Two recent anti-LGBTQ attacks on Latinx queer people in Dallas, Texas and Denver, Colorado have horrified their respective communities. Here’s what happened in each incident:
Oscar Rodriguez, the karaoke host in the front bar of Dallas’ Round-Up Saloon, left work around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 14. By the time he got home at 6 a.m., he stumbled in the door complaining of a headache.
When his roommate took a closer look, he realized that Rodriguez had been injured and took him to the local emergency room. There, doctors determined that he’d suffered a jaw broken in two places and a skull fracture at the back of the head. He had a cranial hemorrhage, is now unable to move part of his face and has undergone surgery to repair his jaw and install metal plates in his skull.
Rodriguez couldn’t remember anything about what happened, only that he had been at an apartment complex near a local highway. Though police are still investigating, a GoFundMe page has raised $6,720 of $50,000 to help cover his medical expenses.
Meanwhile in Denver, around 1:20 a.m. on Sunday, April 28, trans woman Amber Nicole had her face and jaw broken in several places after leaving a lower downtown bar with her friends.
Video footage taken that night show Nicole trying to get a ride home, returning to the bar and then later crawling into a car covered in blood. Upon seeing Nicole’s distressed state, Nicole’s friend drove her to the hospital. Nicole suffered nerve damage on the right side of her face, leaving it partially paralyzed — doctors don’t know if it’s permanent.
Related: Man caught on tape shouting antigay slurs, punching gay couple won’t be charged with hate crime
With tears in her eyes, Nicole recently told the local CBS affiliate, “There’s so many people who can see an incident and stop it or do something about, or make a report about it, but nobody does and I don’t understand why. It feels like it’s because I’m different.” It’s unclear how much Nicole remembers about her attackers.
A GoFundMe page for Nicole has so far raised $4,040 of its $13,000 goal.
In both cases, police are still searching for clues and suspects.
National statistics suggest that hate crimes against LGBTQ people have been increasing since 2016. Vanessa Panfil, a professor of criminal justice, told BuzzFeed News that violence against LGBTQ people might be connected to the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ policies and rhetoric.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
More “good Christians” acts….
iamru2
Hu? What does being Christian have to do with criminals attacking people?
fur_hunter
To iamru2……..Have you been living under a rock for the past several years? It’s members of this Xtrian Right that have been committing these atrocities. Get it? And where did they get their HATE? By listening to their ‘holier than thou’ Xtrian ministers like Tony Perkins, Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Pat Robertson, preaching HATE from their pulpits. Yeah. Get it now? THAT’s how ‘being Christian’ has to do with it. Get it? DAMN! You must be dumber than a post.
fur_hunter
To Plays Well With Others………Thank you. You hit the nail right on the head.
iamru2
Hope they get better! At this point we don’t know if they were hate crimes though.
IWantAFullBeard
With tears in her eyes, Nicole recently told the local CBS affiliate, “There’s so many people who can see an incident and stop it or do something about, or make a report about it, but nobody does and I don’t understand why. It feels like it’s because I’m different.” It’s unclear how much Nicole remembers about her attackers.
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I would stop and help. I’m sorry my beautiful city has failed you.
fur_hunter
Thugs scope out gay bars and gay hangouts in order to do these kinds of things. All they need is someone leaving one of these locations alone with no witnesses nearby. Hate crimes are done by ignorant, intolerant and bigoted people who listen to the likes of ministers who use a book written over 1500 years ago by men as their reference. Yeah. Men wrote it. God had NOTHING to do with it. There are so many errors and mistakes in it that if God actually had anything to do with it, God is a MORON. I want to know how many of those ministers who preach HATE, would go to a doctor who uses a medical book written over 1500 years ago to treat his patients. HYPOCRITES….ALL OF THEM!!!!
Mikey E
1. There’s no evidence that the gay victim calls himself “queer” and statistically, there is a 99% chance that he does not. Queerty is using the same slur that the bashers use, without his consent. Shameful
2. There is no evidence that the incident with the transgender was anti-trans, as opposed to ordinary street crime.
CurtisIsTheOne
Um. Just where are you pulling that 99% chance that the victim does NOT call himself “queer” from? I’m guessing it’s out of thin air. And, yes, there’s no evidence YET that the incident with the trans person was anti-trans, but your dismissal of that possibility seems to me suspect.
Kangol2
This site is called “Queerty,” so if you have an issue with the term “queer,” which is widely accepted among LGBTQ in 2019, then why are you on here?
The trans woman was not beaten on the “street,” but in a bar. To quote: “Video footage taken that night show Nicole trying to get a ride home, returning to the bar and then later crawling into a car covered in blood.” (Italics emphasis mine.) She basically says she was attacked because she was different, i.e., TRANS. Can you even read?
Please take your homophobic and transphobic trolling somewhere else.
Tombear
Gay men are not victims! Don’t let yourself be a victim. The husband and I have concealed and carry permits. I wish more gay men would arm themselves!
fur_hunter
Tom…..You are so correct. But I also believe that if you own a gun, you really need to go to an instructor and learn how to use it properly. Like driving a car, you can’t do it till you get your driver’s license. GRIN! Yeah! Take care and be safe…….Thornton
Kangol2
I hope the catch each of the attackers in these cases. Not sure about Dallas and Denver, but many cities have extensive camera networks these days, making it much easier to catch criminals than in the past. If the cities do have video, they probably can pull the plates for whatever car the first victim got into, and figure out who attacked the young woman.
djmcgamester
I’d say, yes, the attack was motivated regarding sexuality. Anti-trans? Looking at that picture above, I’d think she was simply a beautiful woman – but a lesbian. Something I assume the attackers would also have thought.
@fur_hunter: Agreed. Guns, and proper training to use them, would make criminals think twice. Sure, it means they might also have a gun, but criminals were never stopped from having them because the law forbade it.
Vince
Yes. If the news stories came out about thugs getting shot up for mistaking their victims as easy prey it would end over night.
GayEGO
Those nasty homophobic guys, shame on them. I met a guy at a bar in Dallas back in 1966 and he took me to his hotel room. So we have been around for years!
scotty
i had hoped that by now, we would be past this as a society.