What's Happening in Austin

[Nat]

Hey y'all - I hope I am not double posting this but I thought it was info worth having. This happened at 4th and Lavaca.

Men claim attack after hug



AUSTIN – Two men say they were attacked after leaving a gay night club in downtown* Austin and their attackers were yelling anti-gay slurs.
Bobby Beltran and Christopher Ortega say they were attacked on the morning of Dec. 26 after they left Rain night club. As they were embracing, they heard a string of anti-gay slurs from a car full of men stopped at 4th Street and Lavaca.
“I just turned and I said, ‘That stuff's not welcome here in Austin. We don't accept that.’ and that really set them off,” Beltran said. “One guy came out of the car, started attacking him, then they put the car in park, jumped out and surrounded us.”
According to the pair, the slurs continued during the attack.
“It wasn't like a mob attack, like they were all just beating us, it was more like a choreographed dance. There was a guy on the right, a guy on the left,” Ortega said.
An official at the Austin Police Department confirms that a report was filed by Beltran and that the department is investigating. They say it is too early to say whether any arrests have been made.
"I always, whenever I travel, talk very highly of Austin and say it's so safe here, and it's safe and cozy and everybody gets along, and I am extremely shocked,” Ortega said.
Despite Austin’s reputation for acceptance, the case of Beltran and Ortega is not isolated.
Among medium sized cities, Austin leads the state in the number of hate crime motivated by sexual orientation, according to the FBI. During 2009, the FBI reported four such crimes in Austin, two in El Paso, and none in Fort Worth.
What the report can not explain is whether that means those cities are safer, or whether Austinites are just more willing to report crimes against them.
Beltran and Ortega believe police could have done more in the course of their investigation. However, they admit they were not able to provide a license plate or detailed descriptions of their attackers.