If you think a Patrol group is necessary to combat these sorts of things, then a candlestick vigil would be a much better start.

a good word for ally-coalition is alliance. like the rebels in star wars? the rebel alliance? the rebel ally coalition would have sounded ga--

oh wait i get it never mind

Not to downplay the importance of combating gay bashing, but I'm straight and pretty much every time someone's kicked my ass, they've yelled, "faggot," first.

See also.

Vigil is the root word of Vigilante. Give em hell up there!

Start carrying guns.

@ 3 What is your point? The pejorative use of the word faggot against a straight person just further demonstrates that homophobia in thought if not in action is endemic in our society. PS Does your ass get kicked a lot?

A resurgent Q Patrol-ish thing would be a great response. When I lived in Chicago's Boystown we had the Pink Angels form after a horrible near-death bashing. It was a great experience to train and be mindful on patrol with a bunch of cool, reliable people, but dang, no more berets ever, is my motto. No more combat boots, no more parachute pants. Though we had adorable t-shirts printed up.

If a new group forms, cuter hats would help recruiting. Not douchey fedoras, but something.

@7: I think it's also become generically pejorative, so does that make every attack where someone is called a "homo" or "fag" a hate crime? I think attacking people who are ostensibly supporters of gay people is probably a bad strategy for getting more straight allies.

Q-Patrol is a good idea, but the thought of yet another stamp-our-little-feet candlelight vigil makes me want to projectile vomit until my body is wracked with dry heaves.

hire Samoans. give them aluminum baseball bats. the hill will be the safest place in all of king county.

Fuck the candles and fuck the 'march' ... every fag mobilized against ricin terrorism when the solution was bar hopping... everyone pound a couple shots of Jack and start wandering the streets looking to kick ass. Predators remain predators until they suddenly become prey.

Oh, and call the cops as soon as it happens. People keep calling the next day or the next week because someone convinces them they should..... YOU SHOULD, JUST DO IT! Homicide/Murder is not the only crime best solved immediately. Crime prevention is better than solving crimes that have already happened.

ALWAYS, STEP 1, CALL 9-1-1!

I wonder if the upsurge in anti-gay violence in recent years is related to an upsurge in Eastern European/Russian immigration to the area in recent years.

I'm more pissed off about Buffoony Jean Clamcunt attacking innocent geese.

Many attacks probably are by teens and young adults who don't have fully developed brains yet.

A person's brain isn't developed until they're about 21-22 or so. Until then, they're essentially a child with adult strength.

Not an excuse. Just an explanation.

Queer patrol did nothing for anyone. You fucking homo's and your stupid idea that your rights should be handed to you. Get a fucking baseball bat, get a gun, get something. Find the nearest person to make a remark and beat them to a bloody pulp. Make some news. Start a war.

Because your freedoms depend on senseless violence!

Yeah! Yeaaaahhhh! Yeaaaahhhhh!

*cough* *hack* *hack* *blaaargh*

Anyway.

Hell yes, you go girlz, queer allies, etc. hope the vigil ios a success. By the way Q Patrol started as a Guardian Angels group which then became independant from that organization.

Time to bring Q Patrol back, this time with guns.

What a relief to read a post about a protest that doesn't seem totally disparaging or full of holier-than-thou armchair activism. More of this please.

I don't want to ruin the party, but I'm straight and I've been mugged a couple of times, in the same area. I pack heat now, legally.
It won't happen again.

3
I would think "faggot" would be the first pejorative that would spring to mind when dealing with any Seattle male.

It seems Seattle does not have a Pink Pistols chapter.

http://www.pinkpistols.org/

@14: Perhaps, but it's also true that as the economy deteriorates, crime goes up in all aspects!

Bring your umbrellas--it's going to be raining.

@14, in many cases, yes, especially those with a background in Russian evangelical churches. Eli Sanders wrote about a 2004 attack here:

http://www.elisanders.net/godwaswiththem…

And a couple of years ago, a gay man was murdered at Folsom Lake near Sacramento by Russian evangelical immigrants.

@27 "...gay man was murdered at Folsom Lake..." at a picnic, in front of friends. He wasn't cruising or anything.

This is the problem I have with Queer Ally Coalition. First they had nothing to do with the big march last November. The socialist workers see thousands and thousands of young people from all walks of life come out of the woodwork to march in solidarity for a cause right after the election. They get excited and basically take over from the original activists as a way to recruit young people into the socialist movement. I am very liberal Democrat myself so when I say socialist, I literally mean like Stalin kind of hard core “workers world” kind of socialism. I have no problem with this group, they have been a wonderful ally over the RECENT decades in the fight for equal rights (despite that the group persecuted gays in Russia, China and Cuba during the mid-20th Century), but I don’t feel comfortable about the gay cause being hijacked by a group with ulterior motives.
The rally in January, with merely 200 people, was organized by the same group and yet The Stranger was quick to criticize now all of the sudden they support. Realize Queer Ally planned the rally I while back before the recent bashings so it all just looks like great timing.

