[Duchess]

Young Lesbian in Brutal Attack on Thanksgiving Day
The 23-year-old was beaten at her girlfriend's family Thanksgiving celebration.

BY DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL NOVEMBER 26 2012 4:00 PM ET
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A Thanksgiving Day assault on a young lesbian in Mobile County, Ala. has infuriated LGBT activists who responded with a viral campaign to get hate crime charges filed against the alleged perpetrator. According to Robin Raven at Yahoo! News, 23-year-old Mallory Owens was invited to celebrate Thanksgiving with her girlfriend's family. What happened there was anything but festive. According to Yahoo! she was attacked by her girlfriend's brother, 18-year-old Travis Hawkins, Jr., and sustained a number of severe injuries including, among others, bleeding on the brain, crushed cheek bones, broken nose, and skull fractures.

Travis Hawkins, Jr. was arrested and charged with second-degree assault. but Owens' family and supporters are calling for hate crime charges against the man. There is a Facebook group, Justice Today for Mallory, which Sonia Mason, owner of The Red Carpet in Pensacola, Fla., started to get the word out about the tragic crime. Posts on Facebook have been cropping up all over the U.S. today in support of Owens.

There's also a petition on Change.org aimed at pushing Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich to to meter out the proper justice for Travis Hawkins, Jr.

But, it took four days for the mainstream media to pick up the story, says Raven, and only then "after a cry from the supporters of Mallory who flooded their Facebook page with requests for a report on the tragedy" did local news station WKRG report on the assault.

According to FoxTV10, Owens is currently recieving treatment at USA Hospital in Mobile. The station also reports that this isn't the first the police have heard of Hawkins. In 2011, his father shot the then-17-year-old in the chest.