One week ago today I was a victim of a hate crime. I was in a failry large midwestern city taking a weekend off. I had decided to go to one fof the local malls and do some shopping. I was dressed in drab (guy clothes) and wandered around the mall for a couple of hours mostly just looking.
I found a nice little wig shop there and decided to check it out. I looked around, tried on a few wigs and as they didn't have anything I really liked I decided to go out and get a bite to eat. I was walking through the parking lot when I was approached by 5 guys who looked to be in their early twenties.
From their comments I gathered they had seen me in the wig shop trying on wigs. They attacked me right there in the lot. While I managed to injure two of them failry badly, I took the worst of it. All the while they were beating and kicking me they were calling me a "faggot" and a "queer" and other such things. Of course at this point it was pointless to try and explain to them that I was, in fact, not homosexual.
After it was all over I managed to make it to my car and drive to the hospital I had passed on my way to the mall. Thankfully, it was only a few blocks away. They stitched the cut on my cheek, did x-rays, and all that stuff.
My jaw was broken in three places, I had three broken ribs, numerous contusions and cuts, and all but the twelve front teeth were totally gone, and some of those remianing twelve were broken. They called in a surgeon who examined me and the x-rays and scheduled surgery for my jaw that monday.
Now my jaw is plated and wired for the next eight weeks. I am on a liquid diet as I can't move my jaw, and breathing is difficult due to the tightly taped ribs. The entire right side of my face is black and swollen. All of this because some narrow-minded homophobic morons thought it would be fun to kick the shit out of someone they don't even know.
It truly saddens me to know that people in this world can be so cruel and vicious toward a complete stranger.
