Anger over prostitution and drug use was the motive for the brutal Thanksgiving Day beating of a 23-year-old Alabama lesbian, according to Ally Hawkins, girlfriend of Mallory Owens, who was attacked by Hawkins’ brother. But in a written statement today, Owens stressed that Hawkins does not speak for her and said that both her girlfriend’s brother and father had threatened her in the past.
“It will be a very long time before I feel safe again. This sort of attack whether it is proven to be a hate crime or a crime derived from one man’s hate of another human being should not happen to anyone in this country,” Owens said, after noting that Hawkins’ father had also previously “threatened me with harm based on my relationship with his daughter.”
“No one should have to endure an attack the way that I did. Neither should a mother have to see her daughter in the state that my mom had to see me,” Owens said.
The Alabama lesbian that was brutally beaten during a Thanksgiving dinner at her girlfriend's father's home now claims that the attack was not a hate crime.
Mallory Owens, 23, was attacked by her girlfriend's brother Travis Hawkins, Jr., Thursday, Nov. 22, at the home of her girlfriend.
Hawkins was charged with second degree assault but because Alabama does not include gender identity or sexual orientation in the state's hate crime legislation, the crime cannot be classified as a hate crime, at least not through Alabama's laws. The FBI is also investigating the attack and could still recommend that Hawkins be charged with a hate crime under existing federal laws.
A 23-year old lesbian from Mobile, Ala., was allegedly beaten by her girlfriend's brother on Thanksgiving in what some are calling a blatant anti-gay hate crime. Mallory Owens was attacked by Travis Hawkins, Jr., Thursday, Nov. 22, at the home of her girlfriend, Ally Hawkins, according to Alabama NBC affiliate Local 15.
Hawkins has been charged with second degree assault.
Equality Alabama, a statewide LGBT organization, is continuing to collect facts surrounding the case, according to State Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Jefferson), the organization’s chair. Equality Alabama is confident in the investigators, Todd added in a phone interview with GA Voice today.
“The only reason she was beaten is that she was the partner of the sister,” Todd said.