j g Ju st
out ! September 21.2001
T
he massive assault by terrorists
Sept. 11 on the World Trade C en
ter in New York City and the Pen
tagon in Washington, D.C., has
affected gay and lesbian Americans
as much as it has their fellow countrymen.
The Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund is headquartered at 120 Wall St. in the
financial district, and the American Foundation
for A ID S Research has offices in the same build
ing. It is a half-mile or so from what used to he
the World Trade Center complex.
That building was evacuated after the second
plane hit hut before either structure collapsed.
“Our lobby was full of that terrible smoke, dust
and particles from the buildings,” said Peg
Byron, Lambda communications director. “Here
was this incredibly beautiful day, and we walked
outside and it was like winter. It was dark; the air
was heavy with this stuff."
Byron spoke of walking along the east side of
Manhattan toward her home to Chelsea. Most
people were trying to cover their nose and
mouth with shirts to screen out the noxious par
ticles. She was under the elevated FDR Drive
and did not see the towers collapse, but col
leagues walking home across the Brooklyn
Bridge saw the horrific spectacle.
Activist attorney Bill Dobbs lives just below
Greenwich Village in SoHo, about 15 blocks
from the World Trade Center. “A neighbor told
me that the second tower had collapsed. That
just seemed beyond comprehension.”
Dobbs grabbed his hike about 10:30 that
morning and peddled down toward City Hall.
“There wasn’t panic hut incredulity on the
streets down there. My most vivid memory is of
the silt and sediment. It was fine in texture, very
uniform, light beige in color. All I could think of
T he H ate C rime
of the C entury
was cremated remains. It’s inches deep on the
streets down there.”
Dobbs grabbed a few sheets of paper that
were strewn everywhere. One carried an address
of the 99th floor of the World Trade Center,
about a quarter-mile up in the air. "It had made
its way down from a place that no longer exists.”
That evening, walking around Chelsea, the
streets were half-deserted, cars and taxis sparse.
Gay bars stopped playing music videos and
tuned to news coverage; patrons sat rapt.
Byron saw “yellow school buses lined up for
medical triage” to carry the wounded to medical
facilities, but unfortunately there were few sur
vivors to use them. Above all, there was the
unnatural calm.
The police set up checkpoints restricting
Terrorists attack
New York and
Washington, D.C.
by Bob Roehr
entry to SoH o that night, Dobbs said. They
required a photo identification with an address
south of the checkpoints in order to let people
through.
In Washington, the streets were filled with
people streaming out of the business district as
the city shut down. Even the ubiquitous Star-
bucks closed. The afternoon was eerily quiet,
frequently punctuated by the wail of sirens as
police and medical vehicles raced one way or
the other.
An immediate call went out for blood dona
tions. But all gay men are ineligible to make
blood donations under current screening poli
cy, regardless of their HIV status or sexual
monogamy.
“ I was in tears when I heard the call go
ou t,” Vermonter Steve Swayne said. “ I would
donate blood in a heartbeat.”
The Pentagon, however, has issued an order
allowing openly gay and lesbian soldiers to serve
during the war against terrorism. But the gov
ernment isn’t doing this out of the kindness of
its heart, said Charles Moskos, a Northwestern
University military sociologist. It suspends dis
charge procedures during wartime to prevent
straight soldiers from bolting.
“People say, T m gay, let me out,’ ” Moskos
said. “So they put this stop-loss in effect, which
is kind of hypocritical.”
Aaron Belkin, Center for the Study of Sexu
al Minorities in the Military director, said the sit
uation reveals the discriminatory nature of the
“don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. “Such differential
behavior draws .into question the military’s argu
ment that gay and lesbian servicemembers com
promise the morale, cohesiveness and opera
tional effectiveness of their units, since it is dur
ing periods of conflict that morale, cohesiveness
and operational effectiveness are most vital."
Dobbs frets about how the United States will
respond to the tragedy. Can it do so “without
eviscerating civil liberties?” Comparisons with
the attack on Pearl Harbor also raise the specter
of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans
being hauled off to internment camps created in
Wyoming and other isolated areas.
During the “red” crackdown of the
McCarthy era of the 1950s, gays were among
those singled out for persecution. Byron hopes
this time the approach will be more thoughtful,
“an inclination to move away from petty hatreds
and differences.’ ’ i n
B or R oehr is a free-lance reporter based in
Washington, D .C .
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