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At least two individuals were treated for injuries at a local hospital after a group of men shouting anti-gay slurs began assaulting several people who had gathered at a street corner, where they were waiting for cabs following a celebration during the weekend pride festivities.
One of the injured, Michel Brown, was with Equality Arizona Public Affairs Director Sam Holdren, Public Affairs Intern Steven Tran and Generation Equality member David Encizo. Tran and Encizo were in the crowd when the attacks began, but were not physically injured. Holdren was steps away, returning to the scene to find Brown lying unconscious and bleeding.
The incident has already begun to have an impact on the local community, who hours earlier had been at the Pride in the Pines festival. At the festival, newly-elected Flagstaff Mayor Sara Presler-Hoefle had issued a proclamation, declaring that day Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Day in the city of Flagstaff calling "upon the all city residents, employees and volunteers to participate in the spirit and activities of this day."
Equality Arizona Executive Director Barbara McCullough-Jones issued the following statement today:
"The news of this attack is deeply disturbing. On a day when all of Flagstaff should have been celebrating and embracing diversity, this brutal attack has reminded us all that there is still much work to be done to prevent anti-gay bias from escalating into violence.
9 Comments:
Those desperate, unhinged youth who attack gay people are only further evidence that we continue to win this battle. When they erupt with frustrated ignorance and street-level violence, it's a profound opportunity to see the very perversity and filth of the anti-gay person in all of his or her glory. They are perhaps the most honest display of homophobia as it exists within our society. Whether it's James Dobson or the thug on the street, it is all connected. It is all ugliness.
posted by Anonymous, at
6/24/2008 12:35 PM
