Marriage Equality Activist Beaten in San Diego County

In the wake of Propositon 8, right-wing pundits littered the Internet with claims of violence and threats directed at Christians and others who supported the rescinding of marriage equality rights in California.

A handful of incidents were reported, many of them the result of provocations, such as an elderly woman who elbowed her way into the thick of a crowd peacefully gathered for a candlelight prayer vigil in Palm Springs. The woman was protesting marriage equality and carrying a Styrofoam cross; several men in the prayer vigil crowd, which had convened in protest of Proposition 8, became enraged and took the cross from her, stomping it to pieces.

The event was filmed by a TV crew and the footage held up as evidence for a view promoted by anti-gay groups than GLBT people were uniformly violent and ant-Christian.

But one bit of footage unlikely to be vigorously referenced and touted by anti-gay pundits as proof positive of the violent tendencies of an entire demographic was taped in Lemon Grove, California. The video shows the tail end of a punching and kicking attack reportedly launched by a young man who allegedly assaulted a GLBT equality activist carrying a rainbow flag.

The alleged assault continued for about a minute and a half, reports said. When the alleged assailant saw that a TV camera was recording the attack, he broke it off and fled, only to be apprehended later on, reported GLBT news site Wockner on June 8.

The victim in the June 6 attack was Ron de Harte, who serves as the executive director of San Diego Pride.

Wockner was participating in the "Equality Torch Relay" that day, in which a model "torch" representing the flame of equality was passed from hand to hand in its rounds of all the towns in San Diego County.

Before the torch could reach deHarte, who was waiting for it near the large lemon statue in Lemon Grove, the alleged attacker struck.

deHarte talked about his experience, saying, "I was waiting for the Equality Torch Relay to come by Main and Broadway and standing in front of the famous overly life-size lemon, and [holding] a rainbow flag big as day" at the time of the attack.

deHarte described the kicks and blows he received, as well as the alleged assailant's homophobic language. "He started whaling on me and tried to take the flag away and made it very clear he didn't think I should be there: 'Get out of here. What do you think you're doing? You need to get the fuck out of here.'"

Apparently referring to the rainbow flag, the alleged assailant said, "'Get that out of here. There's no place for you here.'"

Only later did deHart realize his lips were cut and swollen; at the time, he was trying to step away from the alleged assailant, who can be seen continually moving toward him and lashing out.

"All the while, he was grabbing at the rainbow flag and trying to take it away from me," deHarte said.

"And he was kicking me and slapping. He hit me good a couple of times."

Added deHarte, "I got the side of his fist the first time he hit me, then I think he got my lower jaw on another time. He kicked me a few times.

"I wasn't bleeding or anything," deHart added. "It certainly hurt. I certainly had soreness as the day went on, and this morning when I woke up, I realized my upper lip was swollen and the inside of my cheek was cut up."

Peace and order were the order of the day at the overwhelming majority of the hundreds of anti-Proposition 8 rallies that took place last year in the wake of the ballot initiative, which revoked the rights of gay and lesbian families. So too "Equality Torch Day," according to a report in the San Diego Union Tribune on June 7; the attack against deHarte was the only disruption.

The Union Tribune quoted DeHarte as saying, "The whole point is to get outside of people's comfort zones and raise awareness."

Added the GLBT equality activist, "When people start to see gays and lesbians living in their own neighborhood, they change their opinion."

As to the alleged attack, DeHarte reckoned,"That just reinforces why we have to get out here."

Wockner reported that the alleged attacker might face hate crimes charges, and noted that he was already wanted on a weapons violation and for being in violation of a restraining order.