Anti-LGBT hate crimes on the rise in Oklahoma
By
LESS THAN a month after Jon Ferguson's car was spray painted with a homophobic slur and set on fire outside his north Oklahoma City home, another attack against members of the LGBT community has occurred.
Kayla Elliot was taking care of her sick father in Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City, when she was viciously attacked by Camino Nicole Maxwell. Maxwell had been harassing Elliot for months with anti-gay slurs and comments, but on the evening of August 14, these remarks escalated to assault.
Maxwell approached Elliot while she was talking to friends outside her father's apartment. After calling her a "dumb dyke" who "looks like a man," Maxwell threw a punch and began fighting Elliot. The scuffle was soon broken up, and Elliot went inside where Maxwell started pounding on the door.
When Elliot went outside to retrieve a necklace she'd lost during the altercation, Maxwell appeared again wielding a knife and shouting, "I'm going to kill you" and "I'll make you straight." Elliot was later sent to the hospital with defensive wounds on both her hands and a gash in her head that required 18 stitches.
After recommending that Elliot stay at the hospital overnight, the doctors discharged her when it was revealed she did not have health insurance.
Christina Garcia, Elliot's friend, has been inquiring about the police report. "The police are telling us now there is no police report but when Amber [Elliot's girlfriend] and I got to the hospital, the police were in the room with her taking the report," said Garcia. "Now they say there is no report?"
This attack, as well the one perpetrated on Jon Ferguson the month prior, is part of a dangerous trend facing the LGBT community and their allies in Oklahoma.
A Facebook page called Justice for Kayla and a donation page for Kayla Elliot's medical expenses have been set up by Oklahoma City Pride to help with medical and legal fees.
