Defending Our Lives

The first thing I thought when I heard the story of Lucan Dawson was “good for him. Dawson, an aspiring singer was gay-bashed by seven men, and in an attempt to defend himself during the seven-on-one struggle he ended up stabbing one of them.

Dawson, 21, of Upsal Street near Magnolia, managed to get to his feet, and he pulled out a small pocket knife. He waved it at the crowd a few times, David Dawson said, trying to push them back.

Then, he ran.

Gerald Knight, 17, allegedly followed and then reached out to grab Dawson, who still had the knife in his hand.

During the ensuing struggle, Dawson plunged the knife into Knight’s chest.

Knight, of Hortter Street near Chew Avenue, died at Einstein Medical Center less than an hour later, police said.

There was a time when I might have been somewhat conflicted by this story, back when I considered myself a near total pacifist. While I still consider myself a non-violent person, I’ve found that there are times when I will resort to violence if necessary, like a threat to my son’s life or my husbands; or my own, because I’ll be damned if I’m simply going to lose one minute of the lifetime I plan to spend with my husband, watching our kids grow up.

So, I don’t blame Dawson for his actions, but I was a little stunned to hear that he’d been charged with manslaughter after turning himself in.

Dawson is currently in jail charged with voluntary manslaughter. His family could not raise the money to meet his $30,000 bail. Even if he is acquitted of the charges, his family remains worried for his safety. They said the three remaining teens threatened to shoot Dawson.

Stunned, I filed the item away, mentally composing a rant to post later during the day. Fortunately I don’t have to, because a judge saw reason and thrown out the manslaughter charge.

Municipal Judge Gerard Kosinski also ordered 21-year-old Lucas Dawson, an aspiring singer, released from jail.

…”He did the only thing he could do, the only thing in his power to stop the attack,” defense attorney Kevin T. Birley said.

I can’t put it any better than KipEsquire put it:

Still, one wonders how long it will be before some hateful commentator throws down the “special rights for gays” gauntlet, insists that gays are instinctively violent and even homicidal, and of course accuses the judge who threw out the charge of being “activist.”

Meanwhile, it really is important to remember that it’s not just about marriage and that there really are people who want to see all gays dead.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say that surely no one on the right would be outrageous enough to bring the “special rights” argument to bear in this case. But then I remember the times we’re living in, and I can almost hear the talking points about how this “radical homosexual” violated the free speech rights of these young men who were simply expressing their disapproval of his “lifestyle,” and that this ruling is “open season on heterosexuals, etc.” Maybe we won’t hear any of this, but it won’t surprise me if we do.

If you ask me, it was a simple case of his attackers being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, bashing the wrong queer; one who fought back. It’s kind of surprising that after all these decades of surviving McCarthyism, throwing a pick in the face of Anita Bryant, staring down the AIDS epidemic, and persisting despite everything the haters try to do to us, they still don’t expect us to fight back.

They don’t expect us to fight for our lives, because they don’t believe our lives are worth anything and they don’t expect us to believe it either. Believing our lives are worth fighting for is our best defense.

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