In Novato, California, on this date in 1999, Adam Colton, 17, a senior at San Marin High School, was assaulted for a second time in six months in a sexual orientation-based hate crime. The first student at that school to come out of the closet there and the founder of the school’s gay-straight alliance, Mr. Colton had the word “fag” carved into his flesh by his assailants in an attack that left him cut, bruised and hospitalized. Although he returned to school following the first assault against him in September, 1998, Mr. Colton left his high school following the second attack, and completed his high school education as a home-schooled student before attending college.

In Fort Worth, Texas, on this date in 2009, Shelia E. Parker, 44, was arrested for the robbery of Mary Ware Dorman, 90, on October 19, 2008, who was followed home from the grocery store, and slapped and pushed in various rooms in her room before having a wedding ring, car keys, gas card, and her driver’s license stolen. While it appeared that Ms. Dorman may have been targeted because of her age, no hate crime charges were filed against Parker.