In Louisiana, two arrested in alleged anti-gay attack

A Lafayette man said he and three friends were verbally and physically attacked Sunday in a movie theater because they’re gay . The man who allegedly at­tacked them, Joseph W. Menard Jr., 37, of the 500 block of Wiltz Street in Rayne, was arrested on two counts of simple battery, ac­cording to police reports. Walt Jamison, 23, said he and his partner and two gay friends met at The Grand on Johnston Street in Lafayette on Sunday to see a Barbra Streisand movie, “Guilt Trip.” The men took their seats dur­ing the previews, Jamison said, and almost immedi­ately a man in the row behind them said, “Oh great,” and called them a derogatory name aimed at their sex­ual preference.