Source: Radio Netherlands
People with guts go against the flow, defy accepted notions and conventions. Radio Netherlands Worldwide presents a series of portraits of people who this year proved they had guts.

One of these people is Franklin Hill, a black man who also happens to be homosexual. He was threatened on the internet in 2007, but decided not to let it go without doing something about it.

Franklin Hill is black and was born in Surinam (a former Dutch colony - now an independent republic - in South America). He lives with his white Dutch boyfriend in Amsterdam.

One night, Mr Hill was having trouble getting to sleep and at around four o'clock in the morning he turned on the computer for a chat session online. He came into contact with Marleen, who he thought he knew from a party, and a few other people. Before he knew it the chat became full of insults and profanity, directed at himself.

"Hey homo", was the initial reaction from Marleen. It turned out not to be the Marleen he met at a party. In response, Franklin Hill just asked, "Who is this?" There was no reaction and he typed: "Yeah, I'm gay, so what?" To his astonishment, all hell broke loose and all kinds of profanities were thrown at him via MSN. "Dirty faggot", "Death to fags and blacks", "The Third Reich should be resurrected" and so it went on.

Mr Hill, who had once started studying for a law degree in Surinam, decided not to let it go at that. He copied the conversation and filed a complaint with the police.

The police were flabbergasted.

"The officer said he had never seen so much evidence of internet threats in black and white," Hill said. "I thought I would have been the umpteenth person to come in with a complaint, but that wasn't the case."

His case went to court and two of his "chat-friends" were indeed prosecuted. Seventeen-year-old Marleen received 15 hours community service and a 36-year-old man was fined 750 euros.

As far as Franklin is concerned the others should have been prosecuted too. "Many people don't realise that you can be 'done' [prosecuted] for writing bad things," he said.

It doesn't really matter to Franklin Hill what the punishment is.  "The fact that they now know they can't just say what they want in a chat room and that they didn't get away with it gives me satisfaction."

Full article: Black, gay and fighting intimidation - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - English