Brody's Notes... Another example of violence against LGBT persons; 15 year old Gay Teen beaten in Michigan

Photo of Steven Harmon by WWMT Newschannel 3 * CBS for Eastern Michigan.

By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) Aug 23 | This past Friday's edition of ADVOCATE.COM reported on a hate crime against a 15 year old Portage, Michigan, teen age boy attacked by another 15 year old boy and a 16 year old boy in the Walnut Trail Apartments complex's parking lot in Portage. Crediting an article in The Kalamazoo Gazette newspaper, The ADVOCATE reported that the teen, Steven Harmon, suffered a skull fracture, bruising, and a swollen lip and eye. He said the 15- and 16-year-old suspects yelled homophobic slurs as they beat his face about 20 times on August 13.

According to the article in the Kalamazoo Gazette, "the two have been charged as juveniles with aggravated assault in connection with the incident," Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Fink said. The older of the two pleaded guilty to the charge Tuesday in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Family Division and is being held in the county juvenile home until a Sept. 14 dispositional hearing. The article went on to state that; "Their comments were totally inappropriate, but what we charge are not their comments but what they do as far as their behavior," Fink said. "We're not looking at why they did it. We're looking at what they did." A Portage police spokesperson had this to say; "From reviewing the report, it would appear the suspects may have targeted him because of his sexual orientation," said Lt. Tom Palenick of the Portage Police Department. "Our department chose the most serious crime that we could charge them with under the circumstances and the most serious charge was issued by the prosecutor's office."

Not surprisingly, Harmon's family sees it differently. "This was a hate crime and he was viciously attacked," Rocha, his mother, said.

Steven, who will be a freshman this fall at Portage Northern High School, said he did not know the two teens well but had previously seen them on occasion during the summer when he visited the 17-year-old girl and swam with her at the complex's pool. During those encounters, Steven said he recalls at least "10 times" that the teens called him a "faggot."

"They just didn't like me because I was different," he said.

Statements decrying the incident came swiftly from two of the local LGBT organizations: "While we are appalled something like this could take place in our community," the Kalamazoo Alliance for Equality said in a statement Wednesday, "incidents like these highlight the ongoing need for community education regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in order to make the greater Kalamazoo area a safe and inclusive place to live, work, and play."
Thomas Seiler, president of the Kalamazoo Gay Lesbian Resource Center's board of directors, said: "Any incident that appears to be motivated by someone's alarm at someone else being gay or lesbian has to be addressed, especially by organizations like ours that are in the business of promoting understanding and respect of differences rather than resentment of difference."

While it is certainly troubling to continue to see incidents of hate occur against LGBT persons of any age, especially the youth, what is by far more onerous and frightening are the comments left by the public users on the websites that report these incidents. There is a prevailing attitude it appears among the American public at large, that such crimes should NOT be separated from run of the mill assaults in the justice system. (In the link to the above quoted Kalamazoo Gazette article, scroll down to the bottom of the page and read the comments.)

In researching several incidents spanning a two year period of time, I have found that these comments are not an anomaly taking place after one of these crimes has been publicized. There is a trend by the public to downplay the severity of the crimes or in some cases level the blame at the victim. It would be easy to brush these types of comments off as just a few malcontents or hard core right wing opponents of LGBT civil rights. Unfortunately, if one devotes time and effort to researching similar incidents, one will find numerous instances of this attitude among the members of the American public displayed in those comments sections.

These incidents are by far worse than just school yard bullying or children tormenting their peers. This behavior is a huge problem and it is motivated by hatred pure and simple. As long as the American public continues to downplay the severity and significance of these types of behaviors, there will continue to be an atmosphere of hatred and disdain for any person who are LGBT and their civil rights will also be compromised as a result.