First, Atlanta authorities couldn’t get Brand White, the victim of a brutal gay bashing in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh neighborhood, to simply come forward. But now that White has come out and accused his attackers, questions about their motives have surfaced.
Sources now claim that the openly gay White knew his attackers and that they set upon him because he was threatening to out them as gay. Two of White’s three attackers have been arrested so far.
We wouldn’t be surprised if this revelation about White outing his attackers wasn’t dreamed up by their lawyers—a hate-crime conviction would add extra years to their sentence. But maybe it’s true that White knew his assailants and possibly even threatened to reveal their orientation.
Does that matter? Does that make what happened not a hate crime? Speak up in the comments section.
Kurtsa
No definitively still a heinous hate crime. They beat him up because of what he is and if it’s true about that than it still changes nothing as the action was done out of spit for the orientation. If they didn’t hate the orientation than the beating wouldn’t have occurred, simple as that.
Kev C
Everyone in Atlanta is on crack. That’s my theory.
so yeah.
@kev c, i don’t know if you’re trying to be funny or cute, but you’re just coming off as a tool.
KyleW
I think it would make a massive difference, because he was threatening to change their lives for the worse forever. If they were gay too, then they were not attacking him for his sexuality, but his planned actions, and that’s utterly different. It takes it from being a hate crime to something akin to self defence in my book.
Kev C
@so yeah.: No, I’m just saying Change Atlanta changed it’s position because they’re baseheads.
Hyhybt
@Kev C: And how many people in Atlanta do you know, to make such a declaration?
BrianZ
@KyleW: Wait, what? Self defense? That’s a nauseating statement on so many levels. So people knowing you are gay changes your life for the worse, forever eh? The threat of being outed justifies a 3 on 1 physical assualt?
I am hoping that you just really didn’t think your comment through before posting and that you really don’t believe it. Regardless, you should apologize.
Shanyia Narcisse
I don’t know if they’ve all crackheads but I DO KNOW THAT ALL THE BLACK MEN THERE ARE GAY!
Kev C
@Hyhybt: Atlanta has the highest usage of crack cocaine in the USA. 1 in 3 arrests have cocaine in their system. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/ondcp/policy-and-research/adam2010.pdf
Isaac C
@Kev C: So, blacks on crack?
Gay Criminal Justice Student
It absolutely changes things. A hate crime means that the action was motivated by prejudice. It was not. This was still a crime and should not have happened. However, these men aren’t hate mongers. They were idiots who handled a bad situation in the worst way possible. But a hate crime, this is not.
Justmytwocents
It is no longer a hate crime because thay were attacking him for blackmailing them with information they saw as embarrassing. If he was str8 and had that info he still proably gotten kumped and the homosexual community would not only NOT defend him but call him a gay basher for threatening to out someone. But violence is violence str8 or gay they shoulf not have jumped him. Their fear of being outed doesnt say much about them.but more about certain.societies being homophobic and reluctant to accept a gay man in.their community. You cant blame them for their choice to keep their sexuaity a secret, that is their choice. You CAN blame them for taking it to the extreme, and you can also put blame on this man for trying to.out them… If that is what he did… Because that young man at rutgers that killed himself was outed by his roommate… So it is ok for gay men to out ppl? And what would the gay community b saying if instead of turning to violence, that man outed them and they killed themselves?
Erin
@Gay Criminal Justice Student: Where’s the like button?! You are absolutely right. Coming out of the closet is a personal choice and outing someone is an atrocious thing to do. Assuming that’s what really happened, the attack was still stupid as hell seeing as how they are forcing themselves out of the closet to defend themselves, but still not a hate crime.
Jesecca K.
First of all, I think that the people that are asking questions are listening to rumers instead of the truth. This kid got attacked and beaten because he was gay. He got gay bashed and nothing about that is right even if he said something to the attackers, he was probably kidding. They didn’t need to beat the kid up like that. 4 to 1, that’s f-ing rediculous and no one even tried to help him or stop the fight till the end.
Kev C
@Jesecca K.: Yup, it’s a gay bashing. And Change Atlanta needs to be charged with obstruction. If this isn’t obstruction, I don’t know what is.
CBRad
I shouldn’t be surprised at anything anymore, but I’ll admit if this is the REAL reason behind that filmed attack I’m going to be more than surprised. For now I’m highly skeptical.
Hyhybt
@Kev C: …which is nowhere near the same as everyone in the city being on the stuff.
Brian
@Hyhybt stop trying to make this about race a$$hole! Funny how queerty attracts the worst people the gay community has to offer!
@Kev C, I agree, at the very least Change Atlanta is on crack!
People can say what they want to say behind the scenes to explain away their behavior but we watched a video of a scrawny guy get savaged by thugs twice his size all while shouting epithets like, “no fags”! Being gay does not preclude one from being capable of committing an anti-gay hate crime against other gays. Self-loathing closet cases do it all the time. Often after a sexual encounter with a self-identified straight person, “straight panic” ensues and many gays guys have gotten beaten or murdered because of it. Even if Brandon is a bitchy little queen, he did not deserve what happened to him!
Hyhybt
@Brian: I’ve said nothing about race. I can’t even see any way to twist anything I’ve said to make it *look like it might be* about race. How is pointing out that the entire population of Atlanta is *not* on crack “trying to make this about race?”
Paul EQuality Schappaugh
Let’s bottom line this incident :: Brandon White was the Victim of a vicious ambush attack on the streets of Atlanta and while the attack took place it was video taped while anti-Gay slurs were being lobbed at him. The perpetrators of this heinous act of aggression should be punished to the fullest extent of the Law.
It is unfortunate that here in Georgia we do not have a Hate Crime Statute and even more disturbing that some members of the LGBT community have muddied the water by portraying Brandon a Liar in the news media and going on the record appearing to speak for the entire LGBT Atlanta community by saying that “they” do not believe this rises to the level of a Hate Crime.
I hope the FBI stays engaged and I personally believe this does rise to the level of a Hate Crime and that the Shepard-Byrd Act should be brought to bear.
wtbranch
Some Bible Scriptures on Homosexual & Sexually Immoral Acts. Don’t HATE me; God said it!!
1. Leviticus 18:22
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
2. Leviticus 20:13
‘If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
3. Genesis 1:27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
4. Mark 10:6
But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.
5. Romans 1:26
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
6. Romans 13:12
13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
7. 1 Corinthians 6:9
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
8. 1 Corinthians 10:8
8We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.
9. 2Corinthians 12:21
21I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
10. Galatians 5:19
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
11. Ephesians 5:3 3But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
12. Colossians 3: 5-10
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
13. 1Thessalonians 4:3-8
3It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4that each of you should learn to control his own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
14. Jude 1:7
7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Trent
Hate crime- a crime done against someone because there is something you don’t like about them. That is the only reason.
If he was threatening to out them, well…
Darob26
@wtbranch: So we are all in the same boat. Sexual immorality includes sex before marriage. It is not for man to judge another man that is Gods job.
John 8:7
“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
50
@wtbranch: But it was a human who wrote it. It is not “God’s” word…it is the words of a human.
darob26
@50: True so all the scriptures you posted are irrelevant then?