From: rrizzo@star-trek.bbn.com (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: soc.motss,ne.motss
Subject: advice sought: handling on-street harassment
Date: 31 Aug 1992 22:59:35 GMT
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: archive.bbn.com
Keywords: gaybashing, fundamentalists, religious zealots, street-corner, college town


			STREET-CORNER GAYBASH


Calling all soc.motss lawyers, politicos and activists! 

Could someone give me advice about the legal and tactical issues involved in
responding to harassment like that described below?

Recently while passing through the main square of a well-known college town
known for its tolerance of street orators and performers of all kinds, a couple
of gay men were verbally gaybashed by religious fundamentalists.  As the men
walked by, one of the fundies shouted at them, and, I guess, for the benefit
of onlookers, "THE SEXUALLY IMMORAL CANNOT ENTER HEAVEN!*"

While fundie lay preachers have literally screamed their message for a year
or so in the square, this is the first time I've heard of religious zealots
in Massachusetts verbally attacking members of any group.  It's particularly
weird that it happened in the college town in question and in this square,
which has a tradition of public debates and performances on the street, and
an accompanying code or sense of responsibility:  in response to being tolerated
by the authorities and public, the performers don't confront people or insult
them, etc.

It's also strange that anyone in the square would notice and loudly proclaim
anyone else's sexual orientaation, nevermind in a hostile fashion to attract
attention and recruit.

The zealots were standing front of a bookstore on the main street when the incident
occured.  They had positioned themselves on both the inside and outside of the
sidewalk, thus forcing pedestrians to walk by and near them, or else step into
the gutter or street.

What, if anything, of a legal, political, tactical or organizational nature
can be done about such occurences?  Can they be arrested for assault, sued,
reported to the police or city hall?  Is there any recourse through Cambridge's
Human Rights Ordinance, or the Massachusetts law prohibiting discrimination on
the basis of sexual orientation?

How would one go about a public campaign against them, without it getting side-
trailed into endless and irrelevant generic squabbles about freedom of expres-
sion or religion (the aim being a practical one, to successfully pressure zealots
into curbing their aggressive and verbally abusive behavior in public)?  It may
be more worthwhile and relevant to hear of case studies of tactics that worked
than to debate the course of hypothetical court actions.

Does the ACLU or NGTF publish any generic information on how to handle such situa-
tions?

Has anyone else heard about harassment of minorities by fundamentalists in Cambridge
or Boston?

The main aim is to nip such 90's nastiness in the bud.  If a place like the Square
blithely comes to tolerate public harassment, it's really bad news.  


Regards,
Ron


* This is not only bad theology, but it contradicts the beliefs and practices of
  quite a few Christian sects over the centuries, including radical evangelical
  ones like the Plymouth Brethren in the early 18th century.  This sect believed
  that since god is all-powerful, his [sic.] mercy is a kind of ultimate override,
  and is certainly more powerful than mere human sin.  What counted is not what
  you did (and I think some of the brethren were believed to be sexually promiscuous
  almost as a matter of principle) but that you asked for divine forgiveness afterwards,
  which you probably ought to do anyway for anything you did, since human nature is
  corrupt and all human acts and motives are tainted.  At least one historian thinks
  Isaac Newton was interested in the sect; one of his scientific proteges joined it.