What @25 said -- I'm not saying homophobia isn't an element, but I think this is more a generalized upswing in violence caused by the economy and sadly gays may appear to be easy targets.

Skip the candlelight vigil and just get fucking violent back. Start carrying knuckles and if someone calls you a fag, break his teeth in. Then run and see if the cops are capable of locating you.

#29: As a member of the Queer Ally Coalition I can tell you for sure that the group isn't a socialist group. There are people from several political standpoints represented in the group, and as far as I can tell only ONE member is even in a socialist group.

The group didn't form to take over any kind of movement. We just saw that there wasn't yet a group on Capitol Hill (that we knew of) that was actually providing a vehicle for people to have their voices and opinions heard. Many of the groups are non-profits who's purpose is to collect signatures and raise money. I'm not knocking this, but we felt there was a need for the kind of group that directly involves the LGBTQ community and their allies in the organizing process.

As for your comment about Stalinism, it seems you have a very narrow few of what the majority of the socialist left represents. Very few groups around today are Stalinist or represent that tendency in any way. Just because someone is a socialist doesn't mean they support authoritarian bureaucracy, in fact, most out there are advocates of democratic socialism from below. And besides, what does this have to do with the objectives of the Queer Ally Coalition, who's goal for this march is simply raise awareness about the upsurge of hate crimes recently in Seattle?

As an American you have the right to defend yourself by carrying a concealed pistol. Go to the King County Court house and apply for a concealed pistol license. It will take about an hour for processing the form and fingerprinting and the initial license application will cost about $55. The background check will take a few weeks & while you are waiting for your license go out to any one of several local firing ranges that rent pistols and learn to shoot. The range officer can put you in touch with an instructor if you feel the need for formal training.

Find a good weapon that will fit your hand that you are comfortable holding and can put rounds on target. If you are going to carry the weapon find a pistol capable of being readily concealed with a variety of clothing in a concealed holster.

Having said all this I would like to state that carrying and potentially using a concealed pistol is a highly personal decision one must make realizing that you may have to use it to defend your life with deadly force. The fact that you carry the weapon doesn't necessarily mean you are more likely to use it but it gives you the option to save yourself if the situation arises.

Gay Americans have the same right to defend themselves as anyone else. By stating this I do not advocate vigilantism; I think peaceful protest of these gay bashings are necessary to show solidarity with the greater community. But remember when seconds count the Police are just minutes away...

I'm starting to think it's more time for a pitchfork-and-torch kind of vigil than a candlelight-and-kumbaya vigil. "A riot is an ugly thing, and I think it is time we had one!" (that's a quote, not an incitement, for the irony-deficient).

Here's my response to someone who asked what a candlelight vigil will achieve:

Well, the vigil itself will achieve very little. Only people actively organizing in our community can achieve anything. We want to be honest with people and let them know that our marching down the street will not end homophobia. But it can serve as the first step in the process for building a movement that can end homophobia. And its a strong counter to the demoralizing effects that gay bashing has on the community. On our path to winning, we need to build confidence that we CAN win.

First and foremost, we want to inform people of the fact that there are hate crimes being committed against lgbt people in Seattle and actually around the country. Strange as it may seem, there are still a lot of people who don't know this is happening or don't understand the extent to which hate crimes are happening. It's definitely NOT a local issue or a question of a few bad apples with bad ideas roaming the streets.

Second, we want to make the connection with people that we need to organize to protect ourselves and demand full equality NOW instead of simply waiting for the next bad thing to happen. Anytime there is an anti-gay initiative or law passed, anti-gay hate crimes rise. Any time the government authorizes discrimination against any particular group of people, whether it be Arabs and Muslims, immigrants, African-Americans, you name the targeted group, there is a rise in crimes and discrimination against those groups. The passage of Prop 8 gave tacit approval to bigots to go out and attack lgbt people, so the loss of prop 8 not only means the loss at the ballot box or the loss of civil rights, it also means that some of us are losing blood and even our lives. African-Americans organized, protested, debated, and shaped a civil rights movement decades ago and because of their work, there are many many fewer lynchings in the South. I'm reminded of MLK's words: "“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.” When we organize for full equality, whether it be marriage rights, employment and worker rights, or the simple right to be free from physical violence, the bigots back down and fewer queers die.

