19 year-old Attacked and Forced to Apologize for Being Gay

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42226558

BBC News reported yesterday that two men were being sought in an attack on a Tube train traveling between West Ham and North Greenwich just outside of London on October 21.  Witnesses report that the two men encountered a 19 year-old who was traveling in fancy dress to an event.  The two men began harassing the 19 year-old calling him homophobic slurs which progressed to violence when one of the men began strangling the man until he apologized for being gay.

I was first made aware of this story at Towleroad. But the reason I linked to BBC was to prevent someone from saying that this story was "biased" based on the source of the news.  However, the news report is very short and not much more is said about the story although I have read that the two attackers only resorted to physical violence after someone in the other group challenged them about their anti-gay slurs.  This is being treated as a hate crime, and I agree with that. Every time I read about these kinds of things, I often play "devil's advocate" in order to determine if the story is being told in a biased way towards one group, which is why I mention that the other group did challenge the attackers which escalated the situation.  Let me be clear, nothing gives someone the right to strangle or physically assault another person no matter what was said. However, the part that I'm most upset about is that they continued to attack the victim until he apologized for being gay. Umm, what?

The reason this bothers me is because the attackers demanded an apology from the victim for something that wasn't any of their business in the first place.  A part of me says that if I were the victim in this situation, then they would just have to strangle me until I died because there's no way I'd apologize to these two assholes for something they had no right being "offended" by in the first place.

In my mind, I only apologize for things where I'm wrong, or I'll apologize if I've hurt someone or offended them with how I respond to something when it's not my intention. But what irks me about this is that these homophobes used force to make their victim apologize for being who he was. Why was that necessary? Is it so offensive to you that the very existence of a homosexual affects you violently? That's your problem not anyone else's. So, let me reiterate, this 19-year old gay man has nothing to apologize for. He was a victim, and I hope the authorities catch these guys and they get convicted of the hate crime they carried out.  My thoughts go out to the victim, and if I could say something to him, I would tell him to hang in there. It is my belief that one day the bigotry and intolerance in this world will die out. I for one can't wait.