From: buckmr@rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: ANTI-GAY VIOLENCE IN NEW YORK CITY
Date: 28 Sep 92 22:57:37 GMT
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   Via The N.Y. Transfer News Service 718-448-2358, 718-448-2683
 
 PROTEST ANTI-GAY ATTACKS IN NEW YORK CITY
 By Kristanna Thomas New York
 
A recent series of violent anti-gay attacks has spurred anger in
the lesbian and gay community here. Many are also pointing the
finger at the police, who were present at one of the attacks and
did nothing to stop it.
 
In that incident the night of Sept. 12, a group of thugs attacked
a gay man in a Manhattan subway station. As several transit cops
watched, smirking, the gang tossed him onto the subway train
tracks. He suffered a broken foot.
 
The cops did not lift a finger to aid or stop the attack from
taking place. Afterward, they intimidated the victim, siding with
his attackers.
 
There were several other gay-bashing incidents that same night.
Most took place in the Chelsea and Greenwich Village
neighborhoods, where many lesbians and gay men live.
 
In response, the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence
Project sponsored a demonstration on Sept. 18. The group issued a
statement that noted: "Last weekend was not unusual. There have
been more than 500 reported hate crimes against lesbians and gay
men in New York City in the last 12 months ... The actual number
is far higher because at least 75 percent of all incidents go
unreported.""
 
Some 500 people attended the Sept. 18 rally and march. They
chanted, "Queers fight back," and other angry, defiant slogans
during the long march that snaked through the lower west side of
Manhattan.
 
Another attack occurred Sept. 19 in Queens. Right-wingers there
have been trying to whip up homophobia by attacking a public
school curriculum that is not anti-gay. That afternoon two men
pistol-whipped and beat up a man and woman who were distributing
AIDS education materials on a busy street.
 
One of the attackers, a firefighter, actually identified himself
as an off-duty cop. Gay activists called that appropriate and
pointed out that many gay-bashing attacks are actually carried
out by off-duty or plainclothes police officers.
 
Along with the increase in police killings in the oppresed
communities of color, there has been in increase in anti-gay
violence. Speakers at the Sept. 18 march called for support for
more community oversight of the police as a response to the
increase in anti-gay violence and the indifference of the police.
 
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@mcimail.com".)

     The N.Y. Transfer News Service 718-448-2358, 718-448-2683
 nyxfer@panix.com * All the news that doesn't fit * nytransfer@igc.org

---
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735. **Clinton-Gore '92!**
vox:(518)-276-8910 fax:(518)-276-6920 buckmr@rpi.edu buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet
"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."
                                                                 -Harvey Milk
Newsgroups: soc.motss