women were walking in the same area and the man the couple knew followed them. He again shouted slurs, daring the 23-year-old woman to fight. "Tell your bitch to stop looking at me," the man told the woman's girlfriend, whom he knew from high school.
The man kept following them. The 23-year-old tried to ignore him while her girlfriend asked that he leave them alone.
A second man came up, cursing both women, and then the first man took a swing and punched the 23-year-old. The couple fought back, at one point smashing a bottle one of them was carrying over the first man's head, and other men quickly joined in, pulling the women apart. The women struggled to get back together, pressed against a car as the beating continued and no one came to help. "I didn't think we were going to make it out," the 23-year-old said.
Finally one man said the police were coming. The attackers, laughing, fled in one direction, and the women went the other way. Both women had lost their shoes, and someone had ripped the shirt off one of them. The men stole their phones and cash. No officers arrived, and the couple ran back to the building where the 23-year-old lived and asked a neighbor for a phone to call for help. Bruised and bleeding from the nose and mouth, the 23-year-old said she passed out and woke up as paramedics were working on her in an ambulance. Doctors at the hospital found swelling but no broken bones. The 25-year-old was not as seriously injured.
Terry Glover, 24, of the first block of North Parkside Avenue, has been charged with two counts of felony hate crime and two counts of felony robbery. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-hate-crime-charge-20130712,0,7213554.story
Say say it ain't so, not in Obamaland.....
"We see cases like this all the time, all over the city and all over the state," said Rick Garcia, policy director at The Civil Rights Agenda. "It shows that animosity toward lesbian and gay people is just below the surface. We think we've made such big gains, but right below the surface we see this animosity and violence."
The women were beaten Saturday, clutching each other as they were pinned against a car by about 10 men who taunted them for being gay and took turns punching and kicking them on the dark street, one of the victims said.
"It was punches, kicks, everything being thrown at us," said the woman, who is 23. "We just held each other until somebody said, 'Here come the police.'"
Police have labeled the attack a hate crime, and one man has been charged. Other suspects in the attack are being sought.
According to the most recent Chicago Police Department data, there were 18 hate crimes based on sexual orientation in the city in 2011 and 14 the previous year.
The Austin attack occurred late Saturday as the women walked down North Leclaire Avenue on the West Side.
The 23-year-old woman described the violent encounter:
The couple passed a man they knew from the neighborhood who was standing with a group of other men. The men, commenting on the 23-year-old's masculine dress, shouted anti-gay slurs, calling her "dyke" and "bitch."
The woman's girlfriend, who is 25, told the men to stop, but they continued. Later, the women were walking in the same area and the man the couple knew followed them. He again shouted slurs, daring the 23-year-old woman to fight. "Tell your bitch to stop looking at me," the man told the woman's girlfriend, whom he knew from high school.
The man kept following them. The 23-year-old tried to ignore him while her girlfriend asked that he leave them alone.
A second man came up, cursing both women, and then the first man took a swing and punched the 23-year-old. The couple fought back, at one point smashing a bottle one of them was carrying over the first man's head, and other men quickly joined in, pulling the women apart. The women struggled to get back together, pressed against a car as the beating continued and no one came to help. "I didn't think we were going to make it out," the 23-year-old said.
Finally one man said the police were coming. The attackers, laughing, fled in one direction, and the women went the other way. Both women had lost their shoes, and someone had ripped the shirt off one of them. The men stole their phones and cash. No officers arrived, and the couple ran back to the building where the 23-year-old lived and asked a neighbor for a phone to call for help. Bruised and bleeding from the nose and mouth, the 23-year-old said she passed out and woke up as paramedics were working on her in an ambulance. Doctors at the hospital found swelling but no broken bones. The 25-year-old was not as seriously injured.
Terry Glover, 24, of the first block of North Parkside Avenue, has been charged with two counts of felony hate crime and two counts of felony robbery. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-hate-crime-charge-20130712,0,7213554.story
Say say it ain't so, not in Obamaland.....
