Team Sports Build Character

Yeah, really bad character. Aggression training results in aggression. This week a student coach and intramural hockey player at UMass Amherst was arrested for gay bashing another student. The victim suffered, among other things, a broken eye socket:

(Amherst, Massachusetts) A male coach for a University of Massachusetts women's hockey team has been charged in an attack on a fellow student that resulted in massive head injuries.

The victim, whose name is being withheld, was beaten on campus by a man who jumped out of car and began yelling homophobic epithets at the 20 year old student. The young man was then beaten and received a concussion and fractured eye socket.

The victim was taken to an area hospital and has since been released.

Tony Brennan, 24, is charged with aggravated assault and battery, a civil rights violation and assault and battery to intimidate someone based on race, creed or sexual orientation with bodily injury involved.

Brennan is identified by the university as a student. He is from Winchester, Massachusetts, and coaches the UMass Women's Hockey Club. He is also listed as an intramural hockey player.

Pending the outcome a trial Brennan could be expelled.

It is not known if either Brennan or the victim knew each other, or what make the victim a specific target other than his suspected sexuality.

Homophobia is rare at the Amherst college. It has been a number of years since there was a reported homophobic incident on campus, a spokesperson for the school's Stonewall Center said.

Last year UMass was named by Campus PrideNet as one of the 20 most
friendly campuses for LGBT students.

How long will things like this continue happening before there is a universally applied heavy deterrent (i.e. pass a national LGBT hate crime bill now!)? And where is the national media coverage of this? As of this posting, a Google news search on "Amherst gay attack" results in five whole hits.

Meanwhile, conservative pundits continue putting bull's eyes on the backs of LGBT people. Pam has a nice summary of recent incidents.