DFW Airport Homophobe Caught on Video Is McCleish Christmas Benham from Tennessee

I have started a petition on Change.org asking the Dallas police department to charge this man with a hate crime.  If you agree, please consider signing and sharing my petition.  Thank you! 

https://www.change.org/p/the-dallas-ft-worth-police-department-charge-mccleish-c-benham-with-a-hate-crime-for-his-assault-at-the-dfw-airport#

This guy has been in trouble before.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/foia/enforcement_actions/2013/September/Horse%20Protection%20Act%20%28HPA%29/Complaints/KY11038-AC_Brandi%20Mills%20and%20McCleish%20Benham_Redacted.pdf

some people just can't take a joke

First to shout racial slurs or sexual orientation insults does not make a hate crime.  If I am in a fight I may comment or do what ever to make you act in anger or irrational. My goal is to beat your ass.  But if my reason for fighting you is because of your race or sexual orientation then you are entering hate crime area. 1st he was giving airport personal a hardtime. 2nd the man in the pink shirt try to intervene. 3rd the drunk guy then turned on the pink shirt guy for getting in what was not his business.  I think that was the reason for the assault. He just spew the homo stuff to get a rise out of the guy, because he was drunk and not thinking all that clear, and once he lock in on that mind set he kept going with it.  He probably don't really know why kept on spewing it.  Let face it drunks are not quickest thinkers.

All that being said it was assault and battery, not a hate crime, was it hurtful words definitely. 

This article is clearly about a FAGGOT needing an ass beating, just should have been by someone more sober and a tad bit more in control of the punches and kicks.

Not surprised the guy is a Bama fan according to his FB.  He looks like he might be related to the guy who teabagged the LSU fan who was passed out after the Sugar Bowl a few years ago.

After reading JoeJack's hysterics, I am almost convinced to let the drunk fool off with a beat-down and stern warning not to get belligerent in DFW in the future.

Joe jack, what is your fascination with the fact that the victim was male. Why not just a person.  You sound like an MRA poster boy.  I even agree with several of your points, but that "he attacked a male" thing is a bit creepy. 

JoeJack.......If you feel like you just feel into an alternate universe ....you have. This is not a group (for the most part) that supports the gay community in any way.   It may seem odd as one would assume this to be a somewhat liberal blog since it is attached to a alternative publication.  

While I admire you for trying to have a rational discussion, you should know it is doubtful it will happen here.  Even though this video clearly represents a gay bashing and gay bashing, in many states, could be considered a hate crime, you are not going to convince or change any minds here.  

I also understand that you are saying regardless of gay or straight, the punishment for a crime like this in an airport should be more extreme since one is almost treated as a criminal for trying to carry a bottle of water through security.  Had the victim NOT been gay, they might have agreed with you.  

So if you feel like a piñata for voicing your opinion, it is not that your view point is outrageous it is just that any sort of view that can be seen as progressive will be met with the responses you see below.   You can click on the name of any of your detractors and get a clearer view of what I am talking about.    

People drop in here from time to time and have a WTF moment.   It would be nice to have you stick around but don't expect anything to change. 

For those of you asking where the TSA agents were, while they wear uniforms and badges and get called "officers" thanks to legislative shenanigans, they do not have police powers. If you do something stupid in the middle of a TSA checkpoint, surrounded by uniformed TSA agents, at least one of them will be summoning a DFW Airport cop who can actually arrest you. That said, an airport cop was on-scene as this was escalating and was right on top of the drunken moron as The Avengers assembled to take him down.

Benham was charged according to the crime he committed. JoeJack is arguing for a special quantum increase in the severity of the level of punishment meted out to perpetrators of crimes perceived to be anti-gay, nice if you can get it, I suppose.

Although I'm not sure how you distinguish between a drunk's use of an anti-gay slur as an epithet and his actually having selected a gay target (and how does one confirm a target is actually gay? Public performance?)

What are you talking about bro did you forget to take your meds today?

Wtf are you talking about bro did you forget to take your meds today?

I'm sorry I thought this was a discussion between me and you. And in such a discussion typically each party will listen to what the other says and either agrees it disagrees, and if disagrees will back their belief with points. Isn't what you just did called punting? Hahaha. And sorry about the lack of paragraphs but I am typing on my phone and I didn't know that you where the type who on last resort invokes a grammatical analysis of the other's passages. Thanks a lot I will never get the time back I have just wasted with you. That time is lost forever.

And one more thing. At an airport, for anything you do wrong the charges are always heightened and the penalties are always stiffened. Jokingly say that you have a bomb in your bag, then you are swiftly whisked away to spend the next 10 months in jail trying to prove you are not a terrorist. But beat the crap out of a male in the middle of an airport, then the same standard nonexistent laws apply; simple assault carrying a penalty of zero years in jail. I mean where is homeland security taking over the case and trying to determine if he is a terrorist or not; anything you do wrong in an airport always carries with it the suspicion that you could be a terrorist. Oh that's right, all he did was beat the crap out of a male, so it gets put into the same category as such things as parking illegally at the airport.

