Tag: LGBT violence

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President Of Chechnya Tells REAL SPORTS Gays Should Be Removed To “Purify The Blood” Of Chechen People

HBO’s Real Sports is the first western outlet to score an interview with Ramzan Kadyrov, the Head of the Chechen Republic, who is one of Putin’s strongest allies.

Real Sports procured the interview in part because it is doing a piece on MMA in Chechnya.

At one point during the interview, Kadyrov says that if there are any gay people in Chechnya they should be removed in order to purify the blood of the Chechen people.

Oh – and then there’s the part where Kadyrov says “we will put the world on its knees and screw it from behind.”

He seems nice, huh?

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News Round-Up: July 7, 2017

Some news items you may have missed:

• When Brock O’Hurn (above) talks about a “late night workout,” but then pulls out dumbbells for some reason… #NotThatKindOfWorkout

• The World Health Organization says Gonorrhea is becoming tougher, and in some cases impossible, to treat.

• A Connecticut man, kicked and beaten by three attackers in New Haven, was ignored by several passersby as he lay bleeding after the hate crime.

• Donald Trump gets moved to the end of the line at G20 summit “family photo.”

• Another host at Fox – Charles Payne – has had sexual harassment charges leveled at him. This time from Trump super-supporter Scottie Nell Hughes.

• A moment of shared experiences as a 78 year-old gay man sits down to chat with a 13 year-old gay boy about what’s it’s like for each of them to be gay. The video was released ahead of the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in England and Wales. Watch below.

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Chechnya Resumes Rounding Up/Torture Of Gay Men

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov

Buzzfeed News is reporting that the rounding up and torture of gay men in Chechnya has resumed according to LGBT activist group, Russia LGBT Network.

The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta first reported that around 100 people had been kidnapped in the crackdown in April, but Russian activists reported that sources in the region said the detentions had stopped following an international outcry.

Igor Kochetkov of the Russia LGBT Network, which is working to evacuate people targeted in the purge from the region, now tells BuzzFeed News the organization has gotten around 10 calls reporting new detentions since Ramadan ended on June 24.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has not only denied that the torture has taken place, he says that gays don’t even exist in his country.

No word as to whether or not President Trump brought up the issue to Russian President Putin during their meeting today at the G20 summit.

The White House has not addressed the issue since the first reports began in April.

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News Round-Up: May 12, 2017

Lony Pizarro via Instagram

Some news items you might have missed:

• Fitness model/trainer Lony Pizarro (above): face, body, boom! #WhereTheHellIsMyGymCard?

• ABC sitcom The Real O’Neals has been cancelled due to low ratings. The show, inspired by the the early life of gay activist Dan Savage, was one of the few TV series to have an out actor (Noah Galvin) play an LGBT role on network television.

• White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she’s not “100% sure” if President Trump has been briefed on the torture and killing of gay men in Chechnya.

• Thanks to advancements in antiretroviral therapy (ART), young people with HIV who began treatment within the last ten years have a life expectancy of 78 years, almost the same as the average life expectancy for all Americans.

• Caitlyn Jenner told the BBC she may run for Congress. As a Republican. Because the GOP loves to support the transgender community so much.

• New York based Crush Club want you to get “LOUDER” as you dance into the weekend. The duo drops the funky new single just in time for their show May 18th at Brooklyn’s House of Yes. Listen below.

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Dallas: Gay Man Beaten With Pipe By Two Masked Men

This past Saturday night, Dallas resident Derek Whitener was attacked by two masked men as he was leaving a Target store. According to reports, the two men hit Whitener over the head with a pipe, fracturing his skull.

As a result of his injuries, Whitener has undergone brain surgery and continues to be treated in an intensive care unit.

More from the GoFundMe campaign set up to assist with his medical bills:

On Saturday, January 14th, Derek Whitener finished acting and singing in a show at the Firehouse Theatre in Dallas, Texas.

After the show he stopped by Target on his way home to buy groceries. On his way out of Target he was brutally attacked by 2 masked men in the parking lot.

