Second attack has south Fla. gays wary

Police are investigating the brutal beating of a gay man outside a Fort Lauderdale,FL, diner, an attack that came in the wake of the killing of a 17 year old transgender teen on a city street. There have been no arrests in either case. South Florida gays are expressing concern about the growing number of homophobic incidents and some in the LGBT tourist industry are worried the situation could impact them as the region prepares for its busiest month. Melbourne Brunner was attacked and beaten outside a 24-hour diner following a verbal assault while he was having a late-night dinner with his partner. Brunner, a Fort Lauderdale resident was seated on the patio with Mitchell Mart and a friend at the Floridian Restaurant on Las Olas Blvd. when a pickup truck stopped nearby. A man got out and began walking down the street when he noticed the trio. The man allegedly yelled at the three about looking at him. "Were you looking at me, if you were, I'm going to come back there and break your neck.'... And then he twisted his hands together,'' Mart told the Miami Herald. Mart said the man then made several anti-gay remarks and the trio decided to pay their bill and leave the restaurant to avoid trouble. On the way out of the patio they asked a waiter to call police. But before the three made it to their car, parked only steps away, the man grabbed Brunner and began beating him. He suffered a blackened eye and cuts and abrasions around his face. During the attack the man allegedly spewed more homophobic remarks. He then went toward his pickup. Mart helped Brunner into their car and began writing down the license plate of the pickup. Before he could finish the attacker took off his shirt and put it over the plate to hide it and then put down the tailgate to further hide it, yelling "I'll kill you before you get my tag number!'' The assault occurred as Fort Lauderdale police continue to search for the killer of 17-year old Simmie Williams Junior. Williams was found in a pool of blood on Feb. 22 in an area frequented by transsexual prostitutes. The teen was declared dead at hospital. The site of the killing is near that of another unsolved murder of a trans woman who was transitioning and still using her birth name, Timothy Broadus, in 2003. Police department spokesperson Frank Sousa said the Williams murder and the beating of Brunner appear unrelated. Members of the gay community say they are becoming increasingly concerned about their safety. Sousa, in an interview with the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, said the city is still safe. "It's not an issue. However, we are ready to address any and all of their concerns," Sousa said. "It's an anomaly. They're not something we encounter frequently." LGBT rights group Fight Out Loud said on Feb. 27 that it sees a connection between the violence and the anti-gay rhetoric of people like Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle and Florida4Marriage the group pushing for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state. "The dangerous, hate-filled words of these people have inflamed violence against innocent members of our community and must not go unchallenged," Fight Out Loud said in a statement. "It is time that Florida, and all of America, begin to have the conversation about hate-based violence and the terror that hate crimes inflict." The organization and other LGBT groups are planning a memorial service for Williams on Feb. 28 at the site of her killing. The tourist industry also is laying at least part of the blame for the rising violence on Mayor Jim Naugle. Last year Naugle created a stir when he claimed that gay sex is rampant in public washrooms on the beach and called for the city to spend a quarter-million dollars on a replacement toilet that he said would end the problem. The remarks angered the city's gay community which launched a "flush Naugle" campaign to flood his office email with "virtual toilet paper" and the police department said there had been only one arrest at the toilet on the stretch of beach known for its gay sunbathers. Naugle announced he would issue an apology, but instead turned it into another broadside against the gay community. The conservative Democrat said he was apologizing for what he claimed was underestimating the problem and that the county had the highest rate of new HIV/AIDS cases involving men having sex with men in the country. Naugle then suggested the county tourism office should rethink its ad campaigns that welcome gays to the area. Last year nearly one million gay and lesbian visitors to Broward County, spending more than one-billion dollars in the county.