San Diego - Homophobia central lately?

San Diego seems to have become homophobia central. After several men were beaten with a baseball bat near Balboa Park after the Gay Pride celebration, a 42-year old security guard has been beaten. "Police report that Tuesday night the guard was attacked by three boys "all about age 15" as they made anti-gay remarks. The guard says that the teens threatened him earlier in the day and returned that evening after they discovered that he had reported their threats to police. The guard was not badly hurt, and the attack lasted for only a short period. When police arrived, the attackers ran, but were later arrested. The assault is being treated as a hate crime." (from Towelroad)

Hate crimes and gay bashings occur all the time, but San Diego has always struck me as more tolerant than say, Dallas or Cincinatti.

I wonder if things like the media coverage that Gay Pride now gets tends to trigger such things. The old media adage goes "any media coverage is good coverage as long as they spell your name right" may not apply to Gay Pride. Gay Pride celebrations now get national media coverage, but the coverage is usually a 15 second video spot of drag queens, bull dykes, leather daddies, twinks, and a float shaped like a penis. This just fuels the red states "anti-gay" rhetoric. [Hey! Stop throwing things, it is just my opinion.]