Will Suzanne Deanna Grover Face Hate Crimes Charges Over Lindsay Harmon’s Stabbing?

Lindsay Harmon, a lesbian woman of Buffalo, had a terrible New Year’s Eve. Her face, eye, and arm were slashed with a knife that night, allegedly by Suzanne Deanna Grover, who reportedly screamed gay slurs at Lindsay outside a nightclub. Grover then allegedly ran off with the four men she was with. The suspect, now in jail, faced a judge this week at a preliminary hearing — which Harmon attended, intent on facing her alleged assailant — before a grand jury will decide whether to attach hate crime charges.

Notes local columnist Donn Esmonde: “I am glad that District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III decided to prosecute the case this way. If Harmon was attacked because she is a lesbian, it is an assault not just on one person, but on a way of life. That is why the story was front-page news, and not just another gruesome but fairly common attack. Aside from anything else, the hate crime charge sends a message: Being attacked simply because you are gay will not be condoned or ignored by society. This may not seem like much to most of us. But most of us cannot—in certain places and circumstances—be legally fired from a job, denied an apartment or not have a marriage acknowledged because of our sexual orientation.”