'Law & Order: SVU' Season 23 Episode 12 proves to be a champion for LGBTQ+ rights
‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ Season 23 took an unexpected turn when it was revealed that Olivia Benson’s son was bisexual and as soon as Olivia got to know about it, she embraced him. She was happy that he got to know about it so soon and was proud of her soon for standing up to bullies in school.
Meanwhile, the latest episode also talks about someone from the LGBTQIA+ community and the challenges they face in their lives on day-to-day basis. During the episode, an MMA fighter Tommy Baker is ready to enter the ring for a fight and while talking to the media, he says he’s going to kill his opponent. That was unlike him because he is patient and even though he is an MMA fighter, he likes to keep everyone calm.
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However, Tommy gets brutally attacked outside the ring. He was beaten up pretty badly, got tied up and looked like someone sexually assaulted him as well. A trucker finds him and calls the cops. The police arrive there and think that Tommy is dead. However, he is not and they get to know that he is still alive when he moans for help. He is taken to the hospital and the doctors confirmed that Tommy was sexually assaulted. ‘SVU’ is brought in and they take over the case. They find out that Tommy was married, but he was still using Grindr on his phone, which is an app for gay men to hook up.
Olivia’s team meets Tommy’s wife who revealed that he had no reason to join Grindr and says that she knew he was gay. He was also in a relationship with another guy. The ‘SVU’ talks to his boyfriend Phil, who says that everything was going great. He didn’t tell anyone about him being gay because he didn’t want the outside world to look him that way and his family was religious. Meanwhile, it is soon revealed that the Grindr profile was created the same day he was attacked and the chief suspect for the attack was Jax Bell. He was investing a lot in the fight and the two had a fight in the lead up to the attack. The main reason for the attack was to stop Tommy from telling the world that he is gay. He was soon planning on announcing that and someone wanted to silence the announcement.
However, when the ‘SVU’ unit met Jax, he turned out to be on Tommy’s side. He revealed that he was waiting for the announcement and had already begun the ‘Rainbow Warrior’ campaign. Jax also said that he and Tommy got into a fight because Tommy was planning to cancel the announcement in fear of his father.
After the investigation, it was found that Tommy’s wife, Chrissy, was actually dating one of Tommy’s rivals and Tommy got to know about it. Ricky was taken into custody by the police but claimed that he didn’t attack him, telling the police officials to look somewhere else. Detectives visited Tommy’s boyfriend Phil and accused him of being the main planner.
Phil tells the police that he was angry with Tommy because he said that he was in love with Tommy, but Tommy made it clear that he would never leave Chrissy. The night of the fight, Ricky, ambushed them and threw a weight at the back of Tommy’s head. When they saw that Tommy had no pulse, Ricky ordered Phil to clean the gym.
Benson confronted Phil and told him that Tommy was doing great work and was making it easier for people to “come out”. Meanwhile, Phil was making it harder for the LGBTQIA+ people to live with dignity.
The entire episode presented a scenario about how LGBTQIA+ people always become the victim of hate crimes. Even though it is legal to get married, get a job and do everything else, but it is still a hard journey for them. This needs to stop and ‘Law & Order: SVU’ showed why it should be stopped.