Remember the guys who beat up the gay couple in Santa Fe? (Referenced here and here) Just got a comment from someone who claims to know two of the guys who did it.

gabe and isaha are close friends of mine. trinidad i did not know. i want to tell you that i know this was not a hate crime. gabe and isaha are normal kids who are in a bad situation. even though gabe was saying lets mess these faggots up i know they didn’t do it just cause he was gay. I grew up with both of them and i just wish you could know there good kids. im not saying they are innocent cause there not but i feel bad being in there situation with santa fe being a strong gay and lesbian city and the new law there in big trouble. i just hope you can see that they are good kids and on a night they where acting dumb and tough like every 19 year old does and faggot is in every 19 year olds vocabulary when they fight. trinidad should be tried as an adult but gabe and isaiah should jail time not prison they dont deserve that. it would ruin there lives from one mistake. I do feel sorry for the kid and i hope and know he will recover. i think he should decide there penalty but trinidad should go to prison and they will give him what he deserves.

Sorry Phillip but I’m not buying it. I’ve hung around plenty of nineteen year olds from all kinds of different backgrounds and can’t think of one time when I heard “let’s go beat up those faggots.” If I had I would’ve taken a serious look at who my friends were.

Assaulting a person (or animal in most states) is illegal. Beating up someone because of their race, religion, or sexual orientation just makes you look like an even bigger asshole. And even if the “gay hate” wasn’t intentional their use of the word “faggot” as an insult sure made it look that way.

Maybe because of hate crime laws like this people will re-think using words like gay and faggot as insults (not to mention beating people up for any reason). Because personally I think that use of the words encourages a subconscious feeling of antagonism and in a way encourages hate crimes.

Either way, they put a guy in the fucking hospital. Just because they’re rowdy young men doesn’t mean they can get away with hurting another person like that. And just because they’re (stupid irresponsible) “kids” doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions. I’ll be the first to admit that I made a lot of mistakes when I was nineteen but not one fucking time did my actions put someone in the hospital and I can tell you right now that I’ve never used the word “faggot” in a context that could be misconstrued so badly, even when referencing firewood.