What Happened When Children Were To Blame For A Hate Crime
Our doorbell, like most things in Manhattan, is aggressive. It sharply rings, "Someone is here! Get off your butt!" And when my roommates and I answer its call, we generally expect to meet an aggressive UPS man ("Can't you yell, 'I'm coming?!'"
or an aggressive super ("Trash must be taken to the basement!" . Aggression is expected; hate is not. When I answered the door that midnight, I was shocked to find that we had been tagged -- targeted -- for being gay...
Ten minutes, a recovered tube of sunblock, and a handful of rocks striking our window later, it struck us that we were not being attacked by religious zealots, political extremists, or even angsty teenagers, but honest-to-God children. In my mind, handling this situation with grace and poise -- while acknowledging its gravity -- suddenly became a two-part process. The first step was to address the parents in my now-viral letter, outlining our experience in a way that allowed them to read, digest, and understand on their own time...
Read the letter at the link...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jw-harvey/children-hate-crime_b_2859701.html
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