Editor’s Note: Please see update at the end of this post.
A man who reportedly was gay was beaten then burned alive after his murderers poured gasoline or another accelerant onto him and chased him through the streets. Warning: after hours of research, there are few details to report. What we do know is that this video seems to have first appeared on World Star Uncut, titled, “Its [sic] Sad This Is The World We Live: They Did This To Him Because He Was Gay! (*Warning* Graphic),” and watermarked “World Star Hiphop,” which is the same group that released the horrific video of Chrissy Lee Polis, the transgender woman viscously beaten in a Baltimore, Maryland-area McDonald’s. (We were able to locate another video that had removed the watermark, and chose to post it in the hope that perhaps there will be a detail made available that can help identify the location.)
Additionally, every report we could find, going back to September 30, states this man was killed because he was gay, (with the exception of one comment that claimed he was a thief.) We cannot confirm that he was gay, nor can we confirm where this murder took place, though, again, all reports state either Africa broadly, or Uganda or Nigeria. It would be unfair to point the finger at a nation without being certain which one it was.
Additionally, though it appears the man is dead at the end of the video, we cannot confirm that either though how can anyone live through this?
Additionally, it appears no one attempted to stop this attack. No one said no 0r intervened, there were no uniformed police rushing to this man’s aid.
All we can report is what you can see in this video.
If anyone can detect what language is being spoken, or detect where this may have taken place, please let us know.
Anti-gay comments on other sites around the Internet were despicable. We will turn off comments on this post if need be.
Caution: it is devastating and you may want to chose to not watch it. There is nothing that says you must. We strongly suggest you do not allow children to see this.
Kevin Farrell at Unicorn Booty (possibly NSFW site) writes,
It’s graphic and disgusting and the saddest thing we’ve ever seen. But this man was reportedly one of us, and nobody even seems to know his name. How could a man be turned into his own funeral pyre by dozens of hateful attackers somewhere in our world without anybody even knowing where it all went down?
No matter who he was, or why he was subjected to this torture, this mystery absolutely must be solved. And those responsible must be brought to justice. And if it does in fact turn out that this killing occurred in a nation that criminalizes homosexuality and allows murder to go unpunished, then this harrowing result of that political and cultural climate must be shared with the world to shame that country into changing their ways.
The decision to post this was made because it exists, and is a documentation of man’s brutality against man. You may disagree with the decision, but our job here is to present information, not hide from it, as much as we may want to.
UPDATE: 10.11.2011:
Paul Canning of LGBT Asylum contacted The New Civil Rights Movement to say that this man is not gay, but was accused of being a thief.
“It is Nigeria or Nigerians in West Africa. He is a thief. There is no dialogue about him being gay.
“Burning thieves does happen, I’ve been told about it before.”
Regardless – this is a despicable act. That it is allowed to happen unchallenged is too, a crime.