We don’t know who they were or what their motive was at this point. All we know is they beat my friend so badly, that on January 15th he was rushed into surgery to stop the bleeding on his brain.

Before his surgery he was having difficulty forming words – a horrifying thing for someone as smart and quick-witted as Derek. They believe the surgery was a success but won’t sure until the swelling subsides.

He is currently in the ICU, and the overall the recovery will be at least 6-8 weeks. He will be unable to work that entire time.

We’ve set up this GoFundMe to help offset the cost of medical bills and loss of income.

Derek is one of the most creative, passionate, and unique individuals I have ever met in my life. He just accepted a position as the artistic director of the Firehouse Theatre, a community theatre in Dallas. The level of outreach he has done through his artistic endeavors (singing, acting, costuming, etc.) has touched the lives of counless individuals. I know he has inspired me to be a better artist since the day I met him over ten years ago.

Clearly Whitener has a long road ahead of him in terms of recovery and expensive hospital bills.

Anyone who would like to make a donation, no matter how small, can do so via the GoFundMe campaign here.

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Georgia Man Sentenced To 40 Years In Prison For Pouring Boiling Water On Sleeping Gay Men

Anthony Gooden

A Georgia man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for his vicious attack pouring boiling water on two gay men as they slept.

From ABC News:

Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes before finding Martin Blackwell, 48, guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault in the February attack on Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk said the evidence was overwhelming and that Blackwell had behaved in a soulless and malicious way. He noted that it “takes a long time” for a pot of water to boil.

“You had so many outs where the voice of reason could have taken over,” the judge told Blackwell, who had faced up to 80 years in prison.

Prosecutors said it was a vicious, premeditated attack. Tolbert testified that after pouring hot water on them, Blackwell grabbed him as he jumped and screamed in pain and told him: “Get out of my house with all that gay.”

Blackwell’s attorney, Monique Walker, attempted to downplay the outright homophobia telling the jury, “It’s not about hate. It’s about old-school culture, old-school thinking.”

As the prosecutor pointed out, it took time to find the biggest pot in the house, fill it, and boil that water. That was a lot of time to think hard about what you were about to do, Mr. Blackwell.

The victims spent weeks in the hospital due to severe burns, undergoing many surgeries and skin grafts.

Left unable to perform many daily tasks, a GoFundMe campaign has raised over $70,000 to help with medical bills and recovery.

I previously wrote about the attack in March of this year when it happened. More details here.

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Virginia Man Severely Beaten In Vicious Anti-Gay Attack

Hideous anti-gay attack over the holiday left a Virginia hairstylist severely injured and unable to work.

Robert Drew Inge claims he’s the victim of a hate crime after he was brutally beaten inside his own home on Christmas night.

“I was thrown into my bathtub, and stomped in the face and jaw over and over while being called a ‘fa**ot,’” Inge wrote on Facebook.

He said the attacker, a man he barely knew, tackled him from behind and “slammed my fingers on my right hand into the door, breaking them and ripping them open.”

“I was attacked, beaten, held against my will, stabbed in the face with a metal object and am now recovering,” Inge added on Instagram.

Inge works as a hairdresser. As a result of the incident, he says he will likely be out of work for weeks.

“I won’t be able to work as one of the injuries I sustained was my fingers I use to cut hair being crushed,” he wrote. “I don’t know the extent of damage done to my fingers but I will be back to do hair in a few weeks hopefully, and I won’t let anything stop me.”

He also said he will need “dental work to have teeth that were stomped out of my face fixed.”

Inge adds that his attacker has been arrested.

Unable to work, his friends urged him to launch a crowd-sourcing campaign to help raise funds for his medical bills. In an update on the campaign page, Inge says several teeth will need root canals or be permanently removed.

