This time on the bus through the Rainier Valley, and it's not even clear the victim was gay. Take it away, Levi Pulkkinen at the PI:

Prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against an 18-year-old Seattle man accused of accosting another man on a Metro bus while yelling anti-gay slurs.

Abiazzizi I. Idris has been charged with second-degree attempted robbery and malicious harassment, the state's hate crime statute, in the March 10 attack. In court documents, police claim Idris was riding on a Metro coach near the 9000 block of Rainier Avenue South when he slapped the man in the back of the head. He then allegedly asked, using a slur, if he was homosexual.

The man disembarked the bus moments later, followed by Idris and an associate. Police say Idris again approached him, telling the man that homosexuality violates his religion.

Confronted by Idris, the man again said he was not gay. Idris then, police assert, "grabbed the victim around his neck and said 'Give me $10 and your cell phone and I'll let you go.'"

I've written about the apparent spike in gay bashings on Slog and in the paper. It's uncertain whether folks are reporting hate crimes more or if they're indeed happening more frequently. Nonetheless, from personal experience, I can say I hadn't been called a faggot since I left middle school—until a few weeks ago. I was walking up The Ave with a friend one night, when a couple big young guys started yelling "fagmo" at us as we walked closer. So I stopped and asked, "What did you call me?" Fagmo, the gentlemen informed us, is the hybrid of faggot and homo, and I happen to find it the funniest and best word invented—except when I'm afraid of getting kicked in the face while being called one. And the guys appeared fully prepared to kick in a couple faces. I took out my cell phone, dialed 911, and dared them to "call me a fucking fagmo one more time" and I'd hit "Call." They shut up until we were about 50 feet away, but we just kept walking. As my friend and I headed back down The Ave carrying carne asada burritos, he wanted to cross the street to stay clear of the guys. He was kinda shaken. Part of the reason I didn't call 911 in the first place—which I should have done—was that I didn't know if menacing people with gay slurs was a crime. "If people feel threatened [by gay slurs or other harassment] then it is good to report it. Call 911 if you can," says SPD spokesman Mark Jamieson. "The best thing you can do is get out of that situation, but do call 911 if you do feel threatened." And I wouldn't worry about wasting police resources, frankly. There's a woman living over Neighbours who has called police 500 times to complain about the menacing thump of disco.