A gay teen from Louisiana is calling for the justice system to strike his attacker with hate crime charges.
In June of 2020, Holden White met up with another teen he’d encountered on Grindr. The 19-year-old, who was then 18, had been talking with Chance Seneca, 19, for about a month. As White told the Acadiana Advocate, there was no red flag in their month-long conversations. So when Seneca invited White over to his father’s house to play video games, White said yes. Seneca then insisted on picking White up from his apartment.
“I’m old school,” Seneca wrote. “Aka try to be like a gentleman so that’s why…”
https://twitter.com/ho1denwhite/status/1345881997722476547
When the two arrived, White remembered the father’s home to be a “very, very nice house.” That, and the tower of Xbox games in Seneca’s room, also led to White bringing his guard down. The next thing he knew, he was reaching for his bag when a cord was wrapped around his throat. A fight then broke out and White blacked out.
“When I wake up, I am in his bathtub naked,” White told the Acadiana Advocate. “The water is running, and it’s cold. He is in the process of doing my left wrist. He was slicing it like this,” White said, while motioning horizontally across his wrist. “and it was very, very hard. It was to the point that he was basically trying to cut off my hands.”
White says Seneca also cut his right wrist and stabbed him in the neck. White says he went in and out of consciousness in that bathtub. After blacking out again, the next thing Seneca remembers is waking up from a three-day coma in Ochsner Lafayette General’s intensive care unit. He then spent nearly a month in the hospital.
As police later told White, Seneca reported himself to police. He was then arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. Seneca remains jailed with a $250,000 bond.
So why are we talking about this now? Despite calling 911 on himself, Seneca has pleaded not guilty. In addition, Seneca has not been charged with a hate crime… something White would love to see.
“He could have done this to a woman,” White said. “Instead, he chose to do something to someone who’s gay and proud about his sexuality.”
In addition, White says Lafayette Police have not properly handled the case. From failing to provide a rape kit to medical personnel, White is still unsure if he was sexually assaulted while he was unconscious, to not informing him when Seneca had his first hearing in November. That said, White is now working with the FBI as they investigate the case and Seneca could face additional charges in the future.
To read Holden White’s full testimony of his near-death experience, head over to the Acadiana Advocate.
Source: Acadiana Advocate,