Third, the QuAC is a simple group of mostly young people (I'm the oldest at 34) who see the need to organize and fight back. Most members are very new to activism and its just common sense for them that people SHOULD stand up to bigotry. We're broke like everyone else, we all work jobs, but we are compelled to do something. Not a single one of the large lgbt groups have addressed these attacks, even by press release. Not a single of the large lgbt groups, with their thousands of our dollars, has begun to raise the question of how we should respond to these attacks. Politics abhors a vacuum and in the absence of leadership, people rise to become their own leaders. We've debated and discussed trying to build a program coming out of this about how we should respond to hate crimes in our community. We recognized that we were too small, too inexperienced, and too lacking in resources to put together a program like Q Patrol or the Pink Panthers and so we'd like to make a call out to interested people to get involved, share ideas, develop a program, initiate the dialogue. I suggest we follow the lead of the Seattle Commission for Sexual Minorites and Gay City in developing a sort of rapid response hate incident system on our own (instead of relying on the data collection of the SPD). We're against simply telling the community "This is what we must do! Now do it!" None of us has the answers, but we believe that the lgbt and allied community, with its wealth of experience and creativity, CAN come up with good ideas. And there's no better time than now.

We're hoping we can put together a public forum on the violence in our community and bring people together to come up with solutions. Our small group is already being contacted by hate crimes survivors, which is good and bad. It's good in the sense that we're drawing attention to issues that desperately need to be addressed, but it's bad in the sense that it reveals the lack of a genuine lgbt rights movement in this city and state. With all the good work that ERW had done and continues to do, they are simply ill equipped to respond to these crimes given their current structure and focus. Ultimately, we need more and more people to become self-conscious organizers in the fight to end homophobia. It won't be easy. It won't be everyone. There will be meetings in which only a few people show up. There will be actions that are sparsely attended. But that's the way it needs to be done. That's the way civil rights have always been won and how bigotry has always been fought.

Twenty, ten, even five years ago, few people thought we would have a black president in our lifetime. Now we do. It's time to expect and demand what they told us was impossible. When Sean Penn can win an Oscar for his portrayal of an openly gay politician, it is simply absurd that queers can not walk down the street in the gay neighborhood in Seattle without fear of being attacked. It's now time to turn all that talk of hope into real change. I believe that we can.

Lonnie - THANK YOU!

I survived a gay bashing in 2001 when we still had Q Patrol. It was falling apart at the time due to funding issues but it was still there. The less visible it became the more the violence increased against us. I think it is very honorable of you to want to start something like this again. I know that the All Pilgrims Church at the North end of Broadway let them use the basement as a place to meet and organize. You may want to talk to them. They still had the QPatrol schedule on their whiteboard the last time I was there. Also don't be afraid to talk to the other organizations about helping get a group off the ground. The Court of Seattle is having their first meeting of the new imperial reign on Tuesday at 7PM at Neighbours I would encourage you to come meet with them.

Richard Hayne is the president of Urban Outfitters, a chain of clothing retailers. At a net worth of $1.8 billion, Hayne is the #262 richest person in the U.S. according to the 2008 Forbes 400 list, a ranking of the 400 richest Americans by net worth.
Richard Hayne is a "conservative capitalist entrepreneur." Republican former senator Rick Santorum (who has been associated with a homophobic stance) has been among Hayne's beneficiaries. Hayne has also come under criticism for pulling a pro-same sex marriage t-shirt by a number of sources .

It is true that sometimes we must fight fire with fire.

That is why is anyone ever bashes my transgender sister who lives in Seattle, I will fly up there from California, turn your sorry ass into a bloody pulp, and make you wish you were never born.

Is that a threat?

YES.

@33 Carrying a concealed pistol? Really? Because what Capitol Hill needs is more guns in clubs.

I would advise having a whistle or some other noise maker and some sort of mace or even some amonia in a squirt gun for self defense. Also a bar of soap inside of a sock swung around fast can deliver a nice blow to a bigots face.

Ever notice how they attack one person during darkness and it takes a group of them to do an attack? It seems they lack courage. IMHO bigots are natural born cowards who hide in the shadows.

@39:

Where exactly did @33 claim to carry his pistol into a club?

@41: The idea of carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense strongly implies that you would carry it with you most of the time you're in public. So, if someone carries a concealed weapon for self-defense, and they go to clubs, it's not a crazy stretch to assume they carry their gun into clubs.

“We are trying to send a strong message to these bigots that we are not going to stand for these sort of attacks,” says Chanan Suarezdiaz, one of the Queer Ally Coalition organizers. He thinks the passage of Prop 8 may have emboldened homophobic attackers. “These bigots feel they can terrorize queers and get away with it because were just stripped of marriage rights,” he says."

