at Pride today.....

[keltic63]

I volunteered for Equality Advocates of PA, getting people to sign petitions concerning the addition of orientation and gender identity to our existing anti-discrimination laws, and opposing the marriage amendment that is stalled in our state senate.

I also got to meet Jacob Reitan and Mary Lou Wallner. Both of whom are lovely people.

[pnggrad79]

So do you have pics of Pride? Ours here in Houston is next weekend.

[keltic63]

So do you have pics of Pride? Ours here in Houston is next weekend.

no pics. I missed the parade because I was at church. This was by far the best Pride celebration Pittsburgh has ever seen. Did I mention that we managed to fill out 300 petition letters that will be sent to the appropriate State Senators and Representatives?

[Vanessa White]

Pittsburgh was lucky to have you in its midst.....:)

[pnggrad79]

Good for you! I got an HRC letter and they said that New York has now said gays and lesbians can get married there, too. So it is coming! It is closing in on both sides. I hope you had a good time.

[Rick336]

Did I mention that we managed to fill out 300 petition letters that will be sent to the appropriate State Senators and Representatives?

Sounds like y'all had a very productive day in the fight for equality. Great work Keltic.:tup:

Rick

[tdogg]

:DAwesome Keltic! It's coming, full equality, one state at a time. :D

[Matt Algren]

...and then something like this happens. :sigh: There's still work to be done.

Four men are arrested in the wake of a downtown Flagstaff assault on two men attending Pride in the Pines. (http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2008/06/24/news/20080624_front_176276.txt)

Two men were injured and four men arrested following a downtown altercation that local police are calling an anti-gay hate crime.

The assault happened early Sunday, hours after Flagstaff's annual Pride in the Pines gay pride festival in Wheeler Park. Several officers responded and quickly apprehended four men they found running in the area. Sgt. Tom Boughner from the Flagstaff Police Department said police consider the incident a hate crime because of anti-gay slurs allegedly made by the suspects. Although Flagstaff and Arizona do not have laws making bias-motivated crimes specific, separate offenses, investigators do plan to pursue available sentencing enhancements upon conviction.

According to Flagstaff police reports, the injured men were standing with a group at the corner of North San Francisco Street and East Aspen Avenue, waiting for a taxi at about 2:45 a.m. when the assaults occurred.

Michel Brown, 25, of Phoenix, was briefly hospitalized after being knocked unconscious. He was treated for a split lip and a cut to the head.

A 23-year-old man from Oklahoma received stitches to a split ear.

Arrested were:

Travis A. Reiner, 24, of Flagstaff, on charges of assault and disorderly conduct

Christopher A. Rose, 26, of Englewood, Colo.; Mark L. Greinke II, 24, of Sun City; and Michael J. Van Roteyn, 24, of Flagstaff, all on charges of disorderly conduct.

Reiner declined comment when reached Monday.

MAN CELEBRATING PRIDE

Brown, who is gay, was in Flagstaff for Pride in the Pines. That day, Mayor Sara Presler issued a proclamation, declaring Saturday Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day in the city.

Brown said he doesn't remember much about the alleged attack. He left a nearby bar, then woke up in the hospital. His friends said he was unconscious in a pool of blood that seeped from his cut lip. His wounds have since been cleaned and his lip stitched.

Brown said he has been openly gay since high school and has never had any anti-gay sentiments directed toward him.

"I'm so naive that I just don't feel that things happen like this anymore," he said. "The reason it happened is just ridiculous. It just doesn't make any sense."

Sam Holdren, public affairs director for Equality Arizona, was part of Brown's group when the assault took place. He has worked as an advocate for gay victims of violence, but had not experienced it first-hand.

"It just creates a whole new set of emotions for you," he said.

Holdren, also from Phoenix, regularly visits Flagstaff as a liaison with Equality Arizona's locally based team. He said he was pleased with the police response.

"Flagstaff police were very professional, and that's a really good sign for the city," he said.

He said he will continue to work with the city, and that the assault gives his work more purpose.

"Hate violence happens. It can happen anywhere," he said, "and I just think that it's really important that we really take this opportunity to really have the conversation now that it's happened in the city of Flagstaff and really talk about steps that we can take to prevent it from happening again."

Brown said the assault does not particularly change his view of Flagstaff.

"It could've happened anywhere, unfortunately. I wish it didn't happen but it could've," he said. "I still feel that Flagstaff is a small, liberal college town."

WITNESSES REPORT EPITHETS

Witnesses said the suspects shouted anti-gay remarks and profanities. A witness inside the nearby Pita Pit restaurant, who was not with either group, said one of the victims approached the suspects but he and his associates did nothing to provoke an attack, reports stated. The witness identified Reiner as the man who allegedly punched Brown in the jaw, sending him to the pavement, where he was knocked unconscious.

The man with the injured ear said he didn't see who pushed him, or if he was hurt from hitting the ground or striking a wall.

One of the suspects said he thought the other group was gay based on their speech, reports stated.

Boughner said Flagstaff police documented only one designated hate crime last year, a race-based assault against a black man. Sunday's assault was the first this year.

Arizona does not have a specific hate crime statute, but suspects in bias-motivated crimes, upon conviction, may receive special sentencing enhancements per federal law. The sentencing enhancement is not mandatory, but at a judge's discretion, can add as much as 10 years for the most severe crimes. It can also add to monetary judgments.

When the Flagstaff Police Department designates certain reports as hate crimes, it notifies the FBI.

"So what we do at the local level is we'll take it, (and) we'll mark it (for) Universal Crime Reporting as a hate crime," Boughner said. "We'll mark that little box so the FBI is notified that we think it's a hate crime or hate-crime related."

The case remains under investigation.

The attackers:

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