You have to Love Florida
Paul Day and Christopher Robertson knew life as gay men in Polk County could be rough. They had been called names and taunted by neighborhood teens before.
Day, 25, said he even had a mailbox riddled with shotgun pellets once when living near the Green Swamp in the north part of the county.
The couple never thought it would get so bad as Monday, when they returned home from errands to find their house in Kings Manor Mobile Home Park in Lakeland torched and the words “Die Fag” spray-painted on the front steps.
Statewide, though, there is an upward swing in the amount of violence reported toward people because of their sexual orientation. In the latest state report, for instance, hate crimes based on orientation accounted for a higher percentage of all hate crimes than ever before. [...]
Day and Robertson have called Polk County home for most of their lives. As early as high school, Day said he knew he was gay and identified himself openly. Problems with other people, though, have plagued him. He said he called the authorities three times for such incidents as rocks thrown at his home and a shot-riddled mailbox when living in north Polk County.
“Between Tampa and Orlando, it’s just a void,” Day said of the Lakeland area. “It’s a different world. Very behind the times.”
Added Robertson, 23: “For the past six months, I’ve been saying, ’I want to move; I want to move.’ I don’t want to be here anymore. It’s stressing me out.” (source)
Referenced in photo album Crimes of Hate
Update
10-13-2005 - Hate Crime and Arson Found to be a Hoax
08-23-2005 - Gay Arson Victims Hit Again
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I read about this in the Advocate this week. The country is headed down the wrong track with President Bush and company. There is such a strong feeling of polarization and stigma that their policies and attitudes promote that it leads to crimes like this and the large number of people who felt/were abandoned in New Orleans etc. Most of America finds this type of behavior bad but I hope they see through all his smoke and mirrors in the next two yrs. I am planning to send a donation to help them out.
It's legit. I called the bank and did a follow-up story on it. There is a trust fund set up with Washington Mutual Bank. You can send your donation to Chris and Paul to the address mentioned in the last comment. Make sure you make not that it is for them, and it will be placed into their fund.
More information.
Please help these guys out that lost everything.
Benevolent Fund set up by www.PGLA.com
Washington Mutual Bank
335 Cypress Gardens Blvd.
Winter Haven, Florida 33880
(863) 299-9759
I live in Lakeland, Florida. I read about the crap these two guys are having to put up with. I'm not gay, however I have a friend that is. Some of my family members have given me hell about socializing with him.
I feel bad for these guys. It's not just Florida that this kind of garbage happens in.
The crimes being perpitrated against Paul and Cristopher ARE HATE CRIMES! So why aren't the people responsibile for investigating HATE CRIMES made an arrest?
If this were a matter of a couple of good old rednecks planting a burning cross in a black families lawn, the Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and his band of merry mis-fits would be all over it. Why? Because of media attention.
Oh, woe it is to be black in America today!
Bush declared "open season" on LGBT people when he endorsed a constitutional amendment to limit our civil rights. So, it isn't surprising that there has been an increase in hate crimes directed at us.
Here is a good article in The Nation from 2003:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20031020&s=ireland