April
Gay Bashing In Utah. Part 2
Posted by Admin at 10:11 AM. Placed in Local In Utah category
SLC – Full details have been made available now on the gay couple who were left for dead last week at a local Salt Lake bar.
Ryan Gray and Kevin Burns head down to the Piper Down pub on State Street several times a month. “It’s always been a great place to go” says Ryan, “it’s really friendly and we’ve never felt out of place before.” But that all changed last week.
4 men from Wyoming, Oklahoma and Louisiana who are here working at one of the refineries came in looking for trouble according to Ryan and David Morris (the owner of Piper Down). “They came in and our staff were watching them from the start,” says Mr. Morris, “they were getting hammered really quickly and our bar had already cut them off by the time karaoke started.” Ryan and Kevin were there with a few friends, but started feeling on edge when the group of men behind them started throwing out “fags” and “queers” more and more loudly.
Picture of Ryan Gray 2 days after the bashing
“Then it all started when one of our friends was up on stage singing Lady Gaga,” says Ryan. The men started getting threatening with their insults, and Ryan, Kevin and several of their friends all asked them to stop several times. When they didn’t, Ryan decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore. He approached the men and again asked them to knock it off. The men instantly went on the offensive, forming a semi-circle around Ryan and yelling insults. Feeling threatened, Ryan reacted instinctively and hit the ring-leader to try and get them all to back off. The fight erupted instantly however and the bar’s staff jumped in to break it up.
The staff, sensing more danger, got Ryan and Kevin out the door and tried to keep the group of 4 men inside for a while to give the couple a chance to get to their cars and take off. But that only lasted a few seconds and the group came out right behind Kevin. David Morris called the police the men punched Kevin in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. Ryan jumped in to protect his partner but was quickly overwhelmed and was on the ground as well. The couple were kicked and punched repeatedly while down, including on their faces and torsos.
Piper Down’s security tried to break up the bashing as quickly as they could but the damage was already done. The police arrived but the 4 redneck bigots had already fled. After taking statements from the victims, the bar and witnesses the couple immediately went to the hospital. Kevin had to have stitches put in on the inside of his lips and had several gashes on his face and body. Ryan had lacerations across his face and his left eye socket was fractured. He has had several emergency surgeries on his eye already, but the doctors have told him that if his eye sinks any lower he may permanently lose sight in that eye.
“We hate this,” says David Morris, “My staff and I have worked hard to make Piper Down a friendly-to-all place and we’re proud of our extremely diverse crowd we get every night.”
Ryan is so far holding up well, “I just never expected anything like this to happen to me,” he explains, “you hear about it, but I’ve
Picture of Ryan Gray 2 days after the bashing
never met anyone like that who was so obviously looking to pick a fight with anyone who’s gay.”
As of Saturday night, no detective had been assigned to the case yet according to Ryan, but he plans to pursue this as far as possible. The 4 men left open tabs at the bar, so Piper Down was able to immediately give their names to the police.
I asked Ryan if he regretted sticking up for himself and his partner, his answer was simple - Never. “Always stand up for yourself and those you love.”
Tags: bashing, fight, Gay, injured, kevin burns, pictures, piper down, ryan gray, ryan kevin, salt lake city, SLC, UT, utah
This makes me SO angry. I am glad the Piper Down folks tried so hard to step in and protect Kevin and Ryan. I hope the police get in gear and go after the guys who did this. They deserve to be prosecuted as far as the law will allow. If they were working the refinery it is entirely possible they were wearing steel toed boots, and as far as i’m concerned that is assault with a deadly weapon.
Good luck and get well Kevin and Ryan!
Jesus Christ, Eric, this is horrific. Thank you for keeping us updated. We need to bring this to the public’s attention if it hasn’t been already. This makes me sick.
I want to know the names of these stupid assholes. there’s probably something we could do with them.
I totally see how this DOES qualify as a hate crime, and I agree that this is a really frightening experience that we as a state and community need to take a look at, and I also think our community should be wary of how deep we choose to play the victim on this one: your story admits that Ryan was the first to throw a punch. While I don’t agree sitting around and hearing someone throw insults and slurs at you is the ideal response, neither do I believe violence was. I think there were other alternatives Ryan could have chosen in that moment, and while this IS TOTALLY something for Utah to note is an ongoing problem that seems to only be getting bigger — or at least more public — I don’t think we can just sit back and say “Well, they said queer and fag a few times, so that vindicates us to be aggressive back and then seek political asylum under our new hate crimes laws.”
That guy should have seen an ass kicking from a mile away…he was a moron for trying to tangle with rednecks. He escacalated the situation which is the worst thing you can do…gay or not.
Piper down didn’t react soon enough and kick those bastards outbefore they got the fight they were looking for…I hope they get sued.
The redneck mentality is predictable…they all think alike and can be dealt with. You cannot stand up physically against a group that big solo…unless you are an idiot.
How this should have went down.
Gay patron tells the bar owner or security he is being harassed.
Rednecks get kicked out, possibly with a scuffle with security. Maybe cops come and haul the rednecks off. Rednecks lose their jobs for being shitheads.
Gays don’t get their asses beat.
