Bashing

From Homolexis Glossary

A gay basher is someone who physically or verbally assaults homosexuals (it is not a gay who bashes). These thugs usually operate in groups. Typically, they linger around cruising areas or outside gay bars, waiting for an opportunity to attack an isolated gay man. In some instances, the attackers may even be acquainted with their victim, as in the Matthew Shepard case.

Since gay assignations have largely shifted from public venues to the Internet, the incidence of these assaults should be declining. Yet that is not necessarily so, as bashers may attack individuals, some of them even heterosexuals, merely on the basis of appearance.

In former times, and occasionally even today, a hostile individual would opportunistically agree to be sexually “serviced” by a gay man, and then beat him up. These scoundrels were known colloquially as dirt.

There are documented cases where bashers have themselves been found to be gay. For this apparent contradiction several reasons have been advanced. One is that by acting together with a pack they can hide their own inclinations. Some may hold that in attacking another gay person they are somehow expelling the temptation from their own psyche.