Zacht Ei - American homosexual beat up in Amsterdam

Friday, May 6, 2005

American homosexual beat up in Amsterdam

Read his story here.

I was walking through central Amsterdam with my boyfriend back to our hotel. People were still milling about on the sidewalks from Friday night's revelry. We were only blocks from the most popular gay areas; and we were holding hands.

As we passed two men standing on the side of the street, one of them deliberately spat on us, mainly hitting me in the face. Without saying a word, we stood our ground. We stopped, turned around, and asked why. The man, who looked in his 20s, had Moroccan features and spoke with a heavy accent, murmured something about "fucking fags."

Within seconds, the two somehow turned into seven — and five of them were ganging up on me, probably because at 6-foot-7 I'm a good bit bigger than my boyfriend. It seemed like every direction I turned, I got another punch to the face, and when they kicked me to the ground, time seemed to stop. My heart still races as I write about it now. It felt like the situation had spiraled completely out of my control.

Then just as quickly as it began, it was over. I was standing up on my own, and our attackers were fleeing. There had been dozens of people on the streetcorner, but none of them had acted or even yelled anything. My boyfriend had escaped his attackers and had come to my aid, and that finally convinced the others to run.

Two kinds of herd mentality. One is to only dare attack someone when part of a group, the other is to ignore evil happening in front of you because everyone else is. And both are hallmarks of supreme cowardice.

21:30

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Unfortunately my gay "brothers" would be the first to criticize the "Islamophobia" of the two gay guys who were insensitive to Muslim culture.

It is so sad but it's like the 1930's all over again. If you attack sexual deviants and Jews, everyone looks the other way. Fantasy history dominates popular culture (Kingdom of Heaven) and the bourgeoises are too busy partying to notice.

1630r (ip:217.43.242.104) 6 May 2005 - 22:43 uur

Hi Arjan

Thanks for posting the photos of the cemetaries in the earlier link. Arjan, I wanted to be sure you saw this story:
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Today it is three years ago that Pim Fortuyn was shot by an animal rights activist, ending the life of a great political mind and someone who was very close to becoming prime-minister of the troubled Dutch nation. Pim’s impact today can probably best be summed up by the words that he must have spoken when his old friend Theo van Gogh showed up in the afterlife last year: “see Theo, I told you so”.

http://www.peaktalk.com/archives/001279.php

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Animal rights activist my ass.

Oh, and more kitty photos please. Otherwise, I'll have to inflict beagle pics on you.

grayp (ip:4.249.132.40) 6 May 2005 - 6:29 uur

"Unfortunately my gay "brothers" would be the first to criticize the "Islamophobia" of the two gay guys who were insensitive to Muslim culture"

Horseshit. I'm gay and American and living in Amsterdam, and I sincerely hope that those cowards are caught and that someone reminds them that they were chased off by a flikker. Because nothing would be more humiliating to the "mind" of a primitive religious fanatic.

Do you have even the tiniest shred of evidence to support your contention that your gay brothers (and sisters) are blaming Crain for what happened to him?

And if they had been beaten up by Lonsdale-jongeren instead, would you be accusing left-wing gays like myself of being insufficiently sensitive to the delicate feelings of white skinheads?

What happened to Crain and his boyfriend is outrageous and inexcusable. And yes, Islam is partially to blame. But so are the police -- I mean, Koninginnedag is *only* the busiest weekend of the year, so why wasn't there more of a police presence? Maybe they were they too busy handing out summonses to 15-year-old girls without valid ID cards.

And, as Arjan says, ultimate blame goes to the people who stood by and did nothing.

vaara (ip:80.127.26.54) 6 May 2005 - 11:49 uur

Varra: "And if they had been beaten up by Lonsdale-jongeren instead, would you be accusing left-wing gays like myself of being insufficiently sensitive to the delicate feelings of white skinheads?"

I wouldn't need to. White neo-nazis are never given the opportunity to defend their 'culture'. They are dimissed as ... well, neo-nazis. On the other hand, members of extreme right-wing religions of color are given every opportunity to blame someone else for their own behavior. Muslims who would outlaw 'sexual deviancy', abortion and the teaching of Darwinism in schools are the natural allies of extreme right-wing Christians. Why does the left cosy up to them?

"And yes, Islam is partially to blame. But so are the police -- I mean, Koninginnedag is *only* the busiest weekend of the year, so why wasn't there more of a police presence?"

... the famous BUT word creeps in. How about we stand up to the bearded neo-nazis before we settle for living in a police state?

Eurabia will not be a happy place for gays.

1630r (ip:81.154.68.209) 6 May 2005 - 15:56 uur

"Why does the left cosy up to them?"

We don't. Or at least *I* don't -- I certainly don't speak for "the left," any more than you, I'm sure, speak for the Bush Administration.

And please spare me your Lileksian "but"-sniffing nonsense. Americans seem more than willing to settle for living in a police state if it means that people in Dubuque and Spartanburg will be able to visit Wal*Mart without having to worry about being attacked by bearded neo-nazis, so why is it out of line to criticize the Dutch police for being too lackadaisical?

vaara (ip:80.127.26.54) 6 May 2005 - 16:29 uur

I wonder what the future of the Netherlands holds. The other day, on Raadhuisstraat, I saw something that instantly struck me as some kind of metaphor for the future.

I heard sort of a popping noise and turned around to see that a pedestrian had thrown an empty water bottle at a passing taxi. The thrower was a man who I assume was Dutch, and I guessed that the taxi must have run a red light and almost hit him.

Then the taxi driver, a large man who appeared to be of Arab descent, got out of the car and started walking aggressively toward the Dutch man. He walked right up into the guy's face and started yelling. He looked like he was going to hit the guy. The Dutch guy backed away and started to cower with his hands held loosely in front of his face. The cab driver kept walking at him. Then the Dutch guy turned tail and ran.

I guess I don't blame the guy for being scared. I'm not sure what I would have done. The cab driver was big, and looked like he would stop at nothing. But I somehow immediately wondered if it wasn't a metaphor for the future of the Netherlands--a bully charging at it and instead of the Dutch standing up to it, just cowering and letting it have its way. I sure hope this is not what the future holds.

Willy (ip:24.132.231.136) 6 May 2005 - 20:45 uur

Sadly, both The Netherlands and Belgium appear to be locked in the same self-imposed spiral of collective, head-in-the-sand impotence.
A little while ago a girl friend and I (just good friends) went into the centre of Brussels for an Italian meal in what is considered to be the gay area of Brussels.
Whilst we were eating an arab appeared by the side window (in a narrow, little used passageway) and started exposing himself to us. We simply ignored it and after a while he came up closer to the window, mouthed "Putains!" and made throat-cutting gestures before he slunk off into the night.
The owner came up to us and apologised, saying that it was not the first time something like that had happened and that he could not involve the police as they had already threatened to put him on the next train back to Milan for making a complaint.
The number of times I am accosted by these people on the street is increasing and the police will not get involved: they seem to be frightened of the gangs of moroccans who treat any form of law or decency with total contempt.
Buy your chadors now, girls, while they are still cheap.

Samantha (ip:194.7.114.2) 6 May 2005 - 12:52 uur

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American homosexual beat up in Amsterdam

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