EDGE Fire Island

Four days after an Ontario man was assaulted by a gang of anti-gay thugs and put in the hospital with multiple facial fractures, a second man in the Canadian province was attacked and beaten.

The Sept. 8 attack took place in broad daylight in London, an Ontario city located midway between Toronto and Detroit, reported a Sept. 15 article at the Web site Xtra.

The victim, Brandon Wright, who is a modeling agent and events promoter, says that he received a text message from a man calling himself "Alex," who wanted to break into the modeling business.

Wright and Alex agreed to meet. Alex turned out to be a tall young man--about six feet--between 20-26 years of age, with blue eyes. But, Wright said, Alex "didn’t have the looks" that would secure him a modeling gig.

When Wright told Alex he could not help him launch a modeling career, Alex allegedly lured Wright to a black Ford 150 pickup truck. Once Wright was in the truck, the man took off, with Wright along as an unwilling passenger.

Wright recounts that Alex then began to hurl anti-gay invective at him, threatening to kill him while striking him with a heavy object.

Wright recalled the driver as telling him, "Because you’re gay you need to be punished, I’m going to fucking kill you, and you’re a faggot."

Said Wright, "He started hitting me with a big, black, heavy object.

"He kept repeating, ’I’m going to fucking kill you faggot.’"

The pickup truck was still moving as Wright leaped from cab to escape the beating.

Said Wight, "I honestly believed that if I didn’t get out of the vehicle I would have died."

Wright was attended to by helpful people on the street.

"A group of people attended to me immediately.

"This thug guy came over and took off his shirt. He said, ’Put this on you head.’

"There were all these people and they were being so kind and calling the ambulance."

The Xtra article reported that Wright suffered face and scalp lacerations, bruising, and a dislocated shoulder. he was taken to a hospital for treatment.

The article said that Wright recalled the man mentioning that he came from Thunder Bay, the Ontario town where, four days before Wright was assaulted, a gang of up to eight men harassed, then chased and viciously beat Jake Raynard.

Raynard was out with friends in the early morning hours of Sept. 4 when a man approached the group asking for a cigarette. The men then became abusive and began to harass the men with anti-gay epithets. When Raynard and his friends attempted to walk away, the man followed them, still hurling anti-gay abuse; other men joined in the harangue, and though Raynard got his friends safely into a taxi, the crowd of anti-gay thugs prevented him from also getting into the cab.

Raynard ran from the group, but was chased down and beaten so savagely that he suffered multiple facial fractures, including a broken jaw, palate, and eye socket.

Thunder Bay residents responded with a rally dedicated to making the meaning of the attack about community support rather than the terroristic targeting of gays for brutal violence.

Wright was quoted in the Xtra article as saying, "It has always been a struggle for me being a gay male."

"I was used to walking down the street and being called a fag," Wright continued. "I didn’t care, but the fact the someone had the idea that I had to be punished and they were going to kill me--I do not feel safe at all.

"I just don’t want it to happen to anyone else," Wright added. "I’m a strong person and I can fight whatever comes my way.

"I just don’t understand why it happened."

Ontario and British Columbia are gay-friendly areas of Canada, according to an online survey, reported a story at Canada.com.

The survey found a 66% approaval rating for marriaeg equality in both British Columbia and Ontario, the story reported.

Younger respondents to the survey were more accepting of marriage equality than their older counterparts, the article said--a result that recalled the demographic makeup of those who embraced and rejected the ushering in of civil rights for racial minorities four decades ago.