Lez Keep It Real

What punishment would you inflict on a teenager convicted of a violent homophobic crime? ~ Yahoo news

Flip the script on them so to speak or make them walk a mile in a gay man’s shoes.

Brighton’s hate crime unit ordered a homophobic teenager to spend a day working as an intern at the gay magazine 3SIXTY as part of his sentence. The boy had been part of a group who attacked a gay high school teacher in Dukes Mound, Brighton, early one Sunday morning.

Craig, the teacher, sustained a damaged lymph system, a scratched cornea and cuts and bruises across his face and body. He was hospitalized the following week with an infection that threatened to spread to his brain and was readmitted later with blood clots.

Craig was determined the offender should receive an appropriate sentence. He said, “As a gay man, I have experienced low-level homophobia throughout my life, such as name calling. I learned to roll the punches, but for me this punch was one blow too far.

“I like to think in reporting this crime, I helped stop it (from) happening to others.”

Sussex police were inspired by similar projects in San Francisco, where anti-gay criminals have been required to work for gay organizations as part of their sentences.
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It opened up this young man’s eyes, maybe it could do the same for others. I’m not sure this type of punishment would work for a middle aged man or older since his beliefs and stereotypes have already been cemented making them harder to change. But for an impressionable adolescent who is still forming his or her opinions and ideas about society and the world in general, this is the perfect approach.

Reach them, teach them to open their eyes and see what can happen. Truth is infectious.

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