facts

1) In 1988 James Dale became an Eagle scout. When a newspaper interviewed Dale about his advocacy of homosexual teenager's need for gay role models his membership in the scouts was revoked. This occurred in 1990.

2) At the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City in the summer of 2000 about 50 women were sexually abused by crowds of men in Central Park.

3) Three black girls at Bowie High School in Prince George's County were accused of punching and kicking a 15 year old white male. The three girls were each charged with one count of second-degree assault, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine, and one hate crime offense, which carries a sentence of three years and a $5,000 fine. Both charges are misdemeanors.

4) A decision to grant parole to the convicted killer of Paul Broussard in a gay-bashing incident is under review. The parole board was unaware that Derrick Attard had committed a probation violation. In 1991 Attard and nine friends went looking for homosexuals to harass in the Montrose, Texas area. One of the youths, Jon Christopher Buice stabbed Broussard to death. He is serving 45 years. Five including Attard were assessed probationary sentences and sent to boot camp. In April of 1996 Attard violated his probation by selling alcohol to a minor. Rather than revoking his probation, a judge sent Attard to jail for 30 days and allowed him to continue serving his probated term.

5) At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a sophomore could face up to a three term suspension for sending electronic hate mail to a fellow student because the student was gay.

6) Matthew Shephard, the 21 year old University of Wyoming student has become a symbol of antigay violence after his murder on October 6, 1998. Shephard walked into the Fireside Inn in downtown Laramie, Wyoming and later left with his two killers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Shephard was brutally beaten and found the next day. He died five days later. His killers are now serving life sentences.

7) A man walked into a gay bar in Virginia and opened fire. He killed one person and wounded six others. Ronald Edward Gay, 53, was charged with murder, and police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

8) Scott Edward Schroeder was among 15 white men at a party who attacked three black teen-agers. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 100 hours of community service. Authorities gave this account of the incident. The three black teens showed up at a party for Rockwood Summit High School students as it was breaking up. As many as 60 youths had been drinking grain alcohol and fruit juice. Schroeder a cousin of the party's host met them at the door and said "What are you (racial epithet) doing here?" An argument and a fight broke out and the teens were chased, taunted with racial epithets and threatened with death.

9) Mattie Harrell and her family survived five incidents of gunfire at their house when they were the first African-Americans to move into the outskirts of Vineland, New Jersey. The police arrested Charles C. Apprendi Jr., a pharmacist who lived about a mile away after the last incident. A judge determined that Apprendi had been motivated by racial bias and sentenced him to twelve years in jail. The Supreme Court voted 5-4 that it was unconstitutional for the lower court judge to have ruled that Apprendi was racially motivated. Mr. Apprendi has served five and a half years and is now living in a halfway house.

10) Mathew Rogers, 20, and captain of the football team at Northfield Mount Hermon, an old style boarding school carved an anti-gay slogan into the flesh of a fellow student. The victim was not gay, but simply liked the band "Queen" and had irritated Mr. Rogers by saying that he (Mr. Rogers) liked the band too. At Mr. Roger's plea hearing prosecuters said that this was an example of a larger pattern of bullying in the schools dormitory rooms. In 1997, four students at the Winchendon School in Massachusetts kicked a fellow student so hard they were charged with attempted murder. The charge was later reduced to assault and battery with a deadly weapon and the students were sentenced to one year's probation. Also in 1997 a student at the Marine Military Academy in Harlington, Texas snuck into the room of a classmate and slashed his throat requiring 28 stitches. He was given 10 years probation after serving four months in jail.

11) In Germany the courts handed down a life sentence to Enrico Hillprect, 24, who kicked Alberto Adriano in the head ten times and left him to die in a park in the eastern German city of Dessau on June 11, 2000. Two minors, both 16, who were also involved, were given nine years.

12) White supremacist Buford Furrow wounded four children and a 68 year old woman in an attack on a Jewish Community Center in the San Fernando Valley. He killed a postman as he fled. He gave himself up at the Las Vegas FBI office. According to an AP story citing an FBI source, Furrow said "he wanted this to be a wake-up call to America to kill Jews." These inflammatory words made the headlines and the FBI was criticized for giving an open forum to an attempted mass murderer.

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