‘Giant f*ck you’ protest organised after vicious bashing
Image: Picture: Reclaim the Street
AN activist group has announced a protest against violence aimed at the diverse LGBTI Newtown community after the vicious bashing of Isaac Keatinge.
Mr Keatinge was attacked by a group of heterosexual men for wearing make up and a dress last Saturday night while walking through Newtown.
“It’s not the first time, just the worst time. I’ve been surrounded and pushed by groups of straight men before, so I didn’t expect it to escalate so quickly,” Mr Keatinge said.
Reclaim the Streets spokesperson James Loch described the attack on Mr Keatinge as shocking, but said it was not an isolated incident.
He blamed the displacement of the Kings Cross crowd, as a result of the lockouts, as one of the causes of the increase in violence.
“These are our friends, our adopted families who are being harassed, bullied, intimidated, and beaten,” Mr Loch said.
“We all came to Newtown to avoid that kind of bullshit, but thanks to Casino Mike it has followed us here.”
Organisers are asking protesters to “get weird” and “wear something, or do something out of the ordinary”.
“This protest is a giant fuck you to anyone who has ever tried to make you fit in,” Mr Loch said.
The Keep Newtown Weird protest will meet in Victoria Park at 3pm on Saturday, April 23, before heading down King Street.
For more information, visit the Facebook event page here.
Whilst obviously concerned about this attack and what it continues to represent, now having a campaign called “Keep Newtown Weird” in no way helps the transgender cause – the very nature of the struggles we have and continue to have, the acceptance we seek all stems from not wanting to be seen as weird – this label undermines all we seek to do to be accepted – this needs to be re-thought again – different yes, need understanding yes, want to be tagged as weird – no way
We need to take action. The NSW police are badly trained and totally incompetent so there is no use going to them.
Nothing will happen so yes, we need to make it so these thugs will think twice before coming into Newtown to get their kicks.
….so now we have the militant homosexuals come out of the woodwork?….like “Bash Back” in America?…..they take the law in their own hands with out due process – how do they know that it was an attack based on homosexuality?…..sure, the media reports it as such and most likely the media is wrong (as is usually the case). Talk about emotional reactions without facts. The attack could have been for a thousand other reasons and it just happened that the recipients are homosexuals. I have already seen malicious attacks occuring as a result of false media reporting and so I know first-hand that it can happen.
For someone to try and turn a bashing into a political football is pretty rank. Because no one ever got bashed in Newtown before the Kings Cross lock-out laws came into effect, huh?
And your point is…???!!!
My point is, I thought, pretty simple. Isaac was bashed, which is terrible. It shouldn’t happen on our streets. But then “Reclaim the Streets” jumps in and starts blaming it on the lock out laws. I find that a pretty ridiculous jump to make because there’s absolutely no correlation that can be made between the two. People have been getting bashed in Newtown, for their race, sexuality, drug debts and much more, for a hundred years. Clearly “Reclaim the Streets” has a hard-on for the laws and wants to bang-on about them as much as it can, but it looks totally tryhard to politicise a bashing like this for their own purposes. And further, it saddens me that all the people giving the “thumbs down” to my post seem to think it’s OK… that a bashing can be turned into a statement against those laws when there’s no correlation. That’s my point, Sven. How ’bout them apples?