25 year old Laura Gilbert was beaten by a group of people outside a bar in Opelika, Alabama.
Gilbert says it was because she is gay.
Gilbert says she said aloud before heading there for a friend’s birthday, “I don’t think they like my kind there.”
Gilbert and her friend from high school, Sheila Siddall, say they went there to sing karoake.
“As soon as we walked in the bar, I felt uncomfortable,” Gilbert said. “I felt everybody staring at us, but you know, it was her birthday, I didn’t want to ruin it for her.”
Gilbert and Siddall say as they were about to leave, a woman confronted them and started to fight with them. The fight grew to include about a dozen people, including two men, and moved outside, according to the women.
After the police arrived and talked to members of the group, Gilbert was arrested.
here is the local news report:
I’m not surprised by this at all. Opelika is home to many an ignorant bigot. Gilbert is lucky she made it out alive.
Still the behavior of the police in this incident is deplorable. Though the Sherrif’s office says “The arrest that took place was a result of a law enforcement officer actively and presently observing what he at that moment in time perceived to be a violation of the law,” is ludicrous. Why were the attackers not arrested? Were they, having just emerged from a bar, all clean and sober?
Way to live up to stereotypes of Alabamians being ignorant bigots, Opelika.