Living Out Loud with Darian

This is a problem. The four black men pictured above have all been arrested and charged with hate crimes against gay men and one man perceived to be gay in the last week.


Keith Phoenix(pictured above) faces murder-as-a-hate-crime charges stemming from the killing of Jose Sucuzhanay, a 31 year old real estate agent who was viciously beaten with a baseball bat while walking arm and arm with his brother on a Brooklyn street. Phoenix mistakenly assumed the victim was gay and along with his accomplice, 25 year-old Hakim Scott beat Sucuzhanay mercilessly with a bat until he died. Phoenix was seen on video entering a toll bridge twenty minutes after the murder laughing and in good spirits.


In Galveston, Texas brothers Lawrence Henry Lewis III, 20, and Lawrneil Henry Lewis, 18, and their cousin, Alejandro Sam Gray, 17 are accused of hurling large rocks and pieces of concrete at patrons inside local gay bar Robert's Lafitte. One of three victims injured in the attack needed 12 staples to close a laceration to the back of his head. One of the suspects later told police their intent was to target homosexuals.


Galveston police say one held the bar’s door open while the other two hurled large rocks inside the business. The suspects could face an elevated punishment of five to 99 years or life in prison if a jury convicts them of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.Bail on each was set at $120,000.


Hopefully this makes you angry. This is a prime example of what can happen when the hyper-masculine ideal that black men are forced to adopt leads to destructive behavior. How many times have anti-gay attackers felt compelled to commit crimes against gay men because we're perceived to be weak or deserving of death because their religion supports this brand of bulls***?


While we're continuing the discussion on racism in America a discussion on the effects of homophobia needs to happen too. And idiots like Mike Huckabee have the audacity to say "gays haven't reached the threshold of violence yet". How many more people have to die?