Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

North Texas LGBTQ Community Grieves the Passing of Thomas Anable

Thomas Anable, 59, President of Fairness Fort Worth.

Benbrook, Texas – Thomas Anable, President of Fairness Fort Worth, an LGBTQ advocacy and education agency dedicated to the transformation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Texas, has died, according to the report of The Dallas Voice.  Anable, 59, was a leading voice in the significant advances for LGBTQ people in the wake of the 2009 Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s largest gay and lesbian bar.  Anable, who found himself caught up in the swirl of events around the Raid, was a founding member of Fairness Fort Worth. On the night of June 28, 2009, he was working in the office of the Lounge when police and officers of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission raided the establishment, and began arresting patrons.  According to his own often-repeated testimony, Anable’s life underwent a significant change that fateful night.  As he said in the official trailer for the documentary film, Raid of the Rainbow Lounge, “Those officers took something away from me that I may never get back–they took my sense of safety and security. And they had no right to do that.” He was transformed from a bystander to a passionate activist, bringing his persuasive voice and considerable skills to bear on challenges facing gay folk in the aftermath of the historic Raid.

According to a press release from the Benbrook Police Department, Anable’s body was discovered in Dutch Branch Park at 8:26 a.m. Saturday morning. He died sometime late Friday or early Saturday morning, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The news spread swiftly on Saturday throughout the North Texas human rights advocacy community.

Rev. Carol West, Vice President of Fairness Fort Worth, and Jon Nelson, a co-founder of the organization, praised Anable in public statements and vowed to carry on the work that he had so wholeheartedly dedicated himself to accomplish.  Plans for a memorial observance of his life have not yet been released at the time of this writing.

Tom Anable utterly dedicated himself to change Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and North Texas into a better place for all people to live, especially the LGBTQ community.  A CPA by profession and training, he sold his practice in order to take up the tasks of advocacy full-time after the Rainbow Lounge Raid. Anable’s efforts most recently were centered on two major White House Conferences held on the campus of his alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington–the first on hate crimes and human trafficking, and the second on efforts to combat bullying in schools.  In the past month, he was avidly working to support the Welcoming Schools Program of the Human Rights Campaign as a model for the Fort Worth Independent School District.

In response to the news of his passing, Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, Professor at Brite Divinity School, and Founding Director of the Unfinished Lives Project, said, “I am saddened and grieved by the passing of Tom Anable.  No one has contributed more to the advancement of LGBTQ human rights in our area than he.  Tom was a consummate networker, tirelessly striving to make our world a better place.  As we miss him, the finest memorial to his memory will be to carry on his work until full equality is achieved for everyone in the Lone Star State.”

“Thomas Anable’s legacy will be a stronger, more confident, and much more politically savvy gay community,” Sprinkle went on to say.  “We are far better for his work, and closer to the goal of equality because of his labors.”

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Fairness Fort Worth, gay men, GLBTQ, Human Rights Campaign, LGBTQ, LGBTQ suicide, Rainbow Lounge Raid, Remembrances, Social Justice Advocacy, Texas | , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Alleged Missoula Gay Bashing Fabricated: Breaking News

Joseph Baken, 22, from Billings, Montana, filed a false police report alleging injuries from a hate crime in Missoula on August 5 that he fabricated. Many on social media believed him, and are now retracting their stories.

Missoula, Montana – The birthday gay  bashing publicized across the web in Missoula turned out to be a false report.  The web went viral with the story, which was also carried on Unfinished Lives, of “Joseph,” who claimed to have been beaten by three men outside a popular club in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning.  Joseph asserted that he was attacked by slur-shouting men because he asked where a gay club was in the area, so he could celebrate his 22nd birthday there.  Now, thanks to the Missoula Independent story circulating yesterday, we know Joseph’s claims to be false.

The facts of the case appear now to be that the alleged victim, Joseph Baken, 22, from Billings, actually sustained his bruises and other injuries doing a backflip on Higgins Avenue in downtown Missoula.  The Independent has posted a video of the accident, which is also in the possession of the Missoula Police Department.  Baken devised the story of the gay bashing to coverup his self-generated wounds. In the video of the backflip, Baken, who was apparently miming an Olympic athlete, stands backward on the curb, executes the flip, and lacerates his face upon landing.  His audience, off-screen, tell him he “nailed it.”  In fact, he chose to trivialize the violence done to thousands of gay and lesbian people by childishly seeking sympathy for an attack that did not occur.

In breaking news, Joseph Baken pleaded guilty on August 7 to charges of filing a false police report.  Missoula Municipal Court sentenced him to 180 days in jail and a $300 fine.  The judge suspended the jail time.

