As someone who spent her teenage years hanging out with drag queens, going out to clubs in NYC and wearing plastic dresses, wigs and silver eyelashes

And when will you be posting pictures?

Heh.

I've hung out with my share of artsy types as well. My dorm at NYU was a haven for them. Also, those parties organized by nightclub queen Suzanne Bartsch the last Thursday of each month at the Copacabana were awesome. They played the best disco music, and there were drag queens galore.

I used to go to Suzanne Bartsch's parties. One time, she threw a big one on a Wednesday and I was away at college so my parents took my invite and went. They loved it.

As if those two idiots that beat him up had any idea that he worshipped Satan
They actually did: "two local teenagers began fixating on Mr. Romano, calling him names including "Satan worshiper," "baby sacrificer" and "hooker killer," the authorities say."
To me it sounds like something they heard from their parents, which, if true, I find disgusting.
My point was that what they did was as bad as if they did it because of his race. But I agree with you: the whole notion of a hate crime probably does more to create legal bureaucracy, than to protect people who are "different" in any way.

Whatever happened to Suzanne Bartsch? I would still love to go to those Copacabana parties if she's still throwing them. That disco music was awesome!

Karol:

"As someone who spent her teenage years hanging out with drag queens, going out to clubs in NYC and wearing plastic dresses, wigs and silver eyelashes"

I was always preppy and I still am preppy.

So how did you and I come to have similiar outlooks on life.

Hate crime legislation is well-intended, but un-American. A "thought crime" ought to be unpunishable.

This threw me back to the horrifying murder of Matthew Shepard, hijacked by the activists for the hate-crimes agenda. Even the Cathedral of St. John the Divine had a "killed by homophobia" shrine set up.

and to what the NAACP did after the murder of James Byrd in Texas

but most tellingly, to the forgotten case in Kentucky of a group of black youth prosecuted for the murder of a white player for the Rebels football team - the activists opposed the application of hate-crimes law because they argued it only applied to historically oppressed people.

Zelda,

She's married to David Barton (of David Barton gyms). She still throws parties occasionally.

Jake,

I was really shy and the people I met through that life were really accepting and friendly. I was also a really good kid so this was my rebellion, I guess, except my parents thought it was kind of cool. I've since learned my parents are a lot more liberal than me.