And my god, doing this at an airport and nobody cares? At an airport, if you leave your bag unattended for 3 mins you get pulled into a backroom and questioned. But I guess attacking men in our society is so normalized and acclimated and acceptable, I mean it is depicted in every movie and TV show as acceptable behavior, that even doing it in the heightened security area of the airport, that is still considered acceptable. Wow, it is not a good plight to be male, don't you think?

@okitsquiettime He seems like the kind of guy who would not care if a horse was in pain as long as he got his prize.  What an ass!  Thank you for sharing that.  Now his address is on public record.  

@kgbman99 The man that he was screaming insults to did NOTHING to him.  Mr. Benham was so drunk that he picked a fight because the man was wearing a pink shirt (and therefore MUST be gay)  THAT is where the hate crime comes into play! 

@rubbbrduky The sidewalk Sissy was tackled and made a fool out of. He is a wimp, sober or not. 

@rubbbrduky You're not a big fan of freedom are you?  Why do you hate America?

@JackJett  So is it confirmed that the guy he kicked was gay or are we just assuming that he is because some drunken hillbilly called him a "faggot"? I just thought he was a little dude that didn't understand that a drunken hillbilly acting aggressively towards him could involve more than just words. I am certainly not saying that he deserved it but he should have yelled for an employee to call security or just walked away. Hell, he actually walked towards the crazy person. Who does that? I think I learned at my first high school party how to spot the angry drunk looking for a fight and treat him like the patrons of the Dallas Zoo treated Jabari on his last day.

No I'm not arguing for an increase of penalties of crimes that are perceived to be anti gay. I'm arguing for an increase in the penalties for assaults on males in general.

@JustSaying  No one should be moving aggressively towards anyone especially at an airport.  Yes the guy was gay and I am sure that you feel he was wrong for not walking away.  Perhaps part of that problem was that he was in a wheel chair.  I am sure from some of the things that you have said to me before that you would still believe the "faggot" deserved it just for having had the nerve to be in the same area at the redneck.   The point JoeJack and I was trying to make earlier was that in an airport with all the security shit going down, NO ONE should be threatening anyone or attacking them and even it it were YOU he were attacking and calling YOU a "faggot" I would still say he deserves more than a 500 dollar fine consider the fine for sneaking in bottled water, I think is triple that.  I was not nor Joe Jack attempting in any way to make a gay rights speech here.   He didn't know what he was jumping into and people assume he was attempting to say something pro gay and the law of this blog does not dictate that.   So please don't worry.  

I know this sounds crazy but the gay guy in the wheel chair was trying to get from point a to point B and the redneck started yelling at the ticket agent and the gay guy was attempting to defend her and in addition get his ticket.   Yet is wasn't simply enough that he yell "faggot" he had to make some racial attack to a black woman (and yes I am sure she was black).  

So no gay's were asking for any special rights.  More to the point a handicapped man was simply trying to take a flight without being accosted and defending a lady and ended up with injuries.     I thought, considering the negative news about Ebola coming out of Dallas that it was sort of a cool thing for the world to see a cowboy in Texas take down a homophobe.  Now I know (from previous comments) you would not see it that way but we are allowed to have different opinions, just not here on this particular blog which is what I was attempting to explain to JoeJack before more verbal darts were thrown his way.  But I was too late.   I am pretty sure he wasn't making a gay rights comment either but it seemed for of a human rights comment but his time here was short.  

I hope that helps.  When I do reply to people I try to go into as much detail as possible.   My experience has been that "some" commenters are looking for any word  or comment that I make to construe them into me asking for special rights because I am gay.   Just wanted to answer your question as I understood it.  

@ScottsMerkin @JackJett

Yeah, throw the book at the guy because he is a violent belligerent drunk, but hate crime = thought crime.  Punish criminals for their actions not their opinions. 

No five years for attempted murder, one year for kicking him in the nuts and landing a punch to his head. And that other dude isn't having a discussion, he is playing football and he punted.

@TheRuddSki I'm pretty sure his cred is dead, having hit a "faggot" in a pink shirt not once but twice and kicked him in the balls, yet the guy was uninjured. He also got tackled by Cowboy Hat Guy and Not Paul Rudd all while being filmed by Hipster Beard Dude.

@TheRuddSki And evidently at the DFW airport, this douche bag was not even considered a threat to his victim since he was only charged with simple assault punishable by a $500 fine. 

@JackJett 

And what do you mean "some of the shit you have said to me before"? Jokes and sarcasm is the currency around here. If I was some homophobe I probably wouldn't have walked up and bullshitted with you when you were hosting a car show awards thing at Baby Dolls Dallas a few years back. (Full disclosure; I went for the titties. Had no idea about car show until we got there)

@JackJett  Dude, Im not defending the fucking hillbilly. I agree that his punishment was too light. I'm just saying that the victim here made a bad decision that escalated the situation instead of potentially ending it.

@JustSaying JS......I will check that out too to confirm my thoughts.  However, I have no problem apologizing if I am indeed wrong and there has not been some verbal attack from you then I certainly apologize. I don't recall a positive word said about me or a word of support for me since the days of Wilonsky.  

