If You Are Looking To Beat Up Some Queers, Welcome to Massachusetts. From Provincetown to Boston's South End to Gloucester It Appears That Hunting Season On Gays Is Now Open. But Who Ever Thought The Latest Gay Bashing Would Be In a Boston Municipal Court Room
A very dangerous precedent was set last week by Judge Thomas Horgan in Boston who handed down a two year suspended sentence to gay-basher Fabio Brandau, 29, for his brutal attack on a group of gay people last August in Boston's South End. Brandau and three other attackers left two men so badly beaten that they were sent to the hospital with major concussions. "Fucking faggots," were the words being used by Brandau continually throughout the assault. On May 27th Brandau pleaded guilty to nine criminal charges and four civil rights violations however, Judge Thomas Horgan felt that Brandau's realized penalties for this should only include paying the victim's medical bills, an order to stay out of the South End, an order to stay away from the victims, and a court sponsored "anger management" program. So much for those out there who believe hate crime legislation is a crock of shit, evidently in Judge Thomas Horgan's courtroom it is.
The Fenway Community Health Center's Violence Recovery Program's Emily Pitt, provides statistics that hate crimes increase during times of extreme anti-gay rhetoric such as one finds during the "dialogue" caused in legislative reviews of LGBT rights such as our fight for marriage equality and the media reporting. One wonders what sort of additive effect a stupid and reckless decision such as Judge Thomas Hogan's has on hate crimes here in Massachusetts. One can only summise that Judge Hogan has opened the door to alot more of the same.
Boston/South End Gay Bashing 2008/2009: BayWindows
Provincetown May 2009: Boston Herald
Gloucester April 2009: Boston Globe
Boston/South End Gay Bashing 2008: BayWindows via Edge
Provincetown Summer of Hate 2007: Cape Cod Times
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Tom Lang, Director KnowThyNeighbor.org
