- Dwan Prince and his mother, Valerie Prinez
One June 8, 2005, Dwan Prince was standing behind his apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y., taking out his garbage, when he got into an argument a man named Steven Pomie. Prince, according to the LGBT Hate Crimes Project, responded rather flirtatiously to something Pomie said to him, prompting Pomie to leave and then return with two friends to attack Prince, yelling anti-gay epithets as they beat and kicked and stomped him.
Now, according to reports in The Gay City News, Prince has sent Pomie a letter apologizing for having made “hateful” statements to Pomie, and expressing his hope that Pomie will receive a light sentence.
On the night of the attack, a neighbor sitting on the stoop in front of the building heard the commotion and went to Prince’s rescue, but not before Prince was beaten into unconsciousness, according to the LGBT Hate Crimes Project. He was hospitalized in the ICU at Brookdale Hospital and remained in a coma for more than a month, suffering from a blood clot the size of a soda can in his brain
Prince, who is HIV-positive, had to have three brain surgeries and still was left partially paralyzed. He also suffered impaired speech and cognitive problems, including memory loss, along with nerve damage that left him with uncontrollable tremors and constant pain in his limbs.
Once he left the hospital, Prince had to move in with his mother, Valerie Prinez, in New Jersey. Prinez, a paralegal, had to take unpaid leave from her job to care for her son and later had to declare bankruptcy. She told The New York Blade that when she asked her church for help, she was turned down after the church found out her son was gay.
Pomie was arrested eight days later in New Jersey and was later convicted of first-degree assault and first-degree assault as a hate crime and sentenced to 25 years in prison. A state appellate court reversed the conviction last year and ordered that he be tried again on second-degree charges of assault and assault as a hate crime.
But last month, according to Gay City News, Prince sent Pomie a letter of apology. The apology comes, GCN reports, after Prince started attending a Bible study class and telling people he is no longer gay.
The letter read, in part: “First please allow me to deeply apology [sic] for my hated comment. Please I do hope you know I am truly deeply sorry for what ever was sayed [sic] that night. I have made some big mistakes in my life and that was the stupidiest [sic] and biggest one of all. … I was at blame so it is my to my strongest degree that you get out as soon as possible. … Steve you changed me! So hopefully when you get out we can hang out. You know me. I know you. I help you calm that angry machine down. And allow you to know I am not gay but a lover, and you can find me a female I can love and can love me.”
Okay, I don’t know about you, but this makes me pretty mad. This man was beaten nearly to death, and no he is apologizing to the guy who did it?! Sounds like “conversion therapy” at its finest, doesn’t it? And here’s the really good part: This “apology” from Prince to Pomie could endanger prosecutors’ chances of winning a conviction in the new trial, which means it’s more likely that another hate-filled gay basher will be set free to roam the streets and find another queer to beat up, maybe even kill.
I posted this earlier, but it bears repeating in this string: The American Psychological Association declared last week that mental health professionals should not tell their gay clients that they can become straight through therapy or other treatments. In a resolution adopted by the group’s governing council, and in an accompanying report, the association issued its most comprehensive repudiation of “reparative therapy,” according to the Associated Press.
No solid evidence exists that such change is likely, says the resolution, and some research suggests that efforts to produce change could be harmful, inducing depression and suicidal tendencies.
Tammye,
This is one of the “side effects” of conversion (reparative) therapy. It tells the person that they are guilty of a sin. If you are guilt of a sin you have to repent. A part of repentance is going back to people whom you have wronged and try to make it right.
I am sure that Prince has been convinced by his religious counselors that he needs to go back and apologize to this man to make things right in his own life. I know when I bought into this stuff, I truly believed I was a terrible sinner. It was quite an interesting phenomenon. On the one hand I was a pulpit minister, who stood in the pulpit weekly and tried to teach people about Christianity. But when people would talk about how good a preacher I was and how good I was because of the good works I did, all I could focus on is that inside, even though I was celibate, I was a terrible person because I lusted after men.
I am sad that Christians have gotten their hooks into Prince, but I know that for so many people this is their last hope. The damage that this therapy does is beyond belief. I am glad that The APA has come out with this report, but in the end, the power of faith and hope in a person’s life is overpowering. The damage that will be done to Prince, will be probably be long term and will convince him that his sinful soul is worthy of whatever was done to him because he was behaving in an unnatural, sinful, abominable way.
Religion beat the crap out of him.
After incurring significant medical expenses for her Son, the Mother asked her church for help, she was turned down after the church found out her son was gay. Religion beat the crap out of the Mother, too.
Why don’t people realize religion is the enemy?