There Have Been Two Horrific Anti-Gay Acts of Violence in Brooklyn In the Last 48 Hours
Via the Anti-Violence Project, we learned this morning that there have been two violent anti-LGBTQ attacks in Brooklyn in just the last two days. One incident occurred just last night in Crown Heights, on Washington Avenue, and the victim was “a 33-year-old man [who] was followed into his apartment building and attacked with a hammer by a man yelling anti-gay slurs.” The other attack happened in Bushwick on Sunday night, when “an unidentified 28-year-old transgender woman was walking with a friend when she was viciously attacked by four men using anti-gay slurs who beat her with a 2×4. She was transported to Elmhurst hospital where she is in stable condition, but at risk for having suffered permanent brain damage from the attack.”
The Anti-Violence Projects reports that incidents “of hate violence increased 26% in New York City against LGBTQ and HIV-affected people, continuing a four-year trend in increases. Additionally the report showed that in New York City, reports of hate violence from transgender and gender non-conforming people increased by 21% in 2013.” These incidents include the attack and shooting of four men dressed as women in Bushwick in September, as well as the murder of 32-year-old Marc Carson in the West Village last May.
The AVP will be having a night of action and outreach this Friday, October 17th, as it comes together with Make the Road New York’s Globe LGBTQ Justice Project (MRNY), the Brooklyn Community Pride Center (BCPC), and the Audre Lorde Project (ALP) for a discussion on Anti-LGBTQ violence. You can find out more about the event here.
Update: City Comptroller Scott Stringer released this statement about the recent attacks, “For the third time in as many weeks, a member of the LGBTQ community in Brooklyn has been viciously attacked in public. There is no place in New York for such bigoted and hateful acts, and I urge anyone with knowledge of this assault to come forward and alert the police. We pride ourselves on tolerance, diversity and inclusion in our City, and no one should live in fear as they walk the streets.”
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