Daniel D’Orsi, 22, is yet another victim of violent assault apparently motivated, in part, by the perpetrator’s hatred of people perceived to be gay.
According to Bay Windows, D’Orsi was robbed and attacked May 6 while the alleged perpetrator yelled anti-gay slurs. Police say the suspect may have tried to attack a woman in the same neighborhood about a week earlier — and therefore, police reason, the attack on D’Orsi was not a hate crime. Bay Windows does not indicate whether the woman might have been perceived to be lesbian.
Eleven days later, on May 15, three men assaulted a 23-year-old Sacramento gay man just hours after the California Supreme Court ruling on marriage rights for gay Californians.
According to the San Jose Mercury News:
A 23-year-old Sacramento man was sitting with another man in a car near the station’s restroom when the three suspects asked if he was a homosexual, Sacramento Police Officer Michelle Lazark said. The man said he was. When he got out of the car, the three men beat and kicked him, Lazark said. He did not require medical treatment. It was not immediately clear if the suspects were reacting to the court’s ruling, Lazark said. ‘It’s a gay-bashing. Gay slurs were used before they commenced to beating him,’ she said. ‘I don’t know if these guys were looking for someone or are just ignorant.’ … The victim of the Sacramento beating, who police would not name, identified his attackers, who were arrested near the gas station. Their cases are being reviewed by Sacramento County prosecutors, spokeswoman Tanisha Worthy said.”
How have ex-gays responded?
While refusing to acknowledge the ongoing wave of antigay violence, Exodus executive vice president repeated his claim May 16 that so-called hate crimes represent “freedom of conscience and religious liberty,” and that Exodus opposes laws that limit supposed speech — even, apparently, if that “speech” occurs (in Boston) in the form of a kick to the face, a broken cheekbone, and reconstructive surgery.
