A judge in the southern US state of Georgia has sentenced a man to 40 years in prison for throwing boiled water over a gay couple. "It takes a long time for a pot of water to boil," the judge said.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J. Bazemore
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Jurors found 48-year old long-distance truck driver Martin Blackwell guilty on eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault in the February attack on Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert.
Tolbert and Gooden - who is the son of Kim Foster, Blackwell's girlfriend - had been dating about a month at the time of the attack. On February 12, they were sleeping at Foster's sister's apartment, where Blackwell lived with Foster when he was in town, when Blackwell dumped boiled water on them.
"It takes a long time for a pot of water to boil," Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk said, adding that the evidence was overwhelming. Blackwell had behaved in a "soulless and malicious way," he said.
"You had so many outs where the voice of reason could have taken over," the judge told Blackwell, who had faced up to 80 years in prison.
Prosecutors had alleged it was a vicious, premeditated attack.
From Cologne to Colombia: A world of LGBTQ+ pride
Celebrations of LGBTQ+ pride are increasingly gaining visibility and acceptance across the word. But, in some places, people who are out and proud risk being thrown in jail or even killed.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Escobar Mora
Christopher Street Day in Cologne
In Germany, pride parades usually take place in major cities on weekends from June to August. Cologne held its 25th Christopher Street Day ceremonies - annually the biggest in Germany - on the first weekend of July. Berlin will celebrate on July 23, and Hamburg has scheduled a week of pride from July 30 to August 7.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hitij
Stonewall was a riot
A police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on New York's Christopher Street, on June 28, 1969, is a major milestone for the queer liberation movement. Some of the biggest US pride parades are held on the last weekend in June to commemorate the riots that followed the raid. After a gunman killed 49 LGBTQ+ people at a bar in Orlando this June, mourners paid tribute at the Stonewall Inn.
Image: Getty Images/S. Platt
Dyke March
Lesbian activists have established their own event for more visibility: the Dyke March. The first major US Dyke March took place in Washington, DC, in 1993 and drew 20,000 women. Bisexual and transgender women also join the processions. Organizers of the annual Dyke March in New York stress on their website that the event is "a protest march, not a parade."
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMA/A. Katz
Police assault on Istanbul Pride
In 2016, the Istanbul administration prohibited any demonstrations during the city's annual pride observances. When protesters marched in a rally for transgender rights anyway, they were violently attacked by police. The officers used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the Trans Pride crowds. At the Istanbul Pride closing rally, police arrested several participants as well.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Turkel
Bike Pride
In Vietnam's major cities, cycling is one of the most common forms of transportation. That's why it makes sense that the first Viet Pride, in 2012, saw more than 200 participants cycling through the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam's capital. This year's celebrations will be held August 19-21. The events now draw close to 1,000 people.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Premiere in Johannesburg
The first pride parade on the African continent was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in October 1990. It was organized by anti-Apartheid activists. For the event's 20th anniversary party in 2010 (pictured), 18,000 people celebrated. Today, parade participants also protest against hate crimes such as the so-called corrective rapes of lesbians in townships.
Image: Johann Hattingh/AFP/Getty Images
Small steps in Uganda
Homosexuality is a punishable offense in Uganda - but activists still organized a pride rally in the capital, Kampala, in August 2012. Two years later, Uganda's Supreme Court annulled legislation allowing for life imprisonment for "aggravated homosexuality" and banning the "promotion of homosexuality."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Out and proud in Colombia
Colombia hosted its 2016 Orgullo (pride) celebrations on the first weekend in July. The country decriminalized homosexual activity in 1980. Today, same-sex couples can adopt children and enjoy the same pension and property rights as heterosexual couples.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Escobar Mora
Baltic pride
Bad weather can't stop members of the LGBTQ+ community in Riga from celebrating. During the first pride parade in the Latvian capital, in 2005, protesters threw rotten eggs and bottles at the small crowd of 40 people who marched the streets. Today, Latvia takes turns with Lithuania and Estonia in hosting the annual Baltic Pride parade.
Image: Reuters
Century of sadness in Russia
The last Moscow Pride (pictured) was held in 2011. The next year, the municipal administration banned pride parades for 100 years. Russian officials have repeatedly attempted to repress LGBTQ+ people. In 2013, the country passed a law criminalizing the distribution of materials to minors in support of "nontraditional" sexual relationships, which has led to a surge of homophobic propaganda.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Escobar Mora
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Blackwell's defense attorney acknowledged that he poured water on the pair, but asked jurors to find that it was reckless conduct. "It's not about hate. It's about old-school culture, old-school thinking," Monique Walker told the jury. The defense didn't call any witnesses and didn't present any evidence.
Georgia doesn't have a hate crime law. The FBI said in March that it had opened a hate crime investigation, but spokesman Kevin Rowson said Wednesday that the agency isn't commenting on that probe.
Gooden, 24, spent about a month in the hospital, two weeks of that in a medically induced coma, and Tolbert, 21, spent 10 days in hospital. Both men suffered severe burns beeding multiple surgeries and skin grafts.
