Five Soldiers Charged In Gay Man's Beating

[BR_Parkway]

Yeah, we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here, uh huh

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/03/030706gaMilitary.htm
Five Soldiers Charged In Gay Man's Beating

Savannah, Georgia) Five soldiers have been charged in the severe beating of a gay man outside a Savannah gay club.

People looked on helpless Sunday as the soldiers beat David Bennett, 37 on the street in front of Blaine's Back Door Bar. The attackers left leaving Bennett barely conscious and lying in a pool of blood.

<snip>

According to the police incident report, one of the men, Sidney Swift, boasted: "Yes, I beat that mother-fucking faggot up."

The report said that other soldiers at the scene told Swift to be quiet because they were "one team, and it was one fight."

So, will it be Gay Panic Defense or that new one for military like the guy who got his rape sentence reduced because of the trauma he suffered over in Iraq (and the gov't couldn't care enough to provide treatment apparently)

Mug shots are at .html

[Catfight]

1. Every gay bar should have a gun to protect themselves from thugs

and degenerates like these inhuman self-haters. Guess they didn't have any defenseless prisoners to torture so now they're torturing defenseless men in the USA. What a great culture we have, hopefully they'll share a cell with Lynsey England. Four on one...what a bunch of cowards. Send them back to Iraq and keep them there.

[Skeptor]

5. Better still, a few thugs to protect themselves from angry gunners.

Can't Americans solve anything without guns? You don't think you have a "shoot first, think later" culture, and that might be one of your main problems? At least watch "Bowling for Columbine".

[Occulus]

9. That attitude will help you get "curbed"

That's a bad thing, by the way. I'm surprised these soldiers didn't do that to him.

Skeptor, one of the reasons we're feeling this way about gay bars having arms onsite is because there are people who will come in and start beating us up if that possibility is not there- just like what happened in this case.

If it had been me there, with a gun, at least one of these soldiers would have died. They're very lucky, really, because I'm neither ashamed nor afraid to defend someone with lethal force when they're getting beaten by FIVE TRAINED KILLERS.

If a draft happens, we BETTER be fucking EXEMPT.

[ThomCat]

15. As if.

We're only welcome as fodder. Never as people.

[sui generis]

20. if a draft happens they won't have to watch their backs

just in the showers. If it's a draft PLUS don't ask don't tell then they're in a bit of a pickle. I'd ask, I'd tell, and I'd dare the fuckers to do something about it.

I grew up in the military, and out. I learned very early that there are always people who think that just because you're gay they are chosen by society to beat you up to "teach you a lesson". They really believe that they are the angel of justice and that unprovoked violence is justified in their own little crazy heads.

I discovered I rather liked the exercise of bashing bashers, and the more the merrier. That's all it takes, is fighting back. It's not "gays" they despise. It's weakness. They'd be just as happy kicking puppies and beating wives, and probably do. They are scared of weakness, and society has been just marvelous about marginalizing gays and associating us with weakness and feminine traits (sorry ladies, their views not mine).

Once you beat the crap out of them they're usually okay with gays, oddly enough. Blame it on their parents, on society, on their genes, whatever.

What pisses me off is that nobody there jumped in, even if it was just to distract them. We are just as damn guilty of letting that guy get beat up as the soldiers who did it, considering there were many more of us than of them. We have to learn take care of ourselves and our own much better than this.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

2. "Support Our Troops"

How about a car magnet, "Putting on a fucking uniform doesn't give you virtue if you're a slimy bigoted rat to begin with."
Fuckers.

[xchrom]

3. soldiers beat a gay man!!! shock! awe!

that's why i don't like blanket statements like ''support our troops''.

whose ''our''?



:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[CottonBear]

4. If these men hate gays so much why were they at a gay club?

I'm from GA and I'm ashamed that this sort of thing has happened in Savannah. This is crazy. Do you think these men are repressed gays and that is why they hate gays so much?

[xchrom]

6. no, i don't think these are repressed gay men and i wish

people would stop saying that.

not every evil deed done to gay people is done by closet cases -- these are just evil straight men taking their hate out on another human being.

it's just that in this climate -- they feel it's permissable to hunt gay people.

