Anti-Gay Bigot Tackled by Lesbian, Charged with Hate Crime

A 22-year-old man who shouted slurs at a lesbian couple before breaking the windshield of their car soon found himself in a vulnerable position – pinned to the ground by one of the targets of his vitriol.

According to police, William Adam Lane confronted two women after seeing them embracing romantically outside a bar early Sunday, yelling “F------ f------. You f------ lesbians.” He then smashed the rear window of their car, according to the arrest report.

That’s when one of the women jumped into action. She went after Lane and held him down, while a bouncer from a nearby bar came to help until police arrived. But Mark Young, a spokesman for the Bellingham Police Department, said it wasn’t quite as simple as keeping the man from running.

Lane “wasn’t detained,” Young told Hatewatch, “he was thrown to the ground.”

Neither of the women, ages 23 and 30, was identified and neither was hurt, police said. Lane, on the other hand, was arrested and charged with malicious harassment, a hate crime, and disorderly conduct.

The story calls to mind another incident last summer when things didn’t turn out so well for someone shouting bigoted epithets. In July, a neo-Nazi skinhead in Washington state, with a body covered in racist tattoos, made the mistake of picking a fight with a black man wearing a T-shirt that read, “Spokane Boxing Champion.”

The skinhead, it just so happens, was knocked out with one punch.