This whole thing went down wrong and everyone is at least partially to blame. Nobody is a hero. Getting your ass kicked because you are gay doesn’t make you a martyr in this instance.
So just because someone verbally insults you, you get to respond with physical violence? VG is right, some poor choices were made here. The alleged victims do not get a free pass to throw the first punch. The rednecks were defending themselves from a physical attack they did not start. Perhaps they simply responded in kind until they could safely leave the area.
“Always stand up for yourself and those you love.” Ok, sure.
But don’t throw the first punch. “reacted instinctively.” Ha. That was the first crime committed, folks. Don’t you know that’s the rule on Bad Girls Club for a reason?
Hate crime? No. Insults are free speech. Throwing the first punch is assault.
If this guy agitates for a detective to be assigned to the case he might end up with charges too.
The problem is that the Piper Down staff Just sat there and did nothing until it escalated to the point of a fight. I suspect that if the group had been hurling racist taunts the situation would hopefully of been handled differently. I would expect that the staff would have intervened much sooner.
I am concerned for their safety if a detective is assigned; it sounds like Ryan threw the first punch, which could get him charged with assault as well, depending on the officer. No doubt this is a hate crime, but I just hope they get a good detective who will realize he was defending himself. Utah law can be really messed up when it comes to assault charges.
these assholes think they come in our state and cause this trouble, f*** them, pieces of sh** mother ********’s
ok, so when I first read this article, I was outraged… pissed off, and wanted to find out who it was, and go kick their asses myself, but as I am reading all of the coments, I was able to think about it because I had calmed down a bit and the fact is, ryan was in the wrong… believe me, I would love to kick every biggots ass that I’ve ever met, but it isn’t really the way to go about it. what would I have done? probably the same thing as Ryan, though it wasn’t right, simply because if he was truly surrounded by the guys, it is natural for all beings to lash out when feeling trapped, threatened, and backed into a corner, so he shouldn’t be called anything bad for throwing the first punch, even though he was in the wrong. I was very happy when the hate crimes bill passed, but this is not a good example to use it on, simply because it started as a hate crime, and ended as something completely different. if we (anyone who could be involved in a hate crime), want this law to be upheld, and not be taken advantage of to the point that it is a worthless law, unfortunately, we will have to just sit back until it escalates to the point of being a hate crime. it sucks being called things just because you are gay, or black, or jewish or whatever, but seriously, it was just words… lets not kill the bill before it goes away because we cry wolf too often. On a brighter note… I do hope that the 2 that were beaten get better, and my heart does go out to them, and those who care for them. it always sucks seeing someone you care about hurting, no matter how little or how much.
Open Bar Tabs? Names? Followup? South Salt Lake City Police track them down on their worksite. They get arrested and go to jail. THEY begin to understand that looking for a fight with the gays will not be tolerated in SLC. They lose their jobs because they cannot show up for work. South Salt Lake Police Department somewhat exonerates themselves for being the slowest and worst Police Dept. in the county with crimes such as these. Piper Down extends itself way beyond their normal marketing to the LGBT customer–if they want ANY of us to return to their slow to react bar and Security Staff. The media is made fully aware of the incident, provided photos, eyewitnesses to interview, and our Gay allies in the Media bring it to the publics attention–with HATE CRIME being the purpose and drive for reporting the event!! Gays go to Piper in numbers for support, patronage, and protection!! AND PD staff is trained in quicker response, and heading off trouble before it begins. And the bartenders at PD are empowered to alert Security, who are trained to call the Police early on, and have a presence at the bar. The two gay men DO learn that this is a possibility ANYWHERE IN UTAH, and in the USA, and that they should have a Plan B in place if it EVER happens to them again, which does not include throwing the first punch. Everyone LEARNS from this sad, sad event, and WE (the LGBT community) stay on alert of WHERE we live, and WHO we may encounter, and WHAT bullshit they may be up to. Defense, non-agressive, think through WHAT your reaction would be if this type of thing were to happen to you or an LGBT friend. Or any FRIEND for that matter. Something GOOD simply MUST come from this horrible situation. Piper Down, The LGBT Community, Security, So. S.L. Police all LEARN and become more self-aware!!
He shouldn’t have thrown the first punch and probably should have just ignored the insults…but that was a horrible beating he took! Those pics look bad, he could have been killed.
I’m surprised the staff would allow all those insults and surprised they didn’t just kick them out. Why would they think they could keep 4 men in the club while Kevin and Ryan webt to their cars?
SAD and HOPEFULLY GOD WILL/SHALL STRIKE THOSE MEN YELLING THE INSULTS DOWN!!!!
This was not a hate crime. The rednecks were obviously assholes, but talk is talk. If someone threw a punch at me I would kick their ass also.
[...] Full details were made available on the gay bashing of Ryan Gray and Kevin Burns in Salt Lake City Utah – details [...]
I originally was way pissed off about this as well, and I’m still upset, but I agree with everyone else on here. Reading further into this, Ryan did in fact throw the first punch, thus assault. So I don’t know they can claim a hate crime on this…..
[...] his partner got beat up. Eric Ethington, of Pride In Utah, wrote two articles about it. Part I, and Part II. I know that when Eric talked to Dave Morris, the owner of Piper Down, that Dave was very concerned [...]