[theHandpuppet]

7. Thank you!

I'm really sick and tired of every mean ass, hateful straight person who beats up/hates gay folks being labeled a closet homosexual. Straight folks need to take responsibility for the slimebag subculture among their own number.

[ThomCat]

16. Yes, that idea that all bashers are in the closet

is just a way of blaming gay people for violence against gay people.

If the attackers are in the closet they they aren't straight, so straight people can't be held responsible.
:grr:

[Rowdyboy]

21. Amen! Yes, there are certainly self -hating closeted homophobes....

A few. But most of the HATING and KICKING and HURTING and MAIMING is done by straight assholes.

Thank you for mentioning that. Often, it tends to get forgotten

[CottonBear]

10. I didn't mean to upset you. Sorry. I was just asking.

It is also my opinion that they are simply very bad people with evil personalities.

What an awful thing to do to that poor man. :cry: I hope he recovers. :(

[cboy4]

12. It wouldn't surprise me in the least bit that these attackers are

right wing fundamental christian nuts (which, of course, is redundant)

[Occulus]

17. I think it may- MAY- be more subtle than that, though

Think about this: these are people who are trained to NOT think about doing "what they're told", but who just... do it. Were I to ask about their lives prior to joining the military, I bet I'd discover that these are the sorts who obey Authority without question. Certainly, at this point in their lives, they have some of that attitude. It just comes with the territory they're in, as Marines.

NOW- apply that to their own feelings about their own sexuality. These may well be men who "act like men" simply because that's how they've been told to act. They've never given thought to their own sexuality because their sexuality is "supposed" to be thus-and-so; therefore, the thought of a man with another man sexually "opens an option", so to speak, that they've never considered.

If this were even to invoke a visual image of themselves and some other guy, it may well make them angry enough to act out, or it may awaken thoughts in their minds that they've never thought before. For them, this would very likely be extremely frightening territory but, being men (and keeping in mind they have their own self-image of what men are "supposed" to be), they've never given it any thought in the first place, and so simply cannot deal with it rationally. They quite literally short-circuit, and break down.

I'm not trying to justify this; I'm only attempting to provide a rational reason for the 'how' of these sorts of acts.

It may well be that they just hate gay men- but, again, this traces back to their own images of what men are "supposed to be", which point to their not being able to deal with any other option. "It's not an 'option' for anyone," and so, the hate and violence.

Just my $.02. Hope I made sense in all that...

[soldier101]

8. There is no justification for this.

:-( ;(

[xchrom]

11. well, in spite of this -- let me say welcome!

always good to see a new duer!

[Rowdyboy]

22. I've been away the last day or so helping my partner with his mom's estate

Yours is the very first DU Journal I ever clicked on and I will be back. What a neat feature. Maybe I'll have mine up in a few days....

[Obamarama]

13. Just look at the mugshots of those goons....

They all look like they're a couple bricks short of a load. Big, stupid bubbas, ever last one of them, with out a fucking brain between them. This is what happens when the military lowers its standards to attract all the low-hanging fruit for cannon fodder. I say ship their big, tough asses to Iraq and drop them in the middle of Fallujah and let the insurgents have their way with THEM. And while they're at it, they can take Ann Coulter with them. I know she is completely irrelevant to this discussion but now I have found five people I despise eqaully as much I despise Coulter.

[sui generis]

14. yeah well, if the guy they bloodied had HIV they're all in for a surprise

In this day and age it's just utter profound stupidity to draw blood from anyone in a fight, ever.

Maybe they shoulda thought of that too.

Personally, after 25 years of freestyle kickboxing (the real thing) I desperately wish they had picked on me. I have scabs on my knuckles right now from open hand sparring this morning - I sure would have enjoyed a little extra workout, plus dragging the fuckers to the police station by their heels, and I would have made sure they didn't lose consciousness.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jonolover]

19. Is the case going to military court or civilian court?

Probably the former and they'll get out with a slap on the wrist. Ugh!