Don't go to Saint-Martin
A friend from New York City recently went on vacation to Saint-Martin, a tropical island in the northeast Caribbean that is roughly divided in half between France and the Netherlands. He’s gay and so was his companion on the holiday.
Leaving a nightclub one evening, the two were attacked and beaten by a group of men and at least one woman, all of whom yelled homophobic slurs and left the two men in need of emergency medical treatment. Both have had metal plates inserted in their skulls to repair damage.
More recent news reports say that three people have now been arrested, but my friend stressed in an email that the police in Saint-Martin were rather slow to show any interest in a ‘mere’ gay-bashing. He’s a lawyer, he’s from Texas, and he is a senior producer for CBS Nightly News, which is another way of saying the attackers picked the wrong person to mess with. But I’d recommend stroking Saint-Martin off your list of vacation possibilities, even if you’re not gay.
Leaving a nightclub one evening, the two were attacked and beaten by a group of men and at least one woman, all of whom yelled homophobic slurs and left the two men in need of emergency medical treatment. Both have had metal plates inserted in their skulls to repair damage.
More recent news reports say that three people have now been arrested, but my friend stressed in an email that the police in Saint-Martin were rather slow to show any interest in a ‘mere’ gay-bashing. He’s a lawyer, he’s from Texas, and he is a senior producer for CBS Nightly News, which is another way of saying the attackers picked the wrong person to mess with. But I’d recommend stroking Saint-Martin off your list of vacation possibilities, even if you’re not gay.
posted by Stephen at May 27, 2006
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