The fatal beating
of a 72-year-old gay man last month in Detroit has
sparked a campaign to update federal and state hate-crime
laws to include sexual orientation and gender
identity.
Andrew Anthos was
riding a city bus home from the library on February 13,
listening to his headphones and quietly singing along, when
another man asked if he was gay and called him a
''faggot,'' according to police and family members.
Anthos ignored
him, but the man followed him off the bus and again
confronted him. Anthos, who was helping a wheelchair-bound
friend stuck in a snowbank, reportedly told the man he
was gay. The man then struck him in the back of the
head with a pipe, stood over him as he lay on the
ground, and ran off after Anthos's friend yelled for him to
stop.
Anthos fell into
a coma on February 21 and died two days later.
Anthos ''was a
patriot. He loved veterans.... He just happened to be
gay,'' said Michigan state senator Hansen Clarke, who plans
to introduce legislation to amend Michigan's Ethnic
Intimidation Act. ''The whole point is making sure
that people have equal rights in the legal system,
people aren't picked on or threatened just because they look
or act differently.''
Police have no
suspect, but released a composite sketch of the attacker.
The department was investigating whether it was a hate
crime.
''He wasn't
robbed, nothing was touched,'' said Anthos's cousin Athena
Fedenis. ''It was strictly a hate crime.''
Fedenis, 45, said
Anthos told her what happened from his hospital bed and
that she took notes because she ''wasn't going to let this
get thrown underneath the rug and let it be forgotten
about.''
His 20-year
campaign to illuminate the state capitol dome in red, white,
and blue at least one night a year put him in contact with
countless lawmakers, reporters, and others in Lansing,
the state capital.
Fedenis said
Anthos asked her before he died to promise that she would
work to get the capitol dome lit to honor police officers,
veterans, and others. She established a nonprofit
foundation called Andrew's Light to take
contributions. Money that does not go to the lighting effort
will be donated to the Triangle Foundation, a gay
rights advocacy group based in Detroit that is
counseling the family.
Fedenis said her
cousin was openly gay but not an advocate. He was more
concerned about treating all people with respect, and
Fedenis believes he would be supporting efforts to
amend hate-crime laws from behind the scenes.
The federal and
state legislative efforts to include as hate crimes
attacks on gays have been around for at least a decade. They
gained temporary traction from the slaying of Matthew
Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was
beaten and left to die in 1998. Now, advocates hope,
Anthos's death adds some urgency and weight.
U.S. Democratic
representative John Conyers introduced legislation in the
House of Representatives this week, and Democratic U.S.
senator Carl Levin cited Anthos in a statement on the
Senate floor earlier this month when he said he would
soon help reintroduce the Local Law Enforcement Hate
Crimes Prevention Act.
Besides expanding
the definition of hate crimes to include gays,
lesbians, and others, it would allow the federal government
to help local law enforcement investigate hate crimes.
Fedenis said
Anthos, who received state disability payments, was
diagnosed with a mental illness in the 1950s and suffered
from low self-esteem that stemmed from family
circumstances: His mother, who was 16 when he was
born, was Greek; his father was black.
''He had thoughts
of suicide because it was hard to deal with not only
being half-black, half-white, but also being openly gay,''
she said. ''He was hit twice as hard.''
Julie Cook, who
befriended Anthos in the late 1980s, says the dome
lighting effort and the legislative push are fitting
tributes to her friend, but she cannot help but feel a
little bitter.
''It's very sad
that he has to be gone for people to actually
listen--he had to die to be able to be listened
to.'' (Jeff Karoub, AP)