A gay man in Austin, Texas, was walking to an Uber late at night when a group of men suddenly attacked him, yelling homophobic slurs at him. The alleged victim, Joshua Ibarra, was carrying a handbag and black heeled boots.
“I think they should all be appropriately charged. I mean, it was just one person that started this, but they all followed suit. There were slurs flying around, especially when I was getting beaten up,” Ibarra told KXAN.
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Mr Ibarra was beaten until he fell to the ground and lost consciousness, and the word “gay bastard” was shouted at him.
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One of Ibarra’s friends tried to defend him, but ended up being attacked by her.
“I remember her throwing herself on top of me and them hitting her in the back of the head,” Ibarra said. “I just yelled at her and said, ‘Move,'” he said.
The Austin Police Department believes the incident was a hate crime.
Three members of the University of Texas Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, Alex Saenz and Bhabhi Kaushik, and Delta Sigma Phi Eta vice president Sergio Martinez, turned themselves in and were arrested after the attack, but an arrest warrant was also issued for another woman who is believed to have taken part in the attack.
Lawyers for the defendants say a friend of Ibarra’s initiated the attack and argue they have evidence to prove their innocence, including other security camera footage, which backs up their claims.
Lawyers for Saenz, the only person charged with hate crimes, say he never said such a thing.
In Texas, it is notoriously difficult to prosecute crimes as hate crimes: Of the more than 6,000 hate crimes that state police have documented as occurring since 2001, only 41 have actually been prosecuted as hate crimes, and the vast majority never even make it to court because prosecutors rarely pursue hate crime charges.
Activists and lawmakers have tried to fight this lack of enforcement.
“Where you live determines whether or not you can get the help you need, so for many LGBTQ people in rural and suburban Texas, there really are few local avenues to have these crimes taken seriously,” Ricardo Martinez, executive director of Equality Texas, told KXAN. “Violence like what happened to Josh is truly their fault, so lawmakers need to have the courage to stand up and do something meaningful to protect our community.”
Ibarra has not yet been allowed to return to work since the attack.
Despite the attack, he still looks for inspiration: In a frame, he has a painting by his niece that quotes the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something you are not is your greatest achievement.”
“The funny thing is, I always watch it and remind myself to be my true self, my authentic self, regardless of everything that’s happened,” Ibarra said.
