Michael Sandy's ("Gay") Convicted Killer Describes the Homicide

Another week, another sympathetic portrayal of a victimizer in New York magazine. This week's virtual love fest is seven jump pages and approximately 5000 words of crocodile, jail house tears for Anthony Fortunato, who hoped to fend off his manslaughter conviction in the Michael Sandy case by claiming that he is also gay.

"If he was telling the truth, is a gay man even capable of committing a gay hate crime?" asks writer Robert Kolker. "And what, at the end of the day, is a hate crime, anyway?"

That question was asked and answered by a jury and returned with two convictions, but, if you must, here are some revisionist details:

Fortunato said the plan was "simple enough": "He said he’d done it before, lots of times. He’d meet a gay guy in a chat room and pretend to be gay, too, then flirt a while and arrange a meeting, maybe in a hotel room, then take off with their pot and their money."

After first leaving at the sight of the four boys, Michael Sandy "wanted" trouble: "A half-hour later, up popped another message from Drumnbase007: yo i wanna suck ur cock. Anthony couldn’t believe it. 'The guy wants to come back!' "

The brutal robbery and gay bashing is given short shrift: "Two witnesses had called 911 from cars saying they saw two white kids fighting with a young black man on the highway, bringing two lanes of traffic to a halt before a beige SUV struck Sandy in the far-left lane."

Fortunato is also described in endearing terms, a la "As a boy, he seemed like an exotic creature in his slightly rough neighborhood, into poetry and books and drawing" and "[H]is buzz cut and baggy prison jumpsuit make him seem boyish and gawky, as if he hasn’t yet grown into his looks." Sweeping and inaccurate judgments are also made, such as stating, "Race was never a serious factor in the case, despite the fact that the victim was black and the alleged perpetrators were white."

Race was always a serious factor in the Michael Sandy case: Keith Boykin and other activists were concerned that a black gay men who lost his life at the hands of several white youths—one of whose family was politically connected—would not be prosecuted. There was a rally at City Hall to focus attention on Sandy's murder.

These and other salient facts are ignored in the profile, which focuses on the difficulty of growing up (white), working class, without a father, with a drug problem, and, bi-curious. Welcome to the club, Mr. Fortunato. There are many thousands of young men in similar circumstances. Most do not become serial victimizers of gay men, but, those who do should face prosecution. Meanwhile, it would have been nice to spare some ink for the family of Michael Sandys, which was conveniently ignored in the beatification of Anthony Fortunato.

Some Background...
"Gay" Defense Fails in Michael Sandy Trial [R20]
Don't Lock Me Up I'm Gay [Keith Boykin]
First Conviction in the Michael Sandy Trial [R20]
News: Florida Dems, Michael Sandy [R20]
Don't Lock Me Up I'm Gay [Keith Boykin]
Michael Sandy Murder Suspects in Court [R20]
Murder Suspect: He Only "Arranged" the Crime [R20]
Bail for Sandy Murder Suspect? [R20]
Killer Took a Nap After Brutal Gay Bashing [R20]
Charges Upgraded in Sandy Case [R20]
Michael Sandy Taken Off Ventilator [R20]
Four Arrested in Internet Set-Up [R20]
Brooklyn Gay Bashing Update [R20]
Gay Man Beaten in Vicious Attack? [R20]

Comments

[LaRufus]

This flattering portrayal of a killer comes as no surprise in the so called main stream media, even on most gay white sites, you would see posts, oh is he "hot" and, wow, he's "sexy." Just goes to show that the old adage is still true, a black life means nothing, but, thank goodness the one creep got a bit time sentence.

had it been a white gay man from Chelsea beat down and murdered by four black guys from Harlem, this would have been have been a rallying cry like Matthew Shepard.

Don't mean to come off as callous about it, but, lets keep it real, race is always a factor, gay or straight in this country.

Thanks for posting this article.

[Robert Jones, Jr.]

I was going to send you the New York article Rod, but I was too angry.

[Aaron C.]

Robert,
I'm right there with you...angry.
I'm a frequent poster on the political and religious debate forum, Conflicting Views ( www.conflictingviews.com), and you would not believe the crap people post there...trying to justify the "hanging of nooses" as "free speech", and wanting to throw the Jena 6, "under the bus", with gusto.
But you have to continue to speak truth to hate and injustice, every time, and anytime. Keep the faith, and fight the power.