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We’ve heard of women, targeted by rapists, being advised to scream about how they are pregnant to stop the assault, because even disgusting men have enough of a soul that they’ll back away from possibly hurting a fetus. Similarly, there’s the HIV-positive defense: If you find yourself being attacked and bloodied, scream about how you’re HIV-positive, and there’s a chance you’ll be left alone. That’s how Daniel Hauff, of Evanston, Ill., warded off three alleged gay bashers who went after him on the train when Hauff came to the defense of another rider being bullied.
The three men — Kevin McAndrew, Benjamin Eder, and Sean Little — all face hate crime charges stemming from last month’s attack, which Hauff, who is gay, says left him with cuts on his face, a deviated septum, and blurred vision. But it’s Hauff’s defense mechanism that has our interest piqued.
Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti told Ocasio that Hauff intervened in the early morning hours of Jan. 10 when he saw the three harass another rider and utter anti-gay slurs. The three then turned on Hauff, pushing and punching him while shouting anti-gay slurs at him, she said.
Little and Eder allegedly punched Hauff in the face. As the fight spilled out onto the Argyle Street station, Antonietti said, they had Hauff’s blood on their hands and asked, ” ‘Cause you’re gay, do I have HIV now?”
Hauff tells police that he did wipe blood on his three alleged attackers, and told them he was HIV-positive as a way to get them to stop the assault; Hauff says he is not, in fact, HIV-positive.
How about we take this to the next level?
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In that split-second decision, Hauff didn’t care about possibly stigmatizing those with HIV — something HIV/AIDS advocates work tirelessly to nix. Instead, he used a general fear of contracting the virus to keep himself and other other victim safe. It worked, and we’ll recommend saying anything that does.
Posted Hauff on Facebook: “The men who gay bashed me apparently have the defense that they assaulted and battered two gay men on the train while calling them faggots merely because they are hateful people out to violate the bodies of others through violence. Wasn’t a hate crime, no. They’re just awful people is all. Hmm… But, I editorialize.”
(video via)
terrwill
This tactic does work…….. To make spending money thru college I went on appointments to prospective bride and grooms homes and sold them wedding packages. I carried my materials in a aluminum brief case, which looked very expensive. I was in a not so good housing project one night in an elevator and four guys got into elevator with me. Immediatley I felt threatned and kinda knew what was about to transpire. One of them asked what was in the “pretty case” and if I had any “extra cash” . In a split second I spit out I was taking blood samples from a HIV positive resident and if they really wanted to I could open the case up and show them, however I couln’t get one of the vials sealed properly. They all pushed back against the front of the car so tight I thought they were going to double the size of the elevator car, pushed the button and got off the next floor, nothing more said…………..
Am hoping these three subhuman scumbag savages get what they were really looking for in lockup……………
Bertie
That is a great tactic. The attackers want to take your life but save their own.
Yell I am HIV positive – you want my blood on you?!!
Bill
I find that carrying a gun prevents all of this.
andy
Bill be careful!
Anyway, I’m glad these guys were caught and are now facing justice. Hope they are an example to others of what not to do.
ChrisM
Awesome. It’s too bad they were able to hurt him as much as they did before he scared them away though.
romeo
I’m glad he got out of it without getting hurt too badly, but I think the real story here is that he was coming to someone else’s defense. Glad the “I’ve got HIV” worked, but it’s a pretty sad statement. These guys should have to do some hard time. In the unlikely event that they’re straight, the longer we keep them out of the gene pool the better.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
When I was mugged in Brooklyn, I yelled “Fire!” rather than “Help!” as selfish New Yorkers don’t give a fuck about each other unless their house is gonna burn down. The NYCHA Hoods fled with nothing and the neighborhood is totally gentrified now so I had the last laugh, living in Manhattan, too! It was the tail-end of the Crack ’80s.
As much as this particular guy went into survival mode (always think Hostage Negotiation) as yelling that you are “HIV Positive” and that you will intently infect (even an attacker) may end up with a wrong conviction if you are in fact HIV-positive! Facing Death, he went into Survival Mode and is alive today!
Most people who live by the gun are also much more likely to die that way as evidenced in gang-banger neighborhoods. Many big cities make it illegal to actually carry a fire-arm.
edgyguy1426
My business is in Evanston near the Northwestern campus. I’m glad their photos were shown and I hope the guy that was originally harassed now comes to Hauff’s aid.
edgyguy1426
Ironically when googled, this Benjamin Eder guy shows up in the Ricky Byrdsong Race Against Hate, an African-American Northwestern Coach who was gunned down by a white supremecist….
