Philip Walsted : Photo Courtesy, www.stophate.u
Philip Walsted and Dr. Jonathan Hartman are a couple that made history in Arizona because they were openly gay and forever in love.
On June 12, 2002, Walsted, an openlygay 24-year-old in Tucson, Ariz., was killed in a brutal and violent murder. Walsted was savagely beaten to death with a baseball bat. According to one news report, Walsted suffered injuries to more than 50 places on his body, including signs of numerous blows to his head. Another news report states he was hit in the head with a baseball bat as many as 20 times and was found dead on the street near Fifth and North Hoff Avenue, not far from where he lived.
“An unbelievable numbness takes over,” said Amy Walsted of her brother’s murder. Amy Walsted says her brother was fun-loving and had a good spirit. He worked for Americn Airlines and lived with his partner Dr. Jonathan Hartman.
Amy Walsted says her brother was the target of a hate crime because he was gay.
In March 2005, David Higdon was sentenced to life in prison for Walsted’s 2002 muder. Investigators describe Higdon, who was 22 at the time of the muder, as having neo-Nazi beliefs and that he mudered Walsted to impress a white supremacist group. Higdon had a previous felony record and was out on community supervision during the time of the murder. Some of Walsted’s personal belongings, including Higdon’s own clothes with Walsted’s blood on them, were found in the home where Higdon was staying.
On Dec. 6 in New York City, Hartman will be among the first to receive the Heart of a Rainbow Award from the Gay American Heroes Foundation for his courage and commitment to Philip over the years. Hartman established the first ever LGBT Memorial in a public park in Arizona in 2005 to honor and rememeber the love of his life.
Hartman has since marched in parades carrying a poster of Philip and helped in the building of the Rainbow Memorial through his donations of time, experience and resources like many other family and friends of our heroes who become proactive in the fight against hate and those who teach it. We need your to help in honoring all the LGBT people who are murdered and taken from us every nine days in America. Today you can help in our fight for freedom by honoring and remembering a Gay American Hero by telling this story to a friend and giving what you can to build the Rainbow Memorial. We fight hate together, or we die alone at the hands of hate.
For more information on Walsted and other heroes, visit www.gayamericanheroes.com.
