In April, a gay UNC student was attacked in the form of a hate crime. Quinn Matney was the victim of this crime.
He had been having trouble sleeping so he went for a walk around campus at about 3 am. He ran into an acquaintance on a bridge by a residence hall. Two men were sitting on a bench nearby. One man got up and approached Quinn saying “Here’s a taste of hell you f***ing fag” and burned him with an unidentified object on his wrist. Quinn tried pulling away but the man didn’t let go until he received a hard punch in the face. Quinn then quickly walked away from the two men who had appeared to be drunk.
He headed to the emergency room but left after hours of waiting. He said he received treatment at Campus Health Services the following day. This burn was diagnosed as 3rd and 4th degree burns. Quinn now no longer has feeling in his thumb and only limited mobility in his index finger. Doctors told Matney that he will need to visit the burn unit and go through two weeks of occupational therapy for his injury, and that he might need surgery.
University officials did not comment on the situation until a week later when a post on Alert Carolina occurred. The co-chairman of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance said, “A very blatant hate crime against a GLBT individual occurred on this campus, and we only heard about it by word of mouth”.
UNC planned to report the incident as a hate crime to the federal government after finally addressing the subject.
The man who had burned Quinn appeared to be a white 19-year-old, standing 5 feet 10 inches, with a large build and short brown hair. He believes this man might have overheard previous conversations with his friends about his sexual orientation. The man will be sought on charges of aggravated assault.
My views on this issue tie in with one of my previous posts about bullying. Being mean to anyone (and especially when it physically or mentally harms them) is so pathetic and cowardly. If you have to hurt someone then you obviously want to be a part of their life. If you don’t like someone then don’t bother them. There’s just no use.
It bothers me so much that people think it’s necessary to physically harm someone because they are happy living their life. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but it should never be forced upon anyone. I really hope that someday we can have this world full of tolerant and open-minded people.
Going along with this story: How many haters does it take to change a light bulb? None, haters are afraid of change even if it will make the world a brighter place.
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