V
@dontblamemeivotedforhillary:
“New Yorkers don’t give a fuck about each other unless their house is gonna burn down.” = Hi! I make really stupid generalizations!
“The NYCHA Hoods fled with nothing and the neighborhood is totally gentrified now so I had the last laugh,” = I am a racist!
t money
iva always thought of this. if ever in a situation like this i would say the same thing. i got AIDS. it reminds me of that movie… “the cure” with the two young boys. wow that was about 15 years ago. i can throw down, but 3 on 1 is a bit much to handle.
killerwhalesKILL!!!
It’s all about self-preservation baby.
Acem
I’m not mad at him. You do what you have to in survival mode.
james
I agree with romeo, completely. Late at night on the CTA, you’re faced with drunks and criminals and some people just trying to get home from work. There is one transit employee on a train and that employee may be six or seven cars away from where the incident takes place. Police? Ha. Chicago is severely understaffed by cops, besides how long would it take them to get to a particular train after the 911 dispatcher contacts the CTA which then contacts the train operator then the beat cops…by that time the closet case thugs will be long gone.
We need to throw a damned parade for this guy. Or at least a major fundraiser for his current and future medical bills. Or he can just sue the bastards.
Bill: Really? You carry a gun, concealed, in public? IN a big city? Because you know, it’s illegal in chicago, NY, Calif., just about everywhere, that you’d encounter such a situation, really. How’s Bernard Goetz doing these days anyway?
Truth B. Told
I counted at least two (maybe more) times the sorry ass (self-hating, I might add) invective “They must be closet cases homos” is used as a slam against someone who attacks Gays. Don’t you realize that it is NOT true in the vast majority of cases? You are letting heterosexuals off the hook too easily by inferring that hate crimes against us are mostly Gay-on-Gay crimes. And, in many cases, it is just stooping their level by the using the same A-bomb put-down used commonly in High School; that is, emasculating some other male by calling him a fag.
Just because some punks are insecure about their heterosexual “masculinity”, and are looking for any easy target to prove that they’re tough , it doesn’t make them closeted homosexuals. Got it! It just makes them sniveling, insecure, little ball-less breeders who are so weak that they have to hunt in packs like hyenas. They may think that they are “insulating” themselves from ever being suspected of being homosexual by their gang by bashing gays, but that doesn’t make them a closeted homosexual — in most instances, it just makes them insecure heterosexuals who are over-compensating for their lack of confidence in their own masculinity.
Exactly what the hell do you think you are doing using the “ultimate put-down” but letting heterosexual thugs off the hook and giving homophobes new ammunition so they can say “oh, look, those gay-bashings aren’t done by us, the queers do it to their own kind” — is that what you really think?
That’s what you get when you associate sub-human, scumbag, gay-bashers with the GLBT community and make them part of us by implying that their criminality is driven by their “alleged” latent homosexuality. Don’t you see the danger in such stupid and unfounded accusation? Don’t you see how that dumb-fuck remark lets the Straight community off the hook for all of the beatings that gay people have endured?
Just think about it. I can’t imagine some other victimized minority blaming their own kind or implying that their attackers where actually the same as them, but only too ashamed to admit it. IT IS NOT TRUE in the vast, vast, vast majority of cases.
So please understand this: people who actually hate us and would like to degrade us; to deprive us of our dignity and our human rights..and, yes, even desire to kill us are by and large…STRAIGHT!!!
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you do, you’re a fool and a useful one at that.
Hyhybt
@dontblamemeivotedforhillary: I would think not twice, but three or four times before shouting “fire!” while someone is pointing a gun at me..
james
Truth B:
I am not ‘self-hating.’
Nor am I ‘stupid.’
If you seemed a reasonable person I would reply that I regret jumping to conclusions (can we check back with these three attackers in another decade though?) and state that when I try to step back and seriously look at why college-educated, seemingly middle-class young men (or any men, really, but those characteristics for this specific case) would beat up two gay guys on a train, i cannot come up with a reason why.
Some might say, ‘well, why does anyone need a reason to attack or rob or kill anyone else? they’re just criminals!’ But i have to think that there has to be some sort of deeper reason why someone attacks another because of their real or perceived sexual orientation. It’s not (or is it?) like a bank robber robs a bank because that’s where the money is. There seems to be no payoff for beating up a gay person…unless it helps you deal with or forget about or prove something.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
@No. 10 · V
@dontblamemeivotedforhillary:
“New Yorkers don’t give a fuck about each other unless their house is gonna burn down.” = Hi! I make really stupid generalizations!
