Crusader to light the capitol red, white, blue murdered in anti-gay attack

DETROIT – Andrew Anthos, 72, died Feb 23 of injuries he sustained in a brutal anti-gay attack. He had been in Detroit's Receiving Hospital's intensive care unit since the attack Feb. 13, which occurred outside his Detroit residence.
According to a press statement from the Triangle Foundation, which has been working with the family, Anthos was riding home on the bus Feb. 13 when he was asked if he was gay. He is alleged to have said he was, and the attacker is thought to have followed him off of the bus hurling anti-gay slurs at Anthos. The 72-year-old victim helped a wheelchair bound friend through the snow, and was then attacked with a pipe. The beating left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Before falling into a coma, Anthos was able to give only a vague description of his attacker, is described as a light skinned male under the age of 23. Detroit Police are appealing for anyone who was on the bus that night to come forward. The department has been slow in labeling the attack an anti-gay crime.
"Our hearts go out to Andrew's family. They have lost a man they all loved very much because someone else was acting out of hatred and bigotry," said Triangle Foundation Executive Director Jeffrey Montgomery. The National Gay Lesbian Task Force and Human Rights Campaign have agreed to cover the costs of Anthos' funeral.
Those who remember 72-year-old Anthos in Lansing remember a tireless, patriotic crusader for a plan to light the state capital dome red, white and blue one night a year.
"He was a gentle soul who was pursuing his dream, however eccentric some might have thought," said Lansing State Journal columnist John Schneider who described Anthos as flamboyant and eccentric. "He thought it would be enlightening for the state of Michigan."
Schneider says family members told him Anthos was singing on the bus, which he did often, and that was what triggered the attack.
"He would walk down Washington Avenue, in Lansing, singing in a lilting falsetto voice," the columnist said.
The savage beating has left leaders in the Lansing community struggling as well.
Lansing City Council woman Carol Wood, who was on Council when the body wrote a letter to the State supporting Anthos' dream of lighting the capitol dome, was stunned by the story when reached Friday afternoon.
Struggling for words, Wood said she was troubled by the attack. "It saddens me that we still have people out there that do things like that. It's one of those things beyond words."
Council passed a resolution Monday night to memorialize Anthos, and his lighting dream.
Lansing Community College, one of Anthos' hangouts when he lived in Lansing, issued a statement saying, "We will miss his patriotic determination and his presence on our campus."
"He was the gentlest person you would ever want to meet," says Schneider. "There is something about someone who wouldn't hurt a fly being murdered like this."
Anthos dream of the red, white and blue dome never came to fruition, according to state officials, because of money. The lighting change would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars the state didn't have when it was in better economic times, and with the current budget crisis it is unlikely to change.
A facilities official for the state says the costs for the change is not in the concept of changing a few light bulbs, but in the overall project. State officials say in order to do the lighting project, they would have to get a lighting engineer as well as pay for new lighting equipment.
That official concedes the untimely death and the nature of the death of Anthos is likely to increase calls for lighting the dome from senators and representatives, but that the department had not fielded many questions on the issue yet.
Lansing Mayor Virgil Bernero said he supports lighting the capitol dome. "The idea of lighting it in colors is phenomenal." He said he will be working with state officials in the weeks and months ahead to help find a way to make it happen.
Family members have sworn to continue pursuing Anthos' dream to light the dome, telling reporters they made the promise to the dying man. Anthos, known as "Buddy," is survived by a loving family including his aunt, Maggie Hloros, and his cousin Athena Fedenis.
"Buddy made friends with everyone he met," said Fedenis. "He was an enthusiastic Detroiter. His family has lost a loved one, and the city has lost a champion."