I’m going to go off the deep end here so stand back. In June, 26-year-old Kieran Daly was attacked in Savannah by 2 marines at 4 am. They say it was because he winked at them. Recently it was reported that the charges have been all but dropped. Cpl. Keil Joseph Cronauer is not going to be charged with the attack. He might be charge with disorderly conduct charge. While Cpl. Christopher Charles Stanzel could be ch
arged with a misdemeanor for punching Kieran Daly. Oh and he might get less than a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,200. It’s one of those situations where the lack of equality for gay people is obvious. If you asked me (which you didn’t) if this had been a race related attack, the people of Georgia would have been up in arms. It wasn’t though; it was an attack on a Caucasian by a Caucasian.
They know that the one of the young men yelled out gay slurs but yet the act of punching Kieran in the back of the head as he walked away doesn’t contain “proof of a sustained injury.” So knocking someone unconscious so that they suffer two seizures isn’t injury? I personally can’t imagine how the District Attorney in Chatham County can let this go. I equate this to saying if someone is shot and they survive that it is not a sustained injury. I mean they survived, right? Then Alicia Johnson, District Attorney Spokeswoman, stands up in front of people to report this to the public. I can only imagine that putting a woman out front was a political move so it didn’t look so cruel. I sure hope she is paid well. Can you imagine the amount of hate mail that must be going to that District Attorney’s office? Actually I should say I hope there is a huge amount of mail going to the district attorney’s office as well as other state officials expressing the public’s disgust with this decision.
Now there is a reported incident which doesn’t make Kieran look like the most innocent of people. It has something to do with a truck driver and Kieran yelling racial slurs. The fact remains that Christopher Stanzel punched Kieran in the back of the head to the point that it knocked him conscienceless. In most cases that would be at least assault and battery I would think. Of course I’m not a lawyer so what do I know.
So how is it that two men in their early 20’s can attack someone for “winking” at them and the law which is there to protect people just turn a blind eye? Let us think about this:
- It happened in Georgia
- The two men are in the military (Marines)
- Kieran Daly is gay
Georgia is only one of five states not to have a hate crime law. So in this situation it would have been the federal government’s Mathew Shepard law used if any justice would have been served. There has not been a charge of a hate crime raised in Georgia since 2004. I’m thinking that’s not a very accurate number. It makes me wonder how many other hate crimes have been brushed under the rug.
It is reported that Kieran Daly only came out of the closet 6 months before the attack. So now he’s already scared mentally in regards to who he is everyday. That doesn’t even take into account how he’s always going to be looking over his shoulder. In our country we (homosexuals) fight for equality every day. The United States is one of the major super powers yet other countries that would be considered a third world country have already surpassed the United States in creating equality for homosexuals.
Every day “Christians” go about saying that legalizing marriage for homosexuals will disgrace the sanctity of marriage. These kinds of actions and statements reinforce the hate demonstrated in Kieran Daly’s story. We can see how easily this hate becomes physical violence in Kieran Daly’s attack. Tell me how is this christianly? I thought Jesus taught love. Oh there was also that whole ‘not passing judgment’ piece too. This ranks up there with other events in history in the name of religion.
- The crusades to cleanse the world of savages
- The persecution of different religious beliefs which lead to people traveling to the new world
- The enslavement of Africans and Indians because they were savages
- World War I
In each of these examples a religious cause or theme comes forward. Ironically this country wasn’t founded by what most people today would consider Christians. Then again people believe that Jesus, who was born in the Middle East, is Caucasian. We think that converting people to Christianity is going to fix everything. People in the United States can’t even agree on one denomination. Yet from the stand point of many people Christianity just creates hate and intolerance. Where in the bible did Jesus teach this or say that God wanted us to covert the earth’s population. That sounds more like the Borg from Star Trek if you ask me.
With approximately $30,000 in unpaid medical bills I would like to think that gays all over the country would come together to help Kieran. The gay community spends more than $30,000 on parties so raising the money would be an easy challenge. As I’ve searched the internet I can’t seem to find any mention of a fund to help pay for Kieran’s medical bills.
For more information check out the links below:
Related Articles
- Marine Sgt. Keil Cronauer Off The Hook In Kieran Daly’s Pizza Gay Bashing. But He Implicated His Buddy (queerty.com)
- Why Don’t We Just Let Kieran Daly’s Accused Marine Gay Bashers Walk? (queerty.com)
- Kieran Daly’s Marine Gay Bashers Off The Hook On Hate Crime Charges Because He ‘Suffered Only a Punch’ (queerty.com)
- Georgia Gay Attack Gives Department of Justice A Golden Opportunity (gayrights.change.org)
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