Michigan Woman Assaulted After Her Same-Sex Wedding Was Featured on the News

[Oceander]

The Wire

Michigan Woman Assaulted After Her Same-Sex Wedding Was Featured on the News

Abby Ohlheiser

An unnamed Michigan woman who took part in one of the state's first same-sex marriages was beaten unconscious on Monday, after her attackers allegedly recognized her from a televised report on her wedding. The unnamed woman and her new wife were one of 300 couples able to marry in late March after a court order briefly lifted the state ban on same-sex marriage. On Monday, a group of men approached her on the street, made reference to her TV appearance while using a homophobic slur, and then punched her to the ground, according to the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office.

In a news release quoted by the Detroit Free Press, the sheriff's office gave the following account of the attack:

    “One of the males stated, ‘Hey b----. Are you that (anti-gay slur) from the news?’ One of the males then punched her in the face, which knocked her to the ground and unconscious."

The Free Press adds that one of the men kicked her in the gut after she regained consciousness, and then fled. The woman described one of her attackers as "white, 5-feet-10 inches to 5-feet-11 inches tall, heavy set and with a low or husky voice." There were at least two other men involved, however authorities haven't provided a physical description of them.

Washtenaw was one of four Michigan counties issuing marriage licenses on March 22, the Saturday after a federal judge struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban. Although the state later appealed to 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay on the decision, 300 couples were able to marry during that brief window. Although the state government has said that it will not recognize those marriages, the federal government will.

[Oceander]

whatever else one might think of the political subject, there is just no call for doing something like this; it was truly hateful.

[Millee]

$2 says hoax. 

[Oceander]

if she got punched in the face and knocked to the ground hard enough to render her unconscious, there would be obvious physical injuries

[Atomic Cow]

$2 says hoax.

Or a random mugging completely unrelated to her 15 minutes of fame and the "slurs" never actually happened.

[EC]

The courage of these "men" knows no bounds. Their manhood is very much in question though.

[collins]

$2 says hoax.

My first thought, too . . . not a supporter of these type of weddings, but if I recognized a particpant from the news on the street, I would never do this, much less beat up some lesbian with my friends. Too many false flags with these people.

[rustynail]

Hoax but there are a lot of Muslims in Michigan.

[mountaineer]

Sorry, this smells of hoax to me, too - like the supposed racial incidents on college campuses that turn out to have been the work of the alleged victim.

[aligncare]

Maybe the men were black and this, the knockout game? (And because a lesbian was involved it couldn't be suppressed and finally had to make the news?)