Sunday, October 10, 2010

A Sad and Infuriating Bronx Tale

When I read the New York Times story about a group of men and boys who tortured and sodomized three men in the Bronx simply because they were gay, I was both horrified and pissed off.  If those reports prove to be correct, then those men were all chosen because they are gay.  They were tortured because they are gay.  At least one was sodomized with the handle of a plunger, and another with a baseball bat, because they were gay. 

Read the entire story, and pay attention to the lurid details of what happened to these men, simply because they were gay.

I am sure that for some, they will be groaning, because "Big Gay" will take on this issue and make demands, as they have, allegedly, with the recent suicides of young gay men.  Those groaning will have to suffer discussions about anti-gay bigotry and the like.  I am tired of this notion that simply telling what has happened has become tantamount to whining and claiming "victimhood."  Or perhaps this is what we should expect from straight soldiers should Don't Ask, Don't Tell gets repealed.  Perhaps they would be so bothered by the mere presence of the now able to be open gays in their midst, that the only logical thing to do would be to harass them, or worse.

Those three men were the victims of people who decided that because those men were gay they deserved to be beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted.  I wonder how many of them were raised being told how bad or evil gays are.  I wonder how many of them felt that gays were just too out there right now, and it made them uncomfortable just knowing that.  I hope those issues are raised as the community tries to "heal." 

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