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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Homo Alleged Gay Bashing on Burnside Sparks Fear, Anger

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 5:27 PM

Queer community organizers are pulling together a public forum tomorrow night at the Q Center on Mississippi in response to an alarming gay bashing multiple people say occurred this weekend in the heart of downtown Portland.

Drag queen Jeffrey Darling says he and four friends were leaving Red Cap Garage's Leotard party at about 2 AM on Sunday morning, walking along 11th Avenue in wild costumes when five guys in baggy pants and baseball caps blocked their path. According to the friends, the baggy-jeans guys started shouting at the drag queens, yelling "faggots!", "trannies!" and that they would die of AIDS.

A drag queen who goes by the stage name Nefertiti Ay shouted back at the guys, says Darling. "She said, 'Fuck you! Get out of my way!' That triggered them and they all jumped us."

A performer identified as Nefertiti Ay on Flickr
  • Flickr
  • A performer identified as Nefertiti Ay on Flickr

Nefertiti and other drag queen, Itsy Von Von Bon, were hit in the face multiple times, says Darling, and they collapsed on the street. Other queer-friendly friends jumped into the fray and started throwing punches, while Itsy hollered for help to police officers, who happened to be just across the street at Rocco's Pizza, according to Darling. The assaulters scattered and Darling could not identify anyone for the police to follow. "It all happened really fast," says Darling.

The group decided to file a police report. “After it happened, there was this immense amount of anger. We feel raped. The thing we love about Portland is it’s a free and weird city, we have all these people on our side," says Darling. "It’s frickin’ gay pride month. But intolerance and ignorance is still out there. If there’s any lesson to be learned is that there’s safety in numbers.” Darling says he has never experienced any sort of physical gay bashing before, but will now start carrying mace in his bag.

Stephen Cassell is among the group spearheading the discussion forum tomorrow night at the Q Center. He has invited the district attorney's office and mayor's office to come to the event and is hoping it will educate local LGBT people on the need to file police reports when gay bashing occurs. "There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on where gay guys are saying they want to go out an buy brass knuckles now," says Cassell. "I don’t want to see my community get all into a tailpsin over this and become the vigilantes. I don’t want to see gay guys become bashers."

The forum from 7-9 pm tomorrow night, June 2, 2010 at the Q Center (4115 N. Mississippi Ave).

 

Comments (18) RSS

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1
I think I have avoided this (knock on wood) by regarding any congregation of straight men as dangerous and walking blocks out of my way and zig zagging to avoid them. Plus, one should never engage or even acknowledge taunting. I have ignoring people down to a science. If you get a look at these people, it's not as though any of them are worth engaging with to begin with.

I'm not playing "blame the victim," merely sharing tactics from somebody who's lived in both Idaho and rural South Carolina and stuck out a wee bit.
Posted by seanpdx on June 1, 2010 at 5:40 PM · Report
2
Thank you for covering this.
Posted by Mellower on June 1, 2010 at 6:06 PM · Report
3
"Five guys in baggy pants and baseball caps"? Hmmmm.....
Posted by Sūṕër Ḉḩüñdŷ on June 1, 2010 at 6:14 PM · Report
4
Wow that's fucked up! Portland supports all! Portland is a free and weird city! You have my back with a couple other dozen straight guys that I know of. This is bullshit.
Posted by Ronald Megan on June 1, 2010 at 6:19 PM · Report
5
Thank you so much for covering this! It's heartbreaking that something like this would happen in our city.
Posted by KS on June 1, 2010 at 6:25 PM · Report
6
Here's the official link to Q Center's event: http://www.pdxqcenter.org/gay-bashing-disc…
Posted by Glenn on June 1, 2010 at 6:51 PM · Report
7
I though that those people learned their lesson with their pathetic recall failures
Posted by they are still at it on June 1, 2010 at 7:20 PM · Report
8
Rose Festival is bringing all the small-minded, alcohol-fueled bigots into town, and it's pretty awful!
Posted by Misha on June 1, 2010 at 7:44 PM · Report
9
I don't get Stephen Cassell's argument. Self-defense is not vigilantism.
Posted by MrPDX on June 1, 2010 at 9:03 PM · Report
10
[COMMENT DELETED: HOMOPHOBIC/OVERLY AGGRESSIVE LANGUAGE.]
Posted by MAKE PORTLAND NORMAL! on June 1, 2010 at 10:41 PM · Report
11
Why is that Cassell douchebag even mentioned in this article? He has nothing to do with this. Let the weird/tranny members of the LGBT be quoted on their thoughts regarding the bashing - that smug, clean-shaven conservative ass would never have been identified as gay in the same way as to have been bashed.
Posted by MoxieLove on June 1, 2010 at 10:48 PM · Report
12
I truly hope Make Portland Normal is just trying to get a rise out of fellow commenters. Lets not indulge the ignorance. If he's serious how sad. Let's keep Portland Portland, which means all are welcome to be themselves without fear of ridicule or violence.
Posted by makeyouclaptothis on June 1, 2010 at 10:57 PM · Report
13
and he put an apostrophe in AIDS...which makes it even sadder.
Posted by soopahiro on June 2, 2010 at 12:42 AM · Report
14
Cassell is mentioned because he and someone else called for and have put together the town hall happening tonight. I don't know much about him but his comments are not out of place. Emotions run high during Pride season (as does the partying), which I would bet, the bashers bank on. The fear of violence is a real concern.
Posted by DebraP on June 2, 2010 at 11:57 AM · Report
15
I think this entire situation has been blown out of proportion. We all know those involved in the "attack" and we in the community know that these people are the once who would have traded insult with insult, and more than likely helped sustain the hostile environment they were attacked in. I'm by no means defending the thugs who started with insults, I'm just saying we need to apply a sense of perspective and chalk this incident up as a drunken brawl outside of a club where mouthy people clashed with mouthy people.
Posted by danielbeverly on June 2, 2010 at 2:38 PM · Report
16
This stuff used to happen almost daily back in the day and the police looked the other way. Gay men would congregate in public restrooms (how romantic) and guys would do a little bit of gay bashing. Big whoop. The freaks shouldn't have opened their traps and just kept on going. Don't start something that you can't finish. And now here comes Sam Adams to the rescue.......
Posted by hotforteacher on June 2, 2010 at 4:00 PM · Report
17
The thing about these incidents is that they're so triggering to all and any who encounter them...either first hand or beyond. Sure, we can criticize and then criticize the critics. What it comes down to is how we as individuals and as a community want to relate with FEAR, fear of being attacked, fear of misrepresentation and fear of our ability to deal.
As individuals...Do we choose to instigate? Blame? Be passive? What about as a community? I think having a public meeting about it regardless of our feelings about WHO called it is great! Not only do we get to exercise our right to congregate and communicate...we also get to confront our feelings regarding this fear, and hopefully strategize about how to keep each other safe.
Posted by ThePepper on June 2, 2010 at 4:09 PM · Report
18
Certain straight Dukes of Hazzard drunk guys seem to think their opinions of things are so important they need to enforce them upon others. Its very sad!

One Halloween, one of them came up behind a friend of mine in a "Sponge Bob" costume and thought it was OK to jump him like he was playing football! I am sure the next day they laughed and thought it was really funny. But, in reality it scared the hell out of me and my friend. They just don't think!

I agree that during Rose Festival we all need to be more alert downtown.
Posted by Eric Anderson on June 3, 2010 at 4:51 PM · Report

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