Homophobia and Gay Bashing Starts young!

Four FL Boys Arrested for Beating and rapeF in locker room

“The following information is excerpts taken from the St Petersberg Times Article;
Deputies: Four teens raped another in Walker Middle School locker room

By Richard Danielson, Tom Marshall, John Martin and Dong-Phuong Nguyen, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Saturday, May 9, 2009

TAMPA — Four Walker Middle School students raped a 13-year-old classmate with a broom handle and a hockey stick on April 30th in a campus locker room, The teens continually harassed and picked on the boy between March 15 and May 5, sheriff’s according to spokeswoman Vida Morgan.

On April 30, two teens held the victim down while the other two sexually battered him, according to deputies Friday.

The boy identified his attackers, and investigators arrested four students at the school on Wednesday.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspects as Randall John Moye, 14; Raymond A. Price-Murray, 14; Lee Louis Myers, 14; and Diemante J. Roberts, 15.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said the four will be charged as adults. All face charges of sexual battery and false imprisonment.

“It is sad, so sad,” the victim’s mother said, eyes glistening as she leaned her head against the door of her family’s Carrollwood area home.

“You expect your child to be safe at school.”

The Times is not identifying the victim or his mother because of the nature of the crime. The mother said the school advised her not to discuss the incident until she had retained a lawyer.

“I want to protect him,” she said. “It’s so private.”

There is in our opinion far too much of this still going on in an age where many states are granting marriage rights to GLBT people. Progress in many ways Bittersweet. It seems that the more we gain in some areas we loose in other areas.
To Quote Ellen DeGeneres

Somewhere along the line these boys got the idea that the possibility of this boy being gay is so threatening that he deserves to be raped/beaten/teased.

What would have been next if the authorities did not step in and prosecute these four boys?
Would the boys have killed the victim? Would they have continually raped him or beat him some more? How many more of these incidences do we have to have happen before people realize that the only solution is to address homophobia and words of hate that we all use when it suits our purpose.

What will it take for homophobic adults to understand that no matter our sexual orientation we were once someones new born baby.

New born babies aren't gay or straight they are just cute!

Can you tell the baby that is gay in this group of four? Neither could their parents, all of these children were loved until one day one of them told her parents that she was a lesbian. From that day forward she was dead to her family. Did they forget the day they were oohing and cooing over their beautiful new daughter? did they forget how much they clapped when she took her first steps? Who knows…
Does society forget that all GLBT people were once a beautiful new baby such as these four?

Ok so we are off track a bit, but the point is what is everyone afraid of? If they are afraid of GLBT then they should be afraid of these babies because one of them is gay, and just as threatening as any other GLBT person.

There is a reason why Homophobia starts so young, it is because adults speak where little ears can hear. Adults have attitudes and preconceived notions they pass on to the children in their lives.
Want to stop the hate?
Change the way you speak and act in front of children!

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Tags: Diemante J. Roberts, Four teens, homophobia, Lee Louis Myers, locker room, Randall John Moye, raped, Raymond A. Price-Murray, Walker Middle School