02/08/2007
Gay Men in Sydney Forced from Home After Hate Attacks
Two gay men have moved out of their Sydney-area home after two separate hate incidents, reports the Sydney Star Observer. The first occurred in December. The men, Jarrod and Jon, returned after a night out to find that intruders had ransacked their house and found, among other things, a stash of gay porn. The men believe that the intruders may have drawn the twisted conclusion that they were pedophiles, as Jon has a young son who occasionally visited and had a bedroom in the house.
Along with the vandalism, a note was left behind which read: "you are going to die soon, you pedophile prick".
Jarrod and Jon believe the same men were behind a second attack late last month, in which they scrawled graffiti on an outside wall of the property.
Said Jon: "I don’t believe … that we are being targeted for any other reason than the fact that they’ve just come in here, robbed us and found this gay porn. In some typical distortion of being gay and being a pedophile, they left us this evil note. We’re shocked by the fact there’s even this sort of gay hate crime going on any more."
An investigation is underway.
Gay Men Terrorised in Hate Attacks [sydney star observer]
You may have missed...
60-Year-Old Australian Man Bashed, Sexually Assaulted by Gang [tr]
Posted 8:32 AM EST by Andy in Australia, Crime, News, Sydney | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
This is a hate crime plain and simple, and, I hope they catch the culprits. And, I wish there was someway that these fools could figure out the difference between a homosexual and a nasty, sick pedophile.
Posted by: mark | Feb 8, 2007 8:43:30 AM
I agree with the hope that one day people will stop thinking the twoo are in fact different.
But it's also interesting to point out that these men had no problem breaking into someone's home, totally disregarding and stealing their private possessions yet when there's a suspicion of kiddie molestation...they wanna decide to take the LAW into their own hands (and before anyone thinks it, of course i'm not saying that child molestation is in any way as bad as burglary)
But it just proves that there isn't such a great divide between GOOD and BAD people, there's always this group in between which is very strange and scary
Posted by: steve | Feb 8, 2007 9:01:56 AM
*one day people will stop thinking the two are the SAME*
Posted by: steve | Feb 8, 2007 9:04:25 AM
Hrmmmm. And after a while, nobody from Europe chimes in and says "stupid Americans" "Loud obnoxious Americans" "Backward Americans" because what? OH that's RIGHT, people are just a stupid in Australia, Latvia, Russia, Poland, blah blah blah.
Really sad actually that the couple decided to move out of their home. I personally hope it's just to have the place cleaned up and a rather insidious alarm system installed. Like perhaps live charges, or a king cobra, or maybe even just a live guard with a shotgun.
Posted by: FizziekruntNT | Feb 8, 2007 9:14:20 AM
Wonder how long before the usual suspects show up here to call these men whiners for their overreaction to the intruders' freedom of speech?
Posted by: Zeke | Feb 8, 2007 10:46:17 AM
A similar incident happened last year in my hometown in southern california, but the story didn't make Towleroad.
Overnight the exterior of a local home was trashed. Hate filled graffiti was painted on the outside and applied with soap to windows.
The graffiti went unreported in the local media, and the occupant moved immediately. Good thing he was a renter. It took a while to get those soaped windows cleaned, and the house was repainted.
Its disheartening to read these stories where there's always some seach for a justification for these hate-filled acts....its the "gay-panic" defense.
Like blacks, I guess gays should only live in certain areas...maybe gated communities?
Posted by: Ed | Feb 8, 2007 11:51:54 AM
Towle and Towletts
Heaven knows we love this site, it's as regular as caffeine in the morning, but it also makes me up my dose of Wellbutrin. This morning for example, with the exception of the delightful penguin story, everything is depressing. And increasingly so. As a young person who savors the high journalistic standard of this blog, I also confess, I get depressed.Is it really this horrible to be gay? Is this what I have to look forward to? While I am aware the world is a cruel place, sometimes I like to wake and think it might also be fun.
Posted by: Happy | Feb 8, 2007 12:10:28 PM
The police will say that the people initially wanted to rob the place then discovered the porn and went nuts.
My question is: How many robbers care what the owners are looking at? How dumb are the police?
They were targeted because they were gay. End of story. Hopefully justice will be served.
Posted by: Jack! | Feb 8, 2007 6:13:17 PM