^^
The point of my story was that if Steven had pursued Hate Crime charges, even if the guys that beat him up didn't (truthfully) know that he was homosexual, it wouldn't have mattered, because the guy they beat up (Steven) was gay.
Also somewhat related to the thread topic, I've already spoken with my (straight Caucasian) son about the future.
At the end of our (pretty deep) discussion, I reiterated that if he gets jammed up to keep his mouth shut, lawyer up, then call me. Then explained to him that "look, there ain't gonna be any marches or national protests for you if you get yourself caught up in some dumb stuff. Hell, you may even be made an example of. So keeping your mouth shut is im-PER-ative to you getting through it."
I think he gets it.
* I'm not a big fan of post editing, hence the follow up post.
The point of my story was that if Steven had pursued Hate Crime charges, even if the guys that beat him up didn't (truthfully) know that he was homosexual, it wouldn't have mattered, because the guy they beat up (Steven) was gay.
Also somewhat related to the thread topic, I've already spoken with my (straight Caucasian) son about the future.
At the end of our (pretty deep) discussion, I reiterated that if he gets jammed up to keep his mouth shut, lawyer up, then call me. Then explained to him that "look, there ain't gonna be any marches or national protests for you if you get yourself caught up in some dumb stuff. Hell, you may even be made an example of. So keeping your mouth shut is im-PER-ative to you getting through it."
I think he gets it.
* I'm not a big fan of post editing, hence the follow up post.