JCJ2 MAY 21. 2010
W W W JU ST O U T C O M
Walk-in testing for guys into guys
¡n
Clark County
Tuesdays 11am- 1pm
Thursdays 4-8pm
) Where:
) For more info:
Harm Reduction Center
3701 East Fourth Plain
Vancouver, WA 98661
(360) 750-7964
cityguysclarkOcascadeaids.org
Se habla español Pruebas de VIH para hombres.
It’s a beautiful thing.
cri q - 6 Sat. 10-3
T u e s .- f n .y
°
m
q
Hendrix &
cal
McGu're Optica
• o n S it e
c » r e e t PDX. OB 9 7 2 0 5
9 2 5 SW Taylor Stre
p" 503 228 215^
M e n tio n th is a d a ’" " ' 6 0 ®
f a m il y
discount
Hit 'em with HOT pepper.T’
Mark 'em with PINK dye. ™
Hot Pepper Spray
w ith
Pink Dye Marker
"Don't Mess With Me!"™
HEIL
HOMOPHOBIA?
Neo-Nazi resurgence fuels rumors of
g a / bashings
FREE
^ When:
NORTHWEST NEWS
www.PinkStinker.com
By ERIN ROOK
Last month, as Rose City Antifa pre
sented a panel on the White Power Move
ment on the West Coast, a Facebook status
and text message-driven buzz about alleged
queer bashings by neo-Nazis was reaching
full swell.
The messages varied in exact content, but
claimed there had been “confirmed attacks”
on people leaving gay bars, numbering “five
in five days.”
Neither the Portland Police Department,
Rose City Antifa (RCA) nor Just Out were
able to verify that the alleged attacks actu
ally took place, but while the post-rumor
anxiety has died down, neo-Nazi activity
appears to be gearing up, according to RCA
and hate crimes experts.
“It’s difficult to make a judgment [about
the validity o f the rumored attacks] because,
unfortunately, it’s within the realm o f pos
sibility,” said Alicia, a member o f RCA, the
Portland chapter o f Anti-Racist Action,
who withheld her last name for fear o f re
taliation from neo-Nazis. “Without a doubt
[attacks on queers and other minorities]
tend to happen with increasing frequency
when white power groups are on the rise.”
Portland Bias Crimes Detective Kevin
Warren said that while he had seen no
increase in criminal activity by neo-Nazi
groups, “They certainly have a presence. They
are here.” Typically, he said, “they fly under
the radar until they do something stupid.”
According to one panelist at the White
Power Movement talk, it’s only a matter
o f time before someone is killed. The un
identified man’s comment was in follow-up
to discussion o f the March 27 near-fatal
shooting o f Portland anti-racist activist
Luke Querner.
Police are calling the shooting gang-
related, but RCA members, and even one
source within Portland-based white power
group Volksfront, believe Querner may have
been targeted by neo-Nazis because o f his
activism.
In the May 10 Vancouver Voice article
“Vancouver’s Volksfront,” a source within
the group, identified only by the pseud
onym “Bailey,” suggested that members of
Volksfront could have been responsible for
Querner’s shooting.
“Just days before [Querner] got shot,
there was a lot o f talk about making an
example o f him by powerful members who
are handy with a nine millimeter [hand
gun],” Bailey told Voice reporter Marcus
Griffin. According to the article, Volksfront
members would only speak on the condi
tion o f anonymity due to an organizational
ban on media contact and fear o f police
monitoring.
In response to an interview request ref
erencing the Voice article, a representative of
the group’s Pac-West chapter, who declined
to provide a name, said in an email, “The
article done by the Vancouver Voice was pure
slander and lies. No one at Volksfront had
anything to do with the shooting. That’s all
I have to say.”
Volksfront officially condemns the use
o f violence to achieve its political aims,
which include “white autonomy” and “white
self-determination.” The group bills itself as
an international fraternal organization for
people o f European descent.
“The/ certainly have a
presence. They are here.
...[Typically] they fly under
the radar until they do
something stupid."
- PORTLAND BIAS CRIMES DETECTIVE
KEVIN WARREN
“True Aryan warriors know it is best to
stick to what is legal and what is most im
portant,” said a neo-Nazi identified only by
the handle “CelticWarrior4Life” in an email
to Just Out. “I don’t know anyone in the
movement who is preaching gay bashing.”
CelticWarrior said that while “gays pose
no threat to the purity o f the Aryan blood
line,” he had heard of a bar fight in Portland
between a gay person and one or two “flag-
totting [sic]” skinheads, postulating that
the conflict could have sparked the recent
rumors o f queer bashings.
However, if the sources in the Voice
article are to be believed, Volksfront has
bold and violent ambitions, despite their
public denouncement o f physical aggres
sion. Members talk o f “the coming war,”
the “threat to our daughters” posed by non
white neighbors and a desire to return to the
old tactics o f the White Power Movement.
(A request for comment from Volksfront
was not returned.)
Alicia pointed to the April 16 bombing
o f a Vancouver, B.C. anti-Nazi organizer’s
house and the attack on Querner outside
Kelly’s Olympian as signs that neo-Nazi
groups are becoming bolder and more
organized.
“There’s been a huge escalation o f tactics,”
Alicia said, “something we haven’t seen since
the ’80s in Portland.” She added that RCA’s
tip line had also experienced a significant
increase in calls about neo-Nazi sightings,