More importantly when you came to the car show at Baby Dolls, did I show you my titties?   (kidding)  

But do you remember a stripper that had on see through pumps that had slots in them to place her money?   I thought it was one of the most clever things I had ever seen.  Later when I covered the AVN's that year, I told all the Porn chicks I interviewed about them and they were all crazy about find a pair like them.

@JustSaying  The way you see the video ....you see the victim as the one who escalated the situation. I will watch it again for the 4th time.  Yet I don't remember seeing him as the one who started the fight as he was trying to get his ticket and get back to his wheelchair.

However, that may be as simple as the way two men can watch the same thing and walk away with two different views.   I think I stated earlier I didn't see this as something that falls in line as a hate crime but I do think homophobia was involved.  

I understand that this concept goes against what we have been trained to think but the sequence of connections goes like this. A punch, especially to the head, could easily lead to death. Therfore a punch, especially to the head, should be prosecuted as attempted murder.

@ScottsMerkin @JoeJack

He did kick him in the testicles, maybe that is like a pre-abortion, which in certain circles would make it murder. 

Something that lands you only a $500 fine and no years in prison does not imply they thought of you as a threat. You get a $500 fine for not keeping your yard well trimmed in a housing community association. No, my point isn't that. My point is that violent crimes against males should be way more highly penalized anywhere they occur. The fact that the same non punishment applies for attacking a male at even at an airport emphasizes the fact that our society does not consider attacking males a serious crime.

@JackJett I can assure you that I have never personally attacked you. Maybe a joke that offended you because tone doesn't translate when typed but never a personal attack. I save that shit for Myrna.

When I say the dude that got attacked escalated it I never meant to imply that it was his intent to do so. Ive been in a few fights in my day and have seen several. You never walk up on a drunken idiot that is threatening violence. That is considered an act of aggression just like looking a big pissed of dog in the eye. He probably didn't know that but it was still a mistake. That's all I meant by him escalating it.

And no, you didn't show me your tits but you offered to. We just laughed about how half the meatheads in there would lose their shit of they knew the host of the macho titty bar car show was gay.

Oh, and I didn't notice those shoes because I am pretty much focusing on boobs, asses, and the occasional pretty face when Im at a strip club. The only shoes that Ive ever noticed at a titty bar was a chick wearing flats. That shit is like spotting a white buffalo. Strippers always wear huge heels to fake you out and make their legs look toned. The chick in flats didn't need to cheat and I respected the hell out of her for that shit.

@JustSaying I want you to know that I appreciate these comments.  I fully admit that I have become very sensitive (sometimes overly) since Wilonsky left this blog and there has been (what I perceive) this new vibe here. And there are times I deserve what I get.

In this situation, it is clear I was mistaken and apologize for making an inaccurate accusation.  I did watch the video again with your concept in mind and you are right that he should have never antagonized the obvious drunken guy.He was walking into a fire and should have done everything possible to avoid clearly someone was trying to start shit.

I asked myself how would I have handled it.  And I am such a chicken shit when it comes to fights or pain and will avoid it at any cost.   Plus, I am not that big of a fan of airline employee's to put myself in danger to protect their honor.   Thanks for taking the time and patience to open my eyes.

Maybe I can make it up to you someday by finding you an awesome stripper in flats.

As far as I understand, you and I are not discussing what is, what I believe we are discussing is what should be. If our discussion is what is then that is an easy discussion. What is is that there is relatively little to no penalty in our society for beating a male, this is well understood. What I am discussing is what should be, and what should be is that for doing what that freak did the penalty should be five years in prison. Most of those years being for what he attempted to do, the results of his attempt should have no basis in the initial sentencing. And what he did should be considered attempted murder and should land him five years in jail. Added to those five years should be considered the actual physical damage that the perpetrator actually inflicted, which is what you are talking about. In this case there was thankfully relatively little damage, thanks to the good people who helped the victim, which I would say should reflect an additional year in prison for a total of six years in prison. With that type of sentencing for this crime you would have few perpetrators and thus not need your double size prisons. By the looks of things today and the large number of men being attacked and beaten today I understand it would appear as if you would need double size prison, but the numbers today are based on today's laws in which it is basically almost legal to beat a male. And in fact your point that there is an excessively large number of males being beaten today actually makes the case for the stiffer penalties that I suggest.

@JackJett  I don't know how I would have handled it. I speak fluent redneck and Im pretty good at calming down angry drunks so I probably would have just tried to talk him down. He looked very unsteady on his feet and just the fact that he tried kicking a much smaller man in the nuts instead of throwing a punch tells me that the guy likely can't fight for shit. So I'm 99% sure that if he tried to kick me in the balls I would have slapped a rear naked choke on him before he even realized that I wasn't still in front of him.

And no need to apologize. It was just a slight misunderstanding. You don't have to go find me a stripper in flat shoes. But if you do ever find a stripper that looks like Alexandra Daddario feel free to let me know.