I think the mistake groups like this make is the assumption that all homophobes are bound together somehow - like there is a homophobe "community", when in reality, it's usually either closeted loners or alcohol and testosterone fueled guys. Either way, they lack cohesion and cannot be addressed like one would normally address a group of people.

Therefore, a vigil, while good for showing solidarity, doesn't do much to combat the underlying problem.

Then again, other than increased law enforcement and perhaps a group like Q-Patrol, I have no real solution either.

@43
well cat..
i don't know what to do either although i'm in the pitchfork and torch camp and causing a ruckus up in belltown on a saturday night camp..
i'm going to the rally because i'm thinking that a little 'mad as hell and not going to take it anymore' might move a homophobe or two to rethink queer weakness. i'm going to to do this and when i, or you, or soembody else comes up with something else, then i'll do that then.

Studies have shown that most of these attacks are carried out by jilted lovers.

right on the money as always, catalina. also, why the fuck don't gay men take self defense classes? like karate, tae kwan do, judo or kung fu? women do. why don't they? and please don't tell me it doesn't help. it does. py bateman survived an almost fatal knife attack because she was VERY well trained in self-defense.

Hey, is anyone setting up a donation site for Jerry Knight? I'll give him money to help with medical and dental bills, but I don't know how to do it. In this rough economy it would be nice to be able to help out. As a straight guy, I'll also mention that I've been yelled at recently by a group of guys driving down 15th, while walking into Liberty.

about comment #3

that's the problem, asshole. "Not to downplay the importance..." you just did.

@38
how exactly would you find someone who say jumped your sister at night?

While I am all for beating down someone who is attacking another person, all this talk about kicking ass is a joke. The whole point is the people jump a singer person as they walk down the street alone, its not like the scum are out at pike and broadway challenging all gays and gay supporters to a brawl.

This is why I carry a lead pipe with me whenever I go out on the Hill. It's a pain in the ass at coat check, but any little suburban bitch fucks with me, he's goin' down, hard.

@45:
no, most of these attacks are carried out by strangers. Take a look at this site and browse through the most recent attacks on LGBT people... All by strangers to them.
http://www.hatecrimereports.org

Rob, I'm new to this, having recently been hospitalized, so please tell me... to which studies are you referring? I'm open to your thoughts.

... come visit me with your findings.

Gays are shock troops in the fight against tyranny and suppression.

Naturally radical and seeking justice, they must also help their brothers and sisters in the Straight Community seek equality.

I saw this candlelight march and thought it was something related to the Pro-Palestinian thing at Westlake center. I thought this because I thought I heard their chant being something about ending support of Israel.... Was I having an auditory hallusination?

well no..mostlty there was on track chanting about taking back the streets, taking back the night, taking back the hill, etc. but at one point there were three or four redfaced revolutionary worker types who tried chanting that 'occupation anywhere is oppression everywhere' or other such off topic crap. it lasted less than five minutes and never spread to the march as a whole'

I AM FURIOUS ABOUT NOT ONLY THESE GAY BASHING HOMOPHOBS BUT ALSO THE FACT THAT THIS SO-CALLED RALLY AND MARCH WAS NOT WELL PUBLICIZED IN THE RADICAL FAIRY AND DISABLED DYKE COMMUNITY WHAT ARE YOU ASHAMED OF SAVAGE INCLUSSION ONCE AGAIN WE HAVE BEEN THROWN UNDER THE BUS BY THE WHITE GAY MAIL WE LOVE OBAMA ROBOTS

Me, me, me, waa waa! Selfish rally deserves cero publicity.

I love cero publicity. It's really best sort of publicity.

(Full disclosure: I'm a preachy, gun-packing faggot.)

Several people have mentioned concealed carry as an option, but from their comments, I'm not sure they fully understand the law or their decision to carry. Truth is, for most of us out to enjoy a night on The Hill, concealed carry is not a viable option.

For starters, carrying any firearm (concealed or open) into an area that the Liquor Control Board designates as 21+ is illegal. The law also severely frowns on carrying while intoxicated. It's also a bad idea. So there goes your ability to carry into a club, or have a firearm on your person after a drink at the bar. Note that having a Concealed Pistol License (CPL) does not change the law for you.

Also important, there are several liabilities you must consider when carrying. Carrying a gun means you can never be an asshole, ever. If someone bumps into you, calls you faggot, makes a pass at your partner, gropes you, whatever... you must not escalate the situation. This means no yelling back, no confronting them, but simply walking away. That's a hard thing to do. Drawing your weapon must be a last resort, and should only be done if your life, or that of another person, is threatened. If you draw your weapon, you must have already decided to kill your attacker.