“The NYCHA Hoods fled with nothing and the neighborhood is totally gentrified now so I had the last laugh,” = I am a racist!
RESPONSE: I learnt to scream “Fire!” from an abduction specialist but I just put my own slant on it – New Yorkers are, by large, pretty selfish about leaving the safety of their own home to come to the aid of someone else, especially gays! I never said what race the NYCHA attackers were, but their behavior was criminal (but let’s make me the victim!) I learnt while filing a police report that there was a neighborhood crime-wave coming from these individuals who hung out in front of the last bodega left in this now flourishing neighborhood of multi-ethnicities, flower-beds with some of the best restaurants in Brooklyn now and very gay friendly.
I really want to address the homophobia which is perpetrated by NYCHA tenants and their housing policies. lgbts are not prioritized in Public Housing, especially those with HIV/AIDS because “Families” are the priority yet our population is one of the most discriminated groups in housing with no Federal Protections like with other groups, especially our Elderly, the Stonewall generation. Victims of domestic violence and women referred by the Administration for Children’s Services are the priorities but a recent scam revealed that this was often a ruse in which a shocking amount of women would accuse their boyfriend or husband of Domestic abuse yet later take them in as planned, often running a gang-driven drug-peddling business, out in the open like other neighborhoods in the Crack 1980s. NYCHA wastes money with unsold properties and lands, enough empty apartments to actually help solve the housing crisis, no cameras in high-crime areas in many cases, tenants who sublet or supplement their income illegally, young men who prowl the neighborhood for mugging targets (often the elderly, lgbts and specifically, the Asian-American population) While some developments are better than others and most people are reasonable, law-abiding citizens or permanent residents, we have to acknowledge openly what is the problem with this system that has been broken for a very long time and requires a mixed-income solution for stabilization.
My physically disabled, gay, Hiv-positive, African-American best friend applied for Public Housing (as yet another gay victim of his slumlord, other tenants and even the Caseworker who steals some of his income) yet the rather rotund dread-locked woman, actually eating at the NYCHA applications counter laughed at him and retorted: “You ain’t gonna get housing!”
He not only knows what it is to be black but also being gay and disabled! I don’t thank you, V for defending my best friend’s oppressors: a broken, corrupt system that rewards anyone but the Gays, especially the Thugs that run Public Housing that often terrorize women, the elderly, children and lgbts!
@No. 16 · Hyhybt
@dontblamemeivotedforhillary: I would think not twice, but three or four times before shouting “fire!” while someone is pointing a gun at me.
RESPONSE: I never said that the perpetrators had guns or what their race was but it was later identified that they were from the nearby Public Housing development. if they had guns, I would courteously hand over my wallet, knowing that I was smart enough to photocopy the entire contents of my documentation while humanizing myself to these criminals. I also yelled to my unhelpful housemate to call the police as well as “Fire!” My housemate later had a trauma-related breakdown and moved to L.A. – Actors!
But, hey V, it’s gay people’s fault that we get attacked, right?
Homophobia is homophobia – no matter anyone’s race! Get over your racism!
ChrisM
I agree with you, Truth B. Told. I am sick of the first comment on every article about gay-bashing or gay-hating saying “Offender must be gay!!!” It is the most self-loathing statement you can make.
Most homophobes are NOT gay, because most humans in general are not gay. People like James are naive to think that anybody who hates or hurts a gay person is doing it because they are conflicted over their own sexual orientation. You’re right – there probably is some deeper reason for their violent actions. But why do you jump to them being gay? I would think them being abused as children, being exposed to extreme prejudice as they were growing up, or things more based in violence would be much more obvious reasons for the actions of scum like this.
If you don’t truly believe they are gay, but are saying it because you know they would hate to hear it, then you’re even dumber for promoting their mindset.
Jaroslaw
I don’t understand #15. I don’t recall hearing guys who attack homos are closet cases, ever. I do recall hearing they are ball-less coward breeders who have to prove something as you say.
And I sure don’t see it here on this post or in the video clip.
Speaking of which, if convicted of the hate crime, those guys get FIVE YEARS in jail. Yipeee!
Jaroslaw
#14 throw him a fund raiser. If you sue and the defendants have no money, it is a hollow victory to win damages.
Arkano18
David Hauff is a f**in hero!
And he’s cute too.