Two men arrested for attacking another guy in the bathroom of the Stonewall Inn in NYC’s Greenwich Village shouldn’t be punished for punching and kicking the guy to the ground (though that too), but for utter stupidity: They asked the victim, who was standing at a urinal in the bathroom, whether he was gay. Appropriately, the man responded, “This is the Stonewall, it’s a gay bar.” (The men responded: “We don’t like gay bars, and we don’t piss next to faggots.”) After a fight that ended up in the main bar area, suspects Matthew Francis, 21, and Christopher Orlando, 17, fled — with the vic’s boyfriend and bar chasing after them. The assault comes after Friday night’s assault on two men attacked while kissing in Chelsea. Suspect Andrew Jackson is among those accused of throwing garbage cans at them and screaming lines like “Go home faggots, this is our neighborhood.” (No, it is not.)
idiot attackers
Who Asks A Guy If He’s Gay at The Stonewall Inn’s Bathroom? These 2 Gay Bashers
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hephaestion
“the vic’s boyfriend”???
Queerty, what the hell is a “vic”??
alan brickman
why were they there then? so stupid..please prosecute to the fullest extent of the law….
Skyler
@hephaestion: A victim, obviously. Have you never watched TV? Jesus.
Comixbear
I’ve never been to the Stonewall Inn so I don’t know if it is a bar or not (although the victim referred to it as one), but if it IS a bar, then what the heck was a 17 year old doing in there anyway?
SoloZach
WOW. I was just there Saturday night. There was some guy that was betting tourists outside that he could get kicked out in less than a minute and he did. But I didn’t see this. I left for dinner around 9. Too bad, I was having a great conversation with my fiance and Tree (a bartender there since the riots).
southpaugh
hephaestion: “Vic” as in victim. Don’t you watch Law & Order? Jeeze, you gotta stay in more!
John
Just once I’d like to see the story end like this. “The victims shot the attacker, who died slowly and painfully in the street.”
ewe
Wow, i am in a conundrum. Their behavior is no different than someone taking an ax to a cross on a christian altar. UNBELIEVABLE. They must be crucified (so to speak). Rude and disgraceful only begins to define their stupidity. By the way, i think Jesus himself would walk right into many supposed christian establishments, take that cross down off whatever perch it is on and walk right out of the place swearing at the top of his fukcing lungs at all those money changers and judgemental imbeciles. AND the village is not the village because of straight people with white collar jobs and baby strollers. Never was and never will be. If gay people left, that area would turn into Gramercy Park at best.
CaliberGuy
What kind of idiot other then one that has the intention of starting a fight and harming some one gose into a gay bar when they don’t like gays let alone move into a gay nigborhod when they hate them! These idiots should have the book and then some thrown at them!
scott ny'er
@Comixbear: It’s a bar.
AdonisOfFire
Don’t gay bars have security?
ewe
@AdonisOfFire: No it’s not a dance club with hundreds of people.
ewe
Someone should buy that bartender a dozen roses. He is a hero.
TruthTeller
Really heterosexual men, even if they’re not gay-friendly (or even if they make fun of gays) just don’t care enough to ever go through the trouble of seeking out physical assaults like that. These two guys definitely have a closet-queer-thing going on in their heads.
TruthTeller
Ewe : Actually, the Village IS now the land of straight white-collar jobbers and baby strollers. It was so much cooler when I was a kid and the Village was “artsy and bizarre”, but things change.
JD
@Comixbear: You don’t know if the “Stonewall Inn” is a bar? Not only is it a bar, it is probably the most famous gay bar in the world (even if it in no way resembles the place that stood there during the third week of June in 1969).
Kev C
@Comixbear: Bars can’t serve alcohol to minors, but as public businesses, can’t discriminate against anyone coming in to use the bathroom or phone.
Matthew Francis is 21. Chris Orlando is 17, but looks older than Matt. Both of these cretins are from Staten Island and came to the village to shake down gays. Matt has a criminal record and was carrying a knife.
TruthTeller
A criminal record? That figures. Gay bashers virtually ALWAYS already have a prior arrest record. Criminals to begin with.
scott ny'er
This has made news here. I’m hearing it on the radio news (non-stop, and that doesn’t usual happen), and it made the newspaper stories. The perps have an interesting defense. One of the perps has a lesbian sister. Each perp claims they were the one breaking up the fight with the victim. Hmmmm. Now, which is lying. Plus, their past criminal records doesn’t help their case. And the big question, Why are heteros going into a famous gay bar?
It took me forever to try and enter a gay bar. Plus this bar is on a street of THREE gay bars It is a gay area. And the rainbow flags are present.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/05/2010-10-05_i_still_love_new_york_victim_of_brutal_gay_bashing_benjamin_carver_reveals_in_fa.html
From the Daily News:
========
Francis’ Legal Aid lawyer Angel Soto countered that the incident was nothing more than a bar fight.
“Mr. Francis was not the aggressor, nor did he try to rob anyone,” Soto said in court. “There may have been a fight, but it certainly wasn’t a hate crime.”
Francis’ lesbian sister, Deana Francis, 28, defended him as a friends of gays, saying he would never harm anyone because of their sexual orientation. She told The Daily News he must have been defending himself.
“If anybody ever gave me s–t about being gay, he would totally back me up 100%,” Deana Francis said.
She said her brother hangs out with her gay friends all the time.
“If he needs me to come down there to represent for him, I have lots of people who would support him,” she said.
Francis’ girlfriend, Nancy Casabona, 27, insisted he was just trying to break up a fight between Orlando and the victim.
“It was not a hate crime,” said Casabona, also of Staten Island.
She said she spoke to Francis by phone yesterday.
“He’s extremely apologetic and sorry,” she said.
Orlando’s lawyer John Rapawy countered that the teen was trying to break up the fight between Francis and Carver.
“The facts show this was a fight, not a hate crime. The other defendant punched him [Carver] in the face and demanded money,” Rapawy said.
A friend of Orlando also vouched for him, saying the charges against him are “very out of the ordinary.”
“He’s a good kid, goes to school, works for his father,” said the friend, who asked not to be identified.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/05/2010-10-05_i_still_love_new_york_victim_of_brutal_gay_bashing_benjamin_carver_reveals_in_fa.html?page=1#ixzz11UFquZCg
jon
@John: and this is why im a queer who packs heat
erik
Drunk hustlers. Of course they know it’s a gay bar, probably drinking in the horrible little rundown park across the street, they go in to pee… etc. Drama and hustlers. LOL — I realize this is going to be taken with the UTMOST seriousness, but if you’ve ever lived in the Village…. oh never mind. It’s all so ridiculous.
TruthTeller
That sounds pretty accurate to me, Erik. I apologize for speaking too soon on this case up above. (I’m always criticizing others for doing that).
JonJon
@ewe: I would say this attack is quite different than taking an axe to a cross. First off, when someone is gay bashed, you have an actual victim who is bruised and almost always suffers extreme stress due to the crime. However, when a cross is damaged or vandalized, no one person is bruised and battered in the crime. Secondly, there are the secondary stresses of the incident in a gay-bashing. Namely, dealing with a usually ambivalent and often malevolent police force, not to mention questioning ones own self as to if they may have caused the crime. This is of course completely not the case, but it crosses more victim’s minds than many would guess. If a cross were vandalized, I’m certain the police department would be on the case and outcries of protest would ring through any city in the country.