Salt Lake Responds to Hate Crime

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In the wake of an antigay hate crime in Salt Lake City, residents are banding together to show support for LGBT people in a variety of ways — and hoping to bring about arrests in the case.

Dane Hall, 20, was attacked by four men as he was walking home from a gay night at Club Sound early in the morning of August 27. He was beaten and kicked; his jaw was broken, several of his teeth were knocked out, and a piece of bone lodged in his brain. He says the assailants called him “fag” and other antigay slurs.

The Q Business Alliance, a group of local businesses run by LGBT people and straight alliances, has set up a fund to provide rewards for information leading to arrests of Hall’s attackers,QSalt Lake reports. “This rewards fund sends a message to perpetrators of hate-motivated crimes against our community that we have the money and resources to fight back, track down and prosecute those who would harm our brothers and sisters,” said Michael Sanders, Q Business Alliance membership director.

An interfaith candlelight prayer vigil is planned for Friday evening at Liberty Park, followed by a march through the city. It is sponsored by City of Hope, an LGBT-inclusive Salt Lake City church. “Our community was absolutely incensed by what happened” to Hall, copastor Marian Edmonds told The Salt Lake Tribune. The congregation, she said, “decided as a spiritual community what we can do is get together and pray and read poetry and be a witness to the fact that all people should be loved and accepted.” Other events scheduled this week in response to the crime include a theater benefit at Club Jam to raise funds to pay Hall’s medical expenses and a panel discussion hosted by the Women’s Democratic Club of Utah.

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/09/07/Salt_Lake_Responds_to_Hate_Crime/