From: Ken Rudolph 
Re: Gay Republican Pig Steve Gunderson Supports DOMA
Date: Thu Aug 01 23:26:10 PDT 1996

John Whiteside wrote:
> Some of what you say is clearly
> stupid (getting bashed to death is a common occurrence here? Yes, it
> happens, it happens far more often than it should -- but it doesn't happen
> in other countries? And what the hell is your definition of "common
> occurrence" -- I would think that I would have known at least one person
> this happened to in twelve years as an out gay man if it were so
> common...)

Um, I've personally known three (but I've been an out gay man for 37 
years, so maybe that isn't such a high ratio.)  Robert was bashed to 
death by a couple of teenage thugs in San Francisco in the late '70s.  
Lorenzo (actually my lover) was killed by a hitchhiker in Saskatchewan 
in 1986 (who tried to get off by saying that Lorenzo tried to seduce 
him).  Finally  Danny was killed on the streets of east Hollywood by a 
potential trick who freaked out in an apparent attack of homosexual 
panic (probably around 1981). 

I've also had a straight friend die by violence: LeeJay was killed by a 
stray bullet while driving through Watts in 1968.  A neighbor when I 
lived in my last apartment in Hollywood was killed in a drive-by 
shooting on my block.  

The point is that there is a lot of violence all around us; maybe there 
*is* more violence on the streets of the U.S. than in other countries.  
However, it is interesting that all my gay friends died from knife 
wounds, and the two straight friends died from gunshots.  I'm not sure 
if there is something there which can be generalized.