Two Teens Charged With Gay Boy’s Beating
By The Associated Press
08.21.2009 11:48am EDT
(Portage, Mich.)
A 15-year-old Michigan boy says two other teenagers beat him because he is gay.
The boy says the 15- and 16-year-old males called him slurs as they struck him about 20 times in the head and face Aug. 13 in the parking lot of a Portage apartment complex.
The Kalamazoo Gazette reports the two teens were charged as juveniles with aggravated assault. The 16-year-old pleaded guilty to the charge Tuesday and will be sentenced in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Family Division on Sept. 14.
Police say the suspects may have targeted the boy for his sexual orientation. But Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Fink says the suspects aren’t charged with a hate crime because the state’s ethnic-intimidation law doesn’t address sexual orientation.
