BY PETER THIERJUNG AND BRIAN TAYLOR
NEW YORK - Determined to voice their anger at the murder of
Matthew Shepard and call for justice, some 5,000 protesters
marched down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan October 19.
Hundreds carried candles, some held up placards with Shepard's photo, others had signs against antigay violence. "I'm outraged by what happened and that's why I'm out here today," said participant Tony González from Brooklyn. He also noted a local rise in incidents of anti-gay violence.
"This atrocity against gays should not go unnoticed," said Rachel Samberg, a 17-year-old student at the Dalton School. "This action is one of the most obvious ways to show the city that we will not tolerate these kinds of attacks." Marchers included students from several of the city's college and university campuses and workers who had just gotten off work.
While a majority were gay, many others also participated. One woman said she heard about the march on the radio as it was assembling and rushed out of the house to join in. Others said they saw a notice on the internet.
March organizers and many in the crowd were surprised by the massive turn out. "I expected to see about 100 people," said Stuart Sussman, 37, a resident here. The local press said the march was reminiscent of a recent protest by more than 40,000 construction workers attacked by police.
The action was called by an ad-hoc group of gay rights and other organizations, according to a press person for Act Up New York. Organizers decided against getting a permit from city authorities and only a couple of dozen marshals with armbands were on hand to help direct the action.
As nearly 2,000 marchers assembled on a plaza off Central Park, a small number of protesters organized a sit-in in the street blocking traffic. Several dozen cops broke up the sit-in and made arrests.
"Equal rights now!" "Justice! Justice! Justice!" and "Homophobia has got to go!" were chants that rang through the crowd.
Cops regrouped several times to try to block the marchers. More than once about 20 police officers on mopeds formed a line blocking the street, but protesters walked around and through the lines without incident.
Bolstered by reinforcements, cops then created a blockade at 42nd Street with squad cars and emergency vehicles.
The marchers then turned down a side street to continue down Sixth Avenue. But a squad of two dozen motorcycle cops in riot gear and armed with billy clubs moved in to meet the front of the protest. At the same time, cops at the march's rear blocked the street and divided the march. At least 1,000 cops were mobilized.
A tense standoff then occurred that lasted more than a half hour as 2,000 people were hemmed in between two police lines. "Let us go through!" and "Shame! Shame!" they chanted in unison. Finally, the police allowed the marchers to walk down Fifth Avenue and the march ended with a rally at a park on 23rd Street.
In the stand off, one woman was injured by a police horse and others were ruffed up by the provocative cops. Act Up New York reported that 136 people were arrested that evening and the New York Post the next day attempted to smear the protest as a "gay riot."
Some people at the march held signs calling for passage of more "hate crime" laws.
Denise Dvoravic, a 19-year-old student at New York University, said that she supported "hate crime" legislation because she thought harsher laws may help curb the anti-gay violence.
Tony González had a different view. "I don't think hate crime laws will change the attacks because even if something was implemented, how do I know they [the government] will enforce it. There's a law against it [killing] now."
"I don't support hate crimes laws," said Kathleen Carlin, a 29-year-old musician, "because they are just reforms. I worked in a domestic violence center and have seen reform after reform with no change. That's why I'm happy to see so many people here today. This is how we'll make change."
SAN FRANCISCO - Several hundred people gathered here October 15 to protest the fatal beating of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. The protest was organized by Community United Against Violence and other San Francisco gay rights activists.
At an open mike, more than a dozen people spoke. Two men who had suffered anti-gay beatings recounted their experience. A gay high school student described the fear and terror he felt at being harassed at school; another pointed to the refusal of school administration and faculty to do anything to combat anti- gay violence in school. Other speakers pointed to the viciously anti-gay pronouncements of U.S. senator Trent Lott for contributing to a climate where anti-gay violence is tolerated. A number of participants in the rally carried signs attacking Republican party politicians.
Supporters of the Socialist Workers campaign distributed campaign literature and carried a large sign reading "Stop Anti- Gay Violence."
The rally concluded with a march down Market Street to the Loading Zone bar, site of the recent murder of a gay man, Brian Wilmes.
Jim Altenberg contributed to this article.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Thousands of people gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol the evening of October 14 for a candle light vigil to express their outrage at the brutal beating death of Matthew Shepard. The action was called on short notice by several gay rights organizations including the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
The platform of speakers at the event was predominantly Democratic Party politicians in Congress who urged passage of a national "hate-crimes" bill. Also speaking were several close friends of Shepard and actresses Ellen DeGeneres and Kristen Johnston. DeGeneres said that incidents such as the attack on Shepard were what motivated her in part to reveal after about 1- 1/2 years on her television show, "Ellen," that she is gay.
Two days earlier on October 12, some 200 people rallied at the University of Maryland's College Park campus to protest publication of a campus newspaper column condemning gays. The column characterized homosexuality as a "genetically defective state" and decried the gay community's "nonstop effort to push their `twisted and perverted' views on everyone." This right- wing column appeared under a pseudonym for which no one has taken credit. Several speakers pointed to this slanderous column as the same arguments used by those who beat Matthew Shepard to death.