I know those boys and the fact is, they didn't beat Ash because he was gay, they beat Ash because he was mouthy. He hit back. If he'd kept his mouth shut and his head down he'd have been fine. That's the way of it here. If you have a smart mouth you get a kicking. It's a ways of life - fighting is the norm. Okay, they went too far, but people often do. I'm pretty sure they didn't really mean to hurt Ash as much as they did, just to 'teach him a lesson' for getting the better of them and giving them 'lip'.