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Jury In Kathryn Knott Trial “Disgusted” Over Knott’s Testimony

After the jury was dismissed in the trial of Kathryn Knott in Philadelphia today, three jurors spoke to the press, saying the entire jury believed Knott not only punched the victims but yelled anti-gay slurs in the violent gay-bashing that took place on September 11, 2014.

From Philly.com:

Joan Bellinger, 67, the jury forewoman, said the jurors all believed Knott punched Hesse and yelled antigay slurs.

But she said jurors had to compromise on certain things.

Another juror, Aristeo Duenas, 33, of Brewerytown, said: “The conspiracy was what was tripping us up.”

He and juror Gina Cook, 36, of Roxborough, said jurors had to examine what the law said on the various charges Knott faced.

“If the decisions went the way that I wanted them to go, she would have been guilty on everything, but when you read the actual law,” and apply it to what happened, it can be different, said Duenas, a public-school teacher.

Tweets that Knott posted on her Twitter account in 2012 and 2013 became part of the trial, with prosecutors contending they showed Knott did not like gay people.

In one tweet, after Knott saw two men kissing in a bar, she wrote “#gay #ew.”

Knott testified in the trial. She said her tweets were not meant to be offensive and were taken out of context.

She also testified she did not punch anyone or yell any antigay slurs on the night of the assault.

Asked about her tweets, Duenas said: “We were pretty disgusted. It was pretty embarrassing to watch her testify. She was trying to explain away these tweets. … She would have become a better character to me if she would have been like, ‘You know what, I messed up. I said those things. It was stupid.’ “

Cook said: “I think it’s so easy for the word ‘gay’ to be thrown around, and it’s dehumanizing. For some people it’s just a way of explaining something lesser.

“It’s just horrific. To watch her explain this hate speech, in my eyes, it’s saddening, and I hope that whatever sentence she receives that she will have time to think about how hurtful words are and that, to me, it’s, in the law, it’s promoting and it’s inciting.”

Knott heads back to court on Feb. 8 for sentencing.

Her co-conspirators – Kevin Harrigan and Philip Williams – plead guilty earlier this year and received probation and community service.

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Kathryn Knott Found Guilty Of Assault In Violent Gay-Bashing

Kathryn Knott has been found guilty of assault in the violent gay-bashing that occurred last year in Philadelphia which left two men bloody, one of whom had his broken jaw wired shut for months.

The jury found Knott guilty of simple assault, two counts of reckless endangerment, and conspiracy. She had been offered a plea deal but chose to go to trial.

From Philly.com:

A Philadelphia jury Friday found Kathryn Knott guilty of simple assault and conspiracy but acquitted her of a more serious count of aggravated assault an attack on a gay couple in Center City last year.

Knott, 25, bit her lips when the jury forewoman announced the guilty verdicts.

The panel convicted her of simple assault against one victim and conspiracy.

Kathryn Knott, 25, of Southampton, Bucks County, was accused of punching one of the gay men and yelling anti-gay slurs. The defense contended she did not hit anyone or yell anything derogatory.

The jury took less than three days to deliberate.

Her two co-conspirators plead guilty months ago.

Reporter Dan McQuade has been following the case closely.

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Phillipines: U.S. Marine Found Guilty In Strangling Death Of Transgender Woman

A U.S. Marine has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to prison for up to 12 years for the strangling death of a transgender woman in the Phillipines last year.

From CNN:

The court in Olongapo, a city 77 miles (124 km) northwest of Manila, sentenced Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton to up to 12 years in prison, according to CNN Philippines’ Ina Andolong, who was at the hearing Tuesday.

The naked body of Jeffrey Laude, also known as Jennifer, was found with her head in a toilet in an Olongapo hotel room shortly after midnight on October 12, 2014, police said.

Witnesses told police that Pemberton was with Laude at a local disco before the two checked into a hotel on the night of October 11, according to documents seen by CNN.

Pemberton told police in October that he’d choked Laude, but then tried to revive her. He said he had become angry with Laude upon discovering she had male genitalia, according to police.

Lance Corporal Pemberton is nineteen years old.

(h/t JMG)