The Unfinished Lives Team apologizes to our readers for publishing its earlier story on this incident, and commends the Missoula Police Department for investigating and uncovering this fabricated story. Thanks to our reader, Steven Haines, for the link to the Missoula Independent. Here is a link to Andy Towle’s update on the story on Towleroad, as well.

August 8, 2012 Posted by | Anglo Americans, false report, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, LGBTQ, Montana | , , , , , | 1 Comment

Gay Montana Man Bashed On His Birthday: Updated with Breaking News

Joseph, 22-year-old hate crime victim, told by Missoula, Montana authorities that his injuries warrant only a misdemeanor charge.

Missoula, Montana – Breaking News: Joseph Baken, 22, aka “Joseph,” in this widely reported news story on the web, has pleaded guilty to filing a false police report in Missoula Municipal Court, and has been sentenced to jail time and a fine.  His injuries were self-inflicted, and his gay bashing account was fabricated.  See the new post on this development here.  The Unfinished Lives Team retracts its previous story, which is posted below. 

A 22-year-old gay man was invited outside a Missoula club Saturday night, and then ridiculed, called a “faggot,” and beaten by three men for asking where he could find a gay bar to celebrate his birthday.  Missoula Police say that the young man, identified only as Joseph, did not have severe enough injuries to warrant more than a misdemeanor charge for the attack.  The LGBTQ community in Big Sky Country and around the nation has arisen in outrage over the trivialization of what thousands are now calling a hate crime attack.  In an angry comment posted on Wipe Out Homophobia’s Facebook page, a woman writes, “Nobody deserves this, especially not just because of your sexuality. Stay strong, Joseph!  Half a million of us are on your side!”

The Missoulan reports that Missoula police are not treating this case as a hate crime, despite the anti-gay slurs, the gang-type attack, and the severity of the bruises Joseph received.  According to investigators, Joseph reported the attack at 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning after managing to get back to his home. At least one Montana lawmaker is taking this attack seriously.  Representative Ellie Hill, (D)-Missoula, said sexual orientation must now be added to the state’s legal code. “It’s time, regardless of what side of the aisle you sit on,” she said. “What occurred over the weekend in Missoula evidences it.” Rep. Hill pledged to introduce a bill to that effect in the 2013 session of the state legislature.

Missoula has an anti-bias statute on the books banning discrimination against gay people, but the state does not. Critics of the police say that any assault is a greater crime than a misdemeanor, and, in this case, indications are clear that the attackers assaulted their victim expressly because he said he was gay, and was seeking a place where other gay people congregated.  KAJ18.com says authorities are soft-pedaling this crime, justifying their attitude by pointing to the time Joseph reported the assault–three hours after it occurred.  They also say that his failure to call 911 at the time of the attack supports their misdemeanor decision.

Gay activists around the nation are ginning up pressure on local and state authorities, reminding them that hate crimes by their very nature leave victims terrified and disoriented.  Joseph had to get himself to the safety of his home despite his injuries, before he felt safe enough to call the police.  Instead of supporting a young man who was only looking to have a good time on his birthday, something straight people do all the time, the Missoula police seem to think the minimum of response is allowable for a gay person in their town. Back 2 Stonewall, a widely-read LGBTQ activist web site, responds, “We do not deserve to be second-class citizens…even in Missoula f***ing Montana!”

August 7, 2012 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Back 2 Stonewall, Beatings and battery, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, LGBTQ, Montana, Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy, Unsolved LGBT Crimes, Wipe Out Homophobia | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Gay New Jersey Man Beaten To Death; Plea Bargains for His Killers May Reduce Charges Drastically

Scott M. Patronick (1963-2011): “I wanted to grow old together with him,” his lover said.

Phillipsburg, New Jersey – The brutal 2011 murder of out New Jersey gay man Scott Patronick made news again as his alleged killers rejected another round of plea bargains to reduce the penalty for killing a queer. Patronick, 47, a popular and well-regarded chef at the Hilltop Café, was attacked by two men who beat and kicked him to death on February 28, 2011.  Patronick suffered a fractured skull, and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Security video cameras caught the assault as it occurred, and the suspects who callously left Patronick for dead, Joshua Dalrymple, 27, and Nicholas Yerian, 24, were arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Patronick’s lover, Michael Joseph Bumbaca, 20, has no doubt that the murder was an anti-gay hate crime, though local police deny it.

Both Dalrymple and Yerian have bluffed the District Attorney twice now, most recently this very week rejecting a plea deal that would reduce the charges against them to aggravated manslaughter, according to the Express-Times: “The deals called for Dalrymple to spend 17 years in state prison and for Yerian to serve a 12-year prison sentence, with neither man being eligible for early release. Both would be ordered to pay restitution and would be barred from contacting the victim’s family.” Both men are shooting the dice for an even lower charge, counting on local amnesia and negativity about gay men to work in their favor.  Patronick’s family stated to the press that the penalties were not enough time to make up for the life of their son and brother. But no mention is made of Patronick’s partner, Michael Bumbaca.  They apparently had a problem with Patronick’s sexual orientation, and Bumbaca was an embarrassing reminder of who their loved one really was.  Bumbaca’s name was pointedly left out of the survivors in Scott’s online obituary.

