Utah man had ‘Die Fag’ carved on his arm in a homophobic attack
By Ben Kelly
A man in Utah has been involved in a series of homophobic attacks – the most serious of which saw him robbed, forced to drink bleach, with the words ‘Die Fag’ carved into his arm with a knife.
22 year old Rick Jones has spoken to Gay Salt Lake about his experience, which happened on 25 April when he was finishing up work at the family business, Grand Central Station Pizzeria in Delta – a town of about 3,500 people, 96% of which are Mormons.
“I went out to take out the trash, and when I came back in, I thought it was strange that I didn’t hear the door close,” he said. “I turned around to shut the door, and someone grabbed me by the head and slammed me to the wall.” Jones then passed out, but when he woke up, he was on the floor. “Someone was on my chest and legs and they were trying to force me to drink bleach.”
When his sister found him at the restaurant later that night, he had the words ‘Die Fag’ carved into his arm, and had suffered a concussion. He was hospitalised for his injuries but released the next day.
However, almost a week later on 30 April, Jones woke up to find that his family’s home had been vandalised – the same words ‘Die Fag’ spray painted across their garage door. Jones says that again, during Utah Pride Festival Weekend (4-7 June), the graffiti was repeated, and a petrol bomb was thrown through his bedroom window, though he managed to extinguish the flames. The family restaurant was also targeted again.
Although the incidents have garnered little media attention, the Millard County Sheriff’s Office has appealed to the community to help find the perpetrators, in what they have described as a ‘hate crime’. Sheriff Robert Dekker of Delta told local media KSL News, “In all of my years I can’t remember anything like this ever happening before, so it’s something we want to get a handle on as soon as we can.”