Two Portland Men Beaten For Holding Hands

Portland, Oregon has long had a reputation of being pretty tolerant when it comes to LGBT issues. However, as I learned from a college classmate who was born and raised there, the city contains some very active white supremacist hate groups who have targeted several minority groups. She told me that after the Civil War several southerners came to the area with hopes of maintaining slavery and the plantation system. Of course you don't have to belong to an actual Hate Group to be a sick and miserable human being:

Detectives say Brad Forkner and Christopher Rosevear were walking hand-in-hand Sunday evening in Waterfront Park and then headed over the Hawthorne Bridge. As the pair walked, police say, they noticed several men behind them who were talking, laughing and pointing, but they weren’t sure if it was directed at them. Police say the attack happened as Forkner and Rosevear walked from the bridge to the trail toward the East Bank Esplanade. The pair told officers the men pushed and punched Forkner before he managed to break away and call 911. Police say the attackers hit Rosevear in the head, face, back and ribs before running off. ”It’s too bad that people are still walking around a city like Portland feeling, well, actually unsafe,” says Paul Fukui, the operations manager of the Q-Center, which advocates for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.

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Just as sick as the three men who perpetrated the crime are the several bystanders who watched and did nothing to stop the beating which left one of the victims "with 9 stitches in my lips, two black eyes, a dislodged jaw, some loose teeth, severe swelling where they hit me on my cheek, and scrapes and bruises on my head."