What do you call it when a quasi-out gay employee in an agency has his tires slashed, large graphics of him and his lover having sex drawn on a bathroom wall (with gay slurs and names attached), urine put in his drink and other continuous harassment? I call it a gay hate crime. If just one of those actions was done solely because the victim was gay, it’s still a hate crime.
What do you call it when a newspaper (Philadelphia Weekly) publishes the story and includes the names of the alleged victims, which further victimizes them? News organizations usually don’t publish the names of rape or hate-crime victims without their permission to shield them from further actions from the perpetrator(s) — or further victimization from the public attention. And to boot, the story comes out against the investigation into the hate crime?
I’d call that, and the writer, homophobic. Every hate crime should be investigated. If you belittle hate crimes perpetrated on gays, that is homophobia.
This alleged hate crime took place in the city controller’s office. As an elected official, one can assume the controller has political enemies. So was this hateful story based on misinformation given to the reporter for political gain? If it was, did the writer check out the facts, or was he duped, or did he participate in political retribution? I’ve asked that question for a week now and the Weekly and the writer haven’t responded. I wonder why?
The article made a point of the some-$8,500 it cost for the investigation into the hate crime. Gee, are gay hate-crime victims not worth $8,500? He also makes a point of both gay men having a working relationship with the controller’s office — one as an employee, one as a contractor. Aren’t there numerous heterosexual married couples with similar connections in numerous departments in city government? Does he feel that since we cannot legally marry we should be discriminated against?
If all of that is not bad enough, the writer, or someone connected to him, posted a blog with this headline: “Response to Mark Segal’s Hateful Slurs.” Let’s make this very clear: Attempts to bully me after you’ve victimized a hate-crime victim just won’t fly. Our community is tired of this form of hate, bullying and victimization. And if you want a fight on this, you certainly have it. When someone victimizes a member of our community, we’ve learned to fight back.
If the author’s point was to go after the city controller, feel free and I could not care less. But don’t do it by walking on the bodies of gay hate-crime victims.
Mark Segal, PGN publisher, is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. He can be reached at [email protected].