The Traill County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a man says he was attacked outside a bar in Hillsboro, N.D., for being gay.
William Lamb says he was attacked on July 6 while having drinks at A & R Bar in Hillsboro with his husband, Daniel Maldonado, and a group of friends.
The couple claims that a group of people hurled anti-gay slurs at them throughout the course of the night.
At midnight, Lamb says he went outside to smoke a cigarette, when a person called him a slur. When he turned around to face the person, his attacker knocked him out.When he regained consciousness, he realized he was in pain.
“I woke up with some pain in my left leg. My face hurt, my teeth hurt,” he told the Grand Forks Herald.
Maldonado, who was inside during the attack, later found his husband lying on the ground with a broken ankle, a broken nose, and possible damage to his teeth.
Lamb says he has an upcoming dentist appointment to check his teeth. He’s already undergone one surgery, and is using crutches to walk and move about.
He was slated to return to the doctor on Wednesday to learn if he needs additional surgery to reconnect the tendons in his leg that were damaged in the attack.
Traill County Sheriff Steve Hunt told the Herald that his office has been investigating the attack, but no charges have been filed yet.
Even if charges are filed, because North Dakota’s hate crimes law does not explicitly protect LGBTQ people, the attack cannot be charged as a bias-motivated crime.
Both Lamb and Maldonado say they expect a backlash from the small town of about 1,600 people for talking publicly about their experience, but want to highlight the homophobia they’ve encountered.
“I don’t feel safe in the community,” Maldonado says.
“You can’t even hold your husband’s or your girlfriend’s hand without getting assaulted,” Lamb said of the situation LGBTQ people face. “It’s ridiculous, honestly.”
The FBI has arrested a Texas man for allegedly threatening to carry out a mass shooting at a local Pride event.
Joshua Cole, of Anson, Texas, allegedly posted a Facebook comment earlier this month criticizing the Abilene Pride Alliance for banning weapons and certain bags at its annual indoor festival, held September 20 at the Abilene Convention Center on the same day as the group's Pride parade.
The original poster argued the group could not legally stop people from carrying guns into a city-owned building and shared a screenshot of the event flyer listing the venue and restrictions.
Edgar Arrington was arrested and appeared in D.C. Superior Court on September 18, where Magistrate Judge Heide Herrmann found probable cause that he committed first-degree murder while armed in the July 5 shooting of 28-year-old transgender woman Dream Johnson.
Herrmann also approved a hate crime enhancement, allowing prosecutors to argue that Arrington's actions were driven, at least in part, by hostility to Johnson's gender identity. She ordered the 38-year-old held without bond pending a preliminary hearing before Judge Danya Dayson on October 7.
Treven Michael Gokey was arrested by Phoenix police on September 17 for allegedly threatening to shoot up Cruisin’ 7th, a popular gay bar near his Arizona apartment. He faces felony charges of making a terroristic threat and using a computer to threaten, after blaming the LGBTQ community for recent acts of violence.
According to court documents, police were called to the 39-year-old's apartment for a welfare check after a crisis hotline reported he had threatened to shoot up the bar, claiming he was “triggered by political events.”
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