In March 2011, Bumbaca gave an extensive interview to All Voices in which he said that his lover Scott straightforwardly admitted his sexual orientation, and was proud to be gay. When asked directly about the fatal attack, Bumbaca said, “It’s a hate crime.” He believes there may be a connection between Patronick’s murder and the testimony his lover gave in a 2006 gay bashing case of another victim, Bryan Wesselius.  Prosecutors failed to lock the assailant in that case away for any more than three years in state prison, and local residents were very aware of the role Patronick played in the trial. Everyone knew Patronick was plain-spoken and would not take an assault on gay people lightly. His restaurant manager, Scott R. Shafer, told All Voices that he would sorely miss the straightforward Patronick. “He was very opinionated, but he was just the nicest guy,” Schafer said. “If I was ever in a pinch, he’d be the first one to help. We won’t be able to replace him. I’ll need two people to replace him.” Bumbaca agreed about what a good guy he was. Scott enjoyed antiques, cooking, and his beagles. He and Patronick fell in love and had plans for the future. “I planned to grow old with him,” Bumbaca said.

Since a $770 paycheck was robbed from Patronick’s person by the suspects, prosecutors in Warren County want to leave any anti-gay bias out of the equation and call this a robbery gone bad. But broken-hearted Michael and the local LGBTQ community know differently. Gay murders don’t get much sympathy in Warren County, one of New Jersey’s mountain counties, located in the northwestern part of the state. Prosecutors like to plea things out, and move along. But people in Phillipsburg remember Scott.  In a moving remembrance on his obituary tribute page, a local woman wrote: “I did not know Scott very well at all. He was my waiter on Valentine’s Day and handed me a rose when my husband and I sat down. We saw an older woman dining by herself and told Scott that we would like to pay for her dinner… he smiled and said that it was his mother. When my husband went to the bathroom, Scott brought us the check and on the back, he wrote in beautiful handwriting that he took care of it and for us to have a wonderful Valentine’s Day. It was the nicest gesture of human kindness I’ve seen in a long time….”

August 3, 2012 Posted by | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Beatings and battery, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, License to Bully bill, New Jersey | , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Gay Literary Lion, Gore Vidal (1925-2012)

“How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.” Gore Vidal, Julian

Los Angeles, California – Gay intellectual and literary giant, Gore Vidal, died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills.  He succumbed to pneumonia after what his nephew, Burr Steers, called “a long illness.” Vidal was 86.

Charles McGrath of the New York Times writes in his obituary, “Mr. Vidal was, at the end of his life, an Augustan figure who believed himself to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right.”  Eugene Gore Vidal, born at the U.S. Military Academy where his father was an assistant football coach and flying instructor, grew up in the patrician environs of New York City. He dropped his first name so he would not be confused with his father, Eugene Vidal Sr.  His grandfather, Senator T.P. Gore of Oklahoma, tried to steer his grandson toward a life of politics.  Instead, Vidal pursued a literary career, eventually churning out more than 25 books, numerous celebrated essays, a raft of plays for theater, and many successful and lucrative screenplays for Hollywood.

By turns moody, brooding, trenchant, and uncommonly brilliant, Vidal was a star in the remarkable constellation of gay writers who transformed American life and set their stamp on gay culture throughout the world.  Vidal had a celebrated feud with Truman Capote, a rich friendship with Tennessee Williams, and wrote alongside James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, and Christopher Isherwood. His 1947 novel, The City and the Pillar, was the earliest fiction title in American literature to feature a fully gay character.

Vidal loved sex but rejected labels.  It was clear that his preference was for men, whom he cruised with abandon.  Yet, the only person he ever loved, to whom he dedicated The City and the Pillar, was Jimmie Trimble, a classmate of his at the exclusive St. Alban’s School, who died on Iwo Jima.

Vidal carried out a highly publicized antagonism with conservative maven, William F. Buckley Jr., who, in a fit of pique at being bested by Vidal’s razor tongue and superior wit, denounced him as a “queer” on national television. Vidal accused Buckley of libeling him (though at a later time he agreed that he was, indeed, gay), and the quarrel spilled over into print.  Buckley wrote in the August 1969 Esquire Magazine, “On Experiencing Gore Vidal,” with the subtitle, “Can there be any justification in calling a man a queer before ten million people on television?”  Vidal answered with a broadside of his own in the September edition, entitled “A Distasteful Encounter with William F. