A case of machismo mixed with homophobia caught the attention of the press in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States, after a lesbian woman had her car violated by a heterosexual man who was upset after being dumped on her. At the time, Bailey Cantrell stopped her vehicle at a gas station while her friend went to buy something. At that moment, the man approached asking for her phone number, and she refused to give her personal contact information to the stranger. She reports that the man arrived “hitting on her”, and she dodged his inconvenient advances, to which he continued to disturb the girl. “After the third refusal on my part, I said at once: 'I'm a lesbian and I'm not interested [in you]!'. That’s when he became aggressive and started calling me every name,” she said. Because of the woman's refusal, the man attacked Bailey's car, kicking the windshield and jumping on the hood, until she managed to break one of the windows, as can be seen on the local security cameras. “The only thing I was thinking while this was happening is he might have a gun, he might have a knife… I don’t know,” Cantrell reported, fearing something worse could happen. From inside the car, the victim reversed the vehicle to try to get the man off his trail. “I just wanted to get out of there, get my phone and call the police. The worst thing is that so far he has gone unpunished. He probably still thinks that if a girl rejects him, he can do that to her”, he concludes.
