Living Out Loud with Darian

For the past few weeks there has been disturbing reports of violence and death committed upon black gay men in Chicago.It started with the death of 24 year old Larry Bland who was shot to death in his Englewood home after meeting someone online in an internet chatroom.

Then on December 23, 47 year old Donald Young, a choir director at Trinity United Church of Christ, was shot multiple times in his South Side apartment.

Now Felipe Rivera, a Cicero resident is accused of raping and sodomizing a man he believed "winked" at him during a party. Of all of these horrible stories I guess Rivera's victim should consider himself lucky that his attack didn't result in death.

According to a spokesman for Cicero police, Rivera and the victim encountered each other at a party Friday night in the 1200 block of South 50th Avenue. "Mr. Rivera got upset apparently because he believed the victim, No. 1, didn't respond to a female and then, No. 2, somehow winked at him -- made what he perceived as a sexual advance."

Rivera followed the victim to the outer staircase of a basement apartment, where he removed the victim's pants and raped him, authorities said. Afterward, Rivera punched the victim in the head, leaving him semi-conscious, then inserted a metal broom handle in the victim's rectum.

When asked why he did it, Rivera allegedly said it was "because he hates faggots and this is what they get."

Black gay and lesbian groups in Chicago are not watching silently as their lives are being attacked but are using the media to bring attention to growing cases of violence towards black gay men in their community. Marc Loveless of The Coalition for Justice and Respect held a press conference along with other members of the black LGBT community to denounce the murders and ask for help to stop what he believes may be a serial killer on the hunt to murder gay men.

So far none of these cases have been prosecuted as hate crimes because police say they lack the evidence needed to be labeled as such.

Sure(with lots of sarcasm).