Three women identified by their lawyers as lesbians were arraigned yesterday on a hate crime charge for allegedly "viciously and repeatedly punching and kicking" a gay man after he bumped them with his backpack on a stairwell. The victim, who suffered a broken nose, told cops he believed the attack was motivated by his sexual orientation since the three women “called him insulting homophobic slurs.” A spokesman for the District Attorney said: "The defendants’ particular orientation or alleged orientations have no bearing on our ability to prosecute for allegedly targeting a person who they believe to be different from them”.
So the question here is the mere fact that someone is a member of the same class (e.g., LGBT community) mean they could not be motivated by hatred for their very own group?
