What is going on?

I was reading the Tuesday Mariana's Variety and saw a picture with caption, however it was missing a story. The caption mentioned a detail of an individual found not-guilty of attempted second degree murder. I was intrigued that there was a picture without a story and read it out-loud to a co-worker and they replied with the story that happened over a year ago. (A story that I looked in back archives and found only one article in the Saipan Tribune) The story I was told was one of two men that were jumped and beaten on by two other men as they were presumed to be gay (this was from my co-worker, not the article) and one of the men defended themselves with a box-cutter type knife which resulted in this individual being arrested due to one of the perpetrators being cut in the incidence and claiming they were the victims, rather than the perpetrators.

Several things about this story have me curious. First, how long will people not talk about GLBT issues openly here in Saipan? You have to know that there are serious events, such as this, that should be openly discussed. It is my opinion, that people should not be allowed to think that "gay bashing" is an acceptable thing here in Saipan! Secondly, how difficult is it to be openly gay living here in Saipan? I was openly gay before moving here and there was no reason to go back into the closet, therefore, I am curious about learning the difficulties that people have with growing up here and deciding to be out or in, the closet.

Island Dyke