Brooklyn, N.Y., march protests anti-gay bashing
By Pat Chin
New York
Chants against anti-lesbian/gay/bi/trans violence filled the
night in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Oct. 3. Hundreds took to the
streets in militant and multinational solidarity against an
alarming rise of anti-gay and anti-trans people bashings and
murders. "Not in Brooklyn, not in Queens, we'll show you what
fightback means!" shouted the marchers.
Reports of violence against gay and trans people have
climbed more than 81 percent this year. At least four gay men
and trans people of color have been killed since May in
Manhattan's Greenwich Village. In September, there were 26
violent incidents in lower Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the
Bronx.
Carrying candles, placards and banners and using
noisemakers, demonstrators chanted against New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani and his police department. Despite the surge
of attacks, Police Commissioner Howard Safir broke his silence
only under pressure from the affected communities. Then, police
claimed the rising trend of assaults was not an epidemic.
The protest, whose main slogan was "Zero tolerance for hate
violence," was sponsored by a multinational coalition
representing lesbian/gay/bi/trans people of African, Asian and
Latino descent, including the Audre Lorde Project, Gay Men of
African Descent and the Latino Commission on AIDS.
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