Eight teenage and adult males were arraigned Oct. 10 regarding an Oct. 3 attack on a teenager in New York City, according to USA Today. The charges include sexual assault, robbery and hate crimes.
On Oct. 3, gang members heard that one of their recruits happened to be gay. They allegedly stripped him, beat him and sodomized him with a plunger handle until he said he had sex with a man in the neighborhood. The gang members then reportedly tortured a second teenager they thought was also gay. Subsequently, the gang then allegedly got the man who supposedly had sex with the recruit; they then reportedly beat and burned him as well as sodomized him with a baseball bat.
The Human Rights Campaign released a statement Oct. 9, saying, “It is tragic to see what hate can do. These three men were brutally attacked and sodomized simply for who they are. Authorities must vigorously prosecute the perpetrators of these hateful crimes. Unfortunately, these crimes come on the heels of several other recently reported hate crimes in New York City. These crimes only emphasize the need for strong federal and state hate crimes laws.”