Lots of disturbing stories coming out today about Trump-related harassment of LGBTs and POCs – and, sadly, brace yourselves for more to come, I suspect – but this one in particular leapt out at me. It happened in Santa Monica, of all places, not exactly a bastion of rednecks and fag-bashers.
Calgary film producer Chris Ball spent Tuesday evening in a Santa Monica bar watching poll results come in.
From Calgary Metro News:
As the election progressed, he said attitudes in the bar became more and more heated – on both sides of the campaign.
“People started launching homophobic slurs at me from afar,” he said. “I mean, I kind of got into it, but I didn’t want to provoke them.”
They were saying things like, ‘We got a new president you f–king faggots.’
When he later left the bar, alone, he was walking through an alley when he was jumped by a group of men – one of which smashed a bottle over his head.
He fell back, his head smashing against the concrete, where he blacked out.
“When I came to, I remember waking up and wiping the blood from my eyes. I called some friends, they picked me up and I went right to the hospital,” he recalled.
His wounds required five staples to his head. Ball said he’s OK now and that the images he posted probably made it look worse than it was. But STILL.
In retrospect, [he] doesn’t think it was really a political issue – it was a hate issue, fuelled by the charged atmosphere of the election night, with a group of drunk people who used Trump’s rhetoric as an excuse to get in a fight. He feels it could very well have been a Clinton supporter, or just someone else with a homophobic attitude on any other night – it’s an ongoing issue.
He does feel, as Americans are more charged up, incidents like these may come up more in the near future, but he doesn’t feel this event is representative of all Americans, or even all Trump supporters.
“I’m in pretty good spirits. That’s just how I have to handle it. I’m alive and well and still very gay,” he laughed.
(via Queerty)
The post Gay Man Bloodied by Trump Supporters in Santa Monica (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES) appeared first on The WOW Report.
