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Show 180 bashings behind Radio City Lounge: "If they found out the location of the beating, if it was by a gay bar or in the park, they would take their time to get there, they really couldn't have cared less, you had no business being there in the first place." Mark Eldridge described being attacked by two men he encountered while cruising Liberty Park in the late '60s: "They started kicking me in my body and face and then they peed on me ... and went through my wallet." When the hospital treating his injuries contacted the police, he reported the incident as a mugging that occurred after his car broke down: "I just plain lied about it, I didn't want to say I was picked up because I didn't want to disclose doing that kind of activity.'?" However, antigay violence posed a potential danger for even the most circumspect gay men, and attacks sometimes occurred in situations far removed from bars and public spaces frequented by gays. John Iverson recounted a traumatic episode which began as a dinner engagement with two men at Log Haven Restaurant arranged by an acquaintance. An insurance salesman, John arrived with the intention of proposing business rather than sex, but as the meal progressed, his prospective clients adduced his homosexuality from his "fastidious" handling of utensils. After following John to the parking lot, one of the men grabbed me by the back of the neck, the other one held me, and they beat me in the face, broke my jaw, knocked my glasses off, threw me in a heap by the side. I was in so much pain, all my front teeth were knocked out. I was in the LDS Hospital for close to two weeks recovering. [When my partner's] mother got an attorney and contacted these men, they all signed a statement that I had propositioned the one man, told him I would give 87Holbrook; Mark Eldridge [pseud.], interview by author, Tape recording, Salt Lake City, 1 September 2004. |
