Gay Atlanta Men Attacked in St. Lucia Hate Crime

Gay Atlanta Men Attacked in St. Lucia Hate Crime
By Laura Douglas-Brown  

Michael Baker will never forget the last night of his recent vacation in St. Lucia. He recalls the sunset as the best yet of his trip, but what happened next may haunt him for the rest of his life.

Baker serves as director of advancement at Positive Impact, an Atlanta HIV agency. He was visiting St. Lucia, an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with his boyfriend, Nick Smith; the pair stayed with another friend from Atlanta, Todd Wiggins, at a mountain-top cottage Wiggins had rented. Wiggins has also been an HIV advocate, including helping found the AIDS Vaccine 200 bicycle fundraiser.

After enjoying the spectacular sunset, Baker and Smith went to the cabin’s tiny bathroom for a shower before starting to prepare dinner. It was about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2. Within minutes, the three men would become victims of a robbery that Baker told the GA Voice he feels “very strongly” was motivated by anti-gay hate.

The men then climbed over the bathroom wall to get to them, Baker recalled. All three men were herded to the main room of the cottage, a combined dining room and kitchen. All three were brutally beaten and kicked by the men, who wielded guns and knives.

“They began to tell us that they hated white people. They hated faggots. They asked where we were from. We told them the United States. They told us again how much they hated us,” Baker wrote in the Facebook note.

“They asked if we were gay. Why had we showered together? Todd and I both said it was because the water heater was so small. They said if we were faggots they would kill us,” he said. The assailants then tied up the three men and left them in the shower.

Baker and his friends were able to free themselves from the ties and escaped by climbing down the back of the mountain, barefoot and bleeding. They then took a gravel road to eventually reach safety at a friend’s house. Baker said in an email interview that the victims contacted the police, but were fearful because homosexuality is a crime in St. Lucia.

“The police were contacted. The men told us they knew the police and would know if we reported the crime, and told us they would kill us. Initially, the police were almost annoyed with us, almost as if we were the criminals,” he recalled. “Todd had a friend in the Ministry of Tourism who pulled some strings and the investigation changed.

Baker and Smith returned home to Atlanta the next day, March 3, and praised the kindness of Delta employees on their return flight, where they were greeted by friends when they landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.  Wiggins returned to Atlanta on March 4.