Police investigate Ft. Lauderdale hate crime

Ft. Lauderdale has always been a gay-friendly city, or so we thought. Though the image of the Florida town is one of beaches and tolerance, a recent public beating has been tagged with the descriptive epithet of a hate crime.

This event comes as the second assault on a member of the city’s gay community, and worries those who count on the city’s gay friendly atmosphere to attract tourism. Last week a gay teenager was killed in the city, and not 24-hours later, local man Melbourne Brunner was beaten in public.

A man approached Brunner, who had just finished breakfast with his partner at a diner, and began to shout hateful slogans at them and uttered “this is how I break faggots’ necks,” with a crude hand gesture. When the couple tried to get to their car, the man followed them and punched Brunner in the face. The man then covered his own car’s licence plate with his shirt and sped off.

Brunner is recovering, but the gay community is beginning to fear a harsh homophobic current in the city and fear for their safety.