On Sunday, the Lincoln Journal Star reported on a horrific hate crime against a woman in Lincoln, Nebraska. She was attacked in her home by three masked men who bound her wrists and ankles with zip ties, cut her body, and carved homophobic slurs into her skin. They then doused her floor with gasoline and lit a match. The woman proceeded to crawl from her house to a neighbor’s doorstep, bleeding, naked and screaming for help.
The community was outraged, and that same night, a vigil was organized outside the Capitol, attended by hundreds bearing candles and rainbow flags. It is estimated that about 300 people showed up by 9 PM. The topic of homophobia was already a hot-button issue in the city this month, having held the Star City Pride Festival and debated a recently approved measure for November’s ballot called the fairness amendment (a proposal to ban discrimination in housing and employment based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity).
LGBT advocate group Star City Pride’s president Karen Bratton-Cranford spoke and encouraged people not to take revenge, and Tyler Richard of Outlinc expressed his faith in the police department to handle the situation appropriately.
After all of the violence in the last week, how do you feel about moving forward from here?
Image by Ted Kirk, courtesy of the Lincoln Journal Star