You must also consider how safe your shot will be. In any busy urban setting, you rarely have a safe shot. There will almost always be people in the path of your shot (which remember, extends beyond your intended target), on the street, inside their apartments, driving by in their cars. You cannot risk injuring an innocent bystander.
A gun is a lethal weapon. It should only be drawn with the intent to end the life of another person. Pulling it out and waving it around will not work if you don't have the intent of pulling the trigger. Shooting your assailant in the leg will not work. Attorneys have successfully argued that non-fatality injuring an attacker means that you didn't feel your life was threatened and had no legal basis for drawing your weapon.

Some of you do not see a need for guns. Please know that those of us who apply for a CPL and legally carry a handgun respect your opinion. Be assured that we do not go out looking for an opportunity to brandish our weapons. We tend to be a very meek and tolerant lot.

For others that are curious, there are several places you can receive training without having to buy a gun. You can take a one-day safety course, which usually ends with some range time. A little extra knowledge never hurts.

My boyfriend and I enjoy shooting and practice regularly. Even with my CPL, I rarely carry on The Hill. Too great of a risk.

why doesn't every gay man go out into the night (or even day, for that matter) equipped with at least a knife if not a cat-o-nine-tails for that that extra feeling of safety, or even naughty punitive satisfaction. it's gotta feel better than getting bashed by yahoos.

WHAT ABOUT LESBIANS ELLAROSA OR DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT THEM LET ALONE LESBIANS OF SIZE OR DISABLED DYKES NO THEY DONT FIT INTO YOUR PICTURE PERFECT OBAMAWORLD AND SO THEY DONT COUNT TAKE YOUR WHITE GAY MALE PREFERENCE AND PUT IT SOMEPLACE NON ENTITLED AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK OF IT THEN

Gosh, Ellarosa, I tried that, but I kept leaving them everywhere. Like umbrellas.

Q Patrol 2.0, please.

@56 -- my buddy and I marched, and we just made up our own chants.

"What do we want? A HUSBAND! when do we want him? NOW!"

"Out of the Starbucks & Into the Streets!"

"Hey hey, ho ho, Polyester has got to go!"

etc.

@ 60

Excellent points, particularly the danger of shooting and missing (or using overly-penetrating, non-frangible ammo) and the fact that only a fool would draw a gun on in a confrontation unless they were ready to kill.

Once the gun comes out, SOMEONE is probably going to die. It's quite possible it will be you, if the assailant can take the gun away from you before you shoot him.

Knives present a similar problem: you are putting someone who may not have had a deadly weapon in a position to get one if they can beat you down.

Tasers (there's a new pink model that might be suitable in this context) or affordable stun guns aren't as dangerous to the attacker or the carrier/attackee (YES, I know, occasionally someone dies after being tased). How effective they are, I have no idea.

@64
we managed to get a ' out of the bathouse, into the streets' chant for a bit when we marched past club z..
next time though, i'm making a pitchfork and torch. just for effect. candles are ok but a torch would've been the ticket

@56 Thanks Riz.... Well they were LOUD. I heard a chant and went on my balcony which is a block and a half away from Pike and I was sure I heard "Hey Ho our support for Israel has to go!" A few neighbors were asking what was going on. I said it was a Pro-Palestinian march. Another neighbor said it was part of an anti-gay bashing rally that had been held a couple blocks away. I was like, damn, I'm crazier than I thought.

@ 60 - great comment. I will confess, I hadn't thought about the issues a law-abiding citizen would face carrying firearms in an urban area. But I still feel like individual gay folks employing real self-defense, even if it be non-lethal, whether it be tasers, lead pipes, martial arts, whatever, is going to send a stronger message than Yet Another Candlelight Vigil.

The way I see it, the only purpose of this kind of protest is to make the participants feel better about themselves, and nothing more. For me, that serves no purpose; I feel fine about myself, thanks. But what do I do about this guy coming at me with a baseball bat?

And 60, you keep on being a preachy, gun-packing faggot! I feel safer knowing there are folks like you and your bf out there.

So big freakin deal!!!! You're gay, and most of my gay friends are and have not had any problems because they act and behaive as though "they don't need anyone to run up to them and say: ohhhh, hi there". SO GIVE US ALL A BREAK AND "BE GAY AND LEAVE THE REST OF US ALONE!"

If you packing a gun you stupid faggot, then you will end up in a place that you'lll get what you want every night, in freakin prison you stupid ass.