Bush Family Values

David Ritcheson hated being known as "that kid" — the teenager who was beaten unconscious and sodomized with a plastic pole for four hours during a party where one of his assailants shouted "White Power!" Ritcheson didn't want to stand out from his classmates because of the assault, but he acknowledged in an interview that "it was just really hard to hold your head up, even to walk outside with everyone almost in the world knowing what happened." That anguish most likely contributed to his decision to leap Sunday from a cruise ship to his death in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ritcheson, 18, rarely discussed his feelings and declined to get counseling after being attacked at the drug-fueled teen party in April 2006. A year later, he testified before Congress in support of a hate crimes bill, which is currently pending in the Sentate-- but will likely be vetoed by Bush. Bush supporters applaud such a veto, saying that it would uphold "our nation's constitutional tradition of equal protection under the law." (Note: there is currently a federal hate crimes bill, but it only covers crimes motivated by race, religion, color or national origin-- not sexual orientation or gender.)

Tell all that to David, whose brutal, racially-charged four-hour attack was publicized all over the world. Ritcheson, a Mexican-American, was beaten and sodomized with a patio umbrella pole. He also was stomped and burned with cigarettes, and his attackers poured bleach on him before leaving him for dead. He was hospitalized for more than three months and endured 20 to 30 operations.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle this past April, he said: "I shouldn't care what people think or say. It's just the fact that everyone knows I'm the kid. It was bigger than Houston. It was bigger than Texas. It was bigger than America. Everybody in the world knew what had happened and everybody knew the details of it."

The Anti-Defamation League, which was one of several civil rights groups that organized Ritcheson's testimony before Congress, released a statement Monday. "Our hearts go out to his family and friends, who already have endured so much pain, We pray the same strength, courage and dignity they displayed after David's attack will help them make it through this very difficult time."

Update: A person commenting on this post (since removed due to its language), claims that the proposed hate crimes bill would outlaw freedom of speech/religion by outlawing preachers from speaking out against homosexuality in church. For the benefit of this reader, I'll respond in monosyllabic form: WRONG! This entry from Snopes.com sums it up fairly well. My suggestion to all you so-called "christians" out there: get up off your knees and spend your time reading the Bible a little more closely.