OREGON S LE S B IAN/GAY/B l/TRA N S/Q UEER NEWSMAGAZINE
JUNE ^ 2010 5
.
NW NEWS IN BRIEF
Victims Speak Out
About Memorial Da/
Weekend Queer
Bashing
A fun night out dancing at Red Cap over
Memorial Day weekend went from bad to
worse when a group of gay men was subjected
to anti-gay insults that turned into punches.
According to the victims, three men were as­
saulted on a well-lit downtown corner before
the alleged assailants fled the scene. Reports
of other incidents are circulating, but so far,
none have been confirmed.
Accounts by Jeffrey Darling, David
Fletcher and a man who asked to be identi­
fied only by the drag name Nefertiti Ay all
indicated that three men were assaulted in
the resulting scuffle, including Fletcher, Ay
and his partner, James Campbell.
Portland Police spokesperson Mary
Wheat said police had one confirmed victim
and two suspects. As of press time, no arrests
had been made.
“Detectives are following up on the case to
see if there were any other victims harassed or
assaulted. Detectives are trying to locate any
witnesses and are looking for video surveil­
lance if it exists,” Wheat said. “Unfortunately,
the victims did not report it right away so
that makes it hard for us to solve the case or
make any arrests.”
The investigation is being led by Assault
Detective Paul Dolbey and is being treated as
a bias crime, which means police cannot re­
lease the report, or the identity of the victims,
until the case is resolved.
However, many of the victims shared their
accounts of what happened with Just Out, and
at a community forum held Wednesday, June
2 at (^Center in response to the attacks.
Six men, three of whom were dressed in
drag, were walking past the Living Room
Theaters around 2 a.m. on Sunday, May 30,
when they were confronted by a group of
young men flanking the sidewalk and yelling
homophobic slurs such as “fucking faggot,”
“tranny” and “I hope you die of AIDS,” ac­
cording to Darling and Ay.
Ay yelled back at the men to “fuck off and
get out of here. Leave us alone.” He said two
or three of the men responded by punching
him in the jaw, at which point “it became a
car-crash blur.”
The men said that no one in their group
threw punches, but Campbell and Fletcher
both entered the fray in an attempt to pull
the attackers off their friends. As Campbell
jumped in to help his partner, he called to
police officers across the street near Rocco’s
for help—and was “sucker punched” so hard
that he was knocked into the street and lost
both consciousness and memory of the event,
according to both Ay and Darling.
Once police arrived on the scene, they
asked if everyone was okay and if they could
identify who attacked them, but Darling
could only remember that the assailants were
wearing baggy pants and baseball caps.
Although the men were too in shock
to file a report that night, they followed up
with police on Monday, May 31. Detectives
returned to interview them on Wednesday,
June 2, according to the victims. That they
filed a report at all seems to put them in the
minority, according to comments made at
Wednesday’s forum.
Stephen Cassell, one of the event’s orga­
nizers, asked the audience how many present
knew someone who had been queer-bashed.
Nearly every hand in the packed Q_ Center
house shot up. Yet the statistics cited by law
enforcement told a different story.
According to Portland Police Central
Precinct Commander Mike Crebs, there
were 15 reported bias crimes based on sexual
orientation in 2009, and 8 so far in 2010. In
response to questions about whether the city
experiences an increase in bias crimes during
the Rose Festival, Crebs said there were no
such crimes during June of last year.
“We’re told by police that this doesn’t
happen often in Portland,” Campbell said,
but “if we as a community don’t report these
crimes, there are no statistics.”
The forum also addressed ways the com­
munity can respond to, and prevent, future
attacks. Blow Pony party promoter Airick
Heater said he wanted to organize a queer
patrol, funded by queer bars and staffed with
volunteers trained in self-defense, to walk the
streets during and after events. According to
Cassell, Red Cap Garage and Boxxes have
also committed to funding such a patrol.
“I’m not saying we need to encounter vio­
lence, but maybe we need to learn how to de­
fend ourselves,” Heater said. “I’m not a fighter.
... I don’t want to be fighting for my life.”
Just Out will continue to investigate reports
o f Memorial Day weekend assaults on members
o f the queer community and will post updates
to blogout.justout.com as more information be­
comes available. I f you have information about
the alleged attacks, contact Detective Paul
Dolbey at 503-823-0457. To report a crime in
progress, call 911. To report a crime that is not
an emergency, call the Portland Police non­
emergency line at 503-823-3333.
—Erin Rook
Hundreds Come Out in
Unit/ Against Westboro
Baptist Church Picket
at Grant High
Grant High School principal Joseph
Malone told the community to stay away
from a counter-protest of the Westboro Bap­
tist Church picket at his school on Thursday,
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