HATE CRIME

Student Attacked By Group Of Men At Illinois State In Alleged Hate Crime

Eric Unger, an Illinois State University student walking home from a party at 2:30am Saturday morning, was attacked by a group of black men. Unger alleges it was a hate crime because the men were yelling anti-gay slurs at him.

Here’s what Unger says happened, according to the Chicago Sun-Times:

The 23-year-old from north suburban Deerfield, who is openly gay, said he asked the group, allegedly composed of five to eight African-American males, “what their problem was.”

Unger said they responded with anti-gay slurs and surrounded him. He said he pleaded that he “just wanted to go home,” but the men attacked him, still hurling anti-gay epithets.

“I don’t know why people like that go out to do that to people, to single someone out and attack them for no reason,” said the student, who called police after the alleged attack and was taken in an ambulance to Advocate BroMenn Medical Center in Normal.

He said he suffered scrapes and bruises around his face, broken teeth, and a fractured jaw. After being treated and released from the hospital, he drove home to Deerfield and saw a dentist Saturday, the student and his father Stu said.

Sounds pretty brutal. We wish Unger a speedy recovery.

Why do these hate-motivated attacks keep happening on college campuses, which are supposedly liberal environments? Perhaps school administrators need to do more with educating their students about the LGBT community. Most importantly, homophobes need to be dressed down by their straight peers when exhibiting anti-gay behavior. Only then will it get better.

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