Monday, July 23, 2012

Feel the Love - Lesbain Attacked in Home Invasion

The Christianists continue to produce a constant stream of anti-LGBT propaganda that ranges from depicting all of us a diseased, alcoholic drug users just waiting to prey on children to a threat to marriage and western civilization itself.  It's not surprising, therefore, when some unbalanced or particularly hate filled individuals decide to take matters into their own hands and attack those depicted as such a menace to society.  Based on initial stories coming out of Lincoln, Nebraska, this is what occurred in the early morning hours of yesterday morning.  Fortunately, the victim survived, although the psychological damaging will likely last forever.  To me, it's yet another example of the foul fruits of conservative Christians' feigned religiosity which relies on hatred of others for self-definition.  First highlights from the Journal Star:

Hundreds of people gathered with rainbow flags and candles outside the Capitol for a nighttime vigil sparked by a woman's account of a violent, hate-fueled attack that spread rapidly over the Internet on Sunday.

The woman said she was attacked early that morning by three masked men who barged into her house, bound her wrists and ankles with zip ties, cut her all over her body and carved homophobic slurs into her skin before dumping gasoline on her floor and lighting it with a match, said a friend who spoke to the Journal Star.

The friend said the woman crawled from her house, naked and bleeding and screaming for help before reaching the doorstep of a neighbor's home.

Police Chief Jim Peschong declined to comment further on the status of the investigation or its findings. No arrests had been made as of late Sunday.

The woman's account of the attack drew outrage from a gay and straight-allied community already galvanized by this month's Star City Pride Festival as well as debate over the city's so-called fairness amendment, a proposal to ban discrimination in housing and employment based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.


Then there's these further details from the Omaha World Herald:

The woman called police around 4 a.m. Sunday, saying men wearing black ski masks had broken into her home, according to Lincoln police.  She told police the men assaulted her — binding her hands and carving words into her skin with a knife — and then set fire to the house.

Davidsaver said the victim’s description of the suspects was limited because of the masks.

When police arrived, the house was still on fire, the captain said. He said it caused about $200 in damage.

Davidsaver would not say what words the men carved into the woman’s skin. “We need to maintain the integrity of the case,” he said.  But Erin Thompson of Lincoln, who described herself as the victim’s best friend, said she got a call from her friend about 6:30 Sunday morning. The friend asked Thompson to pick her up from the hospital.  “They carved on me,” Thompson said her friend tearfully told her.  Thompson said three epithets, including the word “dyke,” were carved on the woman’s arms and stomach.

Thompson said the victim is openly lesbian.

She read a statement on behalf of the victim, who thanked those attending the vigil, her neighbor for summoning help, the police and fire department for their quick response, and the paramedics, nurses and doctors who helped her at BryanLGH Medical Center West in Lincoln, as well as an advocate from Voices of Hope who sat with her.

Thompson said she and her friend “always get harassed here and there.” She said they have only suspicions about the possible identities of the assailants.
Events like this remind ever LGBT individual that there are those out in the world who literally hate us.  Worse yet, they are encouraged and justified in their hate literally daily from pulpits across the nation and from the broadcasts and propaganda of the professional Christian set.  It's disingenuous that the Christianists claim that they are being persecuted, yet they are never the victims of violence.   Instead, it's always those they spew hatred against that end up as the victims.

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