Homo bashing on the rise in New York as gay agenda sweeps the country

Could there be a link between these two phenomena? Does the surprisingly rapid success of marriage equality and other gay issues represent a psychic threat to fragile straight guys? It’s not a crazy thought.

Here in New York City we just witnessed a completely unprovoked gay hate crime two blocks away from the Stonewall Inn. A nutcase visiting from out of town packed a pistol, rode the subway to Manhattan, pissed on the famous bar and taunted customers, then walked over to Sixth Avenue and shot a completely random stranger in the head after calling him a faggot and a queer. The kid died. The photo is his companion in shock from the vicious crime.

The alleged perpetrator, who was picked up a block away, has a hefty prison record. His sister said he was incapable of doing such a thing sober, and in photos the guy looks demented.

So are drunk straight men freaking the hell out because of homo emancipation? Antigay hate crimes are up in New York as even the police commissioner recognizes, including spontaneous looking assaults on gay couples by Knicks fans, uptight thugs and random suburban mooks. The incidents have occurred on the subway, outside bars, and on the street.

The pattern is generating some speculation, including the usual complaint when people obtain their rights, that things are ‘moving too fast’. Yeah, slavery should have been allowed to exist another 100 years so that the opponents could get comfortable with the idea over time.

What has changed here in New York, as many people have observed (myself included), is that winning marriage equality has made people bolder in showing who they are. Just days after the vote passed in 2010, I saw two quite straight-looking Dominican fellows openly canoodle on a park bench along Central Park West. That’s got to rankle the nervous bully-boys who either can’t stand gays or are terrified that they might be one. Drunk or not, the Greenwich Village assassin and his tough-guy peers may be lashing out at the thought they are no longer lords of the street, that they have to share it with regular folks and, omigod, even free women.