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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2000)
QCloûer 6. 2ûûû • ju st W e call it the '110% S erv ice Plan!* R oanoke R ecovers Shooting rampage leaves one dead, six injured ou i j 9 !• any realtors provide competent service. At Bridgetown Realty, w e go on e step fu rth e r...w e do it with a level of com m unication and care by B o b R o e h r that is so formidable that over 85% of our business is through referrals. he community o f Roanoke mourned, prosecuted and got back to living life during the days fol lowing the shooting rampage at the Backstreet Cafe, one of only two gay bars in the southwestern Virginia town. The Sept. 22 incident left one dead and six people hospitalized. Danny Lee Overstreet, 43, was hit in the chest in the flurry of bullets and died within sec onds. His charming flamboyance was celebrated in a service Sept. 27. “He had an infectious laugh,” said his 17- year-old niece, Misty Overstreet. He sometimes did drag under the name “Iwanna” and often donated money to animal welfare organizations. Co-workers at Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic) recalled how the rotund ex-beautician would remind people when it was time to get their roots dyed. Or how he sometimes would bring his champagne-colored poodle to work wearing a leopard-skin coat. Page W ebb remains hospitalized in serious condition with a bullet wound in the neck. John C ollins went home after being shot in the gut. He must use a colostomy bag while his colon heals. Doctors won’t know for three months if he must use the bag permanently or if addi tional surgery will be able to restore use of his large intestine. Local and national gay organizations successfully — convinced U .S . Sen. John W arner, R -V a., to back hate crimes legislation in response to the tragedy. He recently switched from opposi tion to support for the bill, although h e’s still reluctant to attach it to a Defense authoriza tion bill. Confessed shooter Ronald Edward Gay, 54, was indicted by a grand jury O ct. 2. Charges include the first-degree murder o f Overstreet, six counts o f aggravated malicious wounding and one count o f shooting into an occupied building. The cumulative prison time could total 180 years. T he trial is set for January, although he might not be found competent to stand trial. T h e picture of Gay that continues to emerge is one of a deeply troubled man with a history of treatment for psychiatric illness. The turning point came during his service as a Marine in 1968 in Vietnam, where he had to gather the charred remains of seven men of his platoon blown to pieces when their truck So if you know anyone thinking of buying or selling, please give us a call...we're IT K 503 / 287.9370 Member: International Relocation Services K ii \ L T Y A Trusted Name in Real Estate Since 1979 w w w . b r i d g e t o w n r e a l t y . c o m GAY AND LESBIAN PATHWAYS: Danny Lee Overstreet E X A M I N I N G O U R SP IR IT U A L JO U R N E Y S struck a land mine. Gay returned from the war a different man— one who drank too much, heard voices in his head, wandered back and forth from Virginia to his birth home in Nova Scotia to Florida and went through at least five failed marriages. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disor der and prescribed the anti-depressant Prozac and the anti-anxiety drug Clonipin. By 1992, he was receiving full disability from the Veterans Administration. G ay’s children changed their last names, in part because their father was absent, in part because of the growing association of the word with the homo sexual community. A t times, he railed against this, a fact community leaders point to in calling the shooting an anti-gay hate crime. But family and friends who know him best say Gay is not anti-gay. In an interview with the Roanoke Times , Laura Ramsey, who became his fourth wife in 1994, said that she was in a lesbian relationship when they met and that he was accepting of the fact. “He wasn’t homophobic,” she said. The cou ple’s social circle included gays and lesbians. O n Father’s Day of this year, Gay burst into Ramsey’s Florida home demanding to see their son. He said he would shoot her and her current husband but left before the police arrived. A judge ordered Gay to surrender his weapons and undergo psychiatric evaluation, but apparently neither occurred. Ramsey said the problems arise when he is not on his med ications. The shooting has been a catalyst for the Roanoke gay community. A new group, the Hate Free Roanoke Task Force, formed to coor dinate a response. It is pushing for state and federal hate crimes legislation and coordinated a series of vigils out side the cafe and elsewhere. There is revived talk of creating a gay and lesbian community center to serve the scattered population. The Backstreet Cafe reopened Oct. 1. “This is our home; I can’t let Ronald Gay take that away from me,” said Sue Stroud, who was shooting pool when the lead started flying. “I got to focus on the positive, the good. I’ve got to take back my bar.” Manager Alan Blanekship added: “We felt like it was time. We missed our family.’ "This is our home; I can't let Ronald Gay take that away from me." Sue Stroud 'in B ob R oehr is a free-lance reporter based in Ronald Gay BRtD CETO W N always looking for one more satisfied customer. Washington, D .C . SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15. 2000 CO-SPONSORED BY the Community o f Welcoming Congregratlons and the Gay and Lesbian Outreach o f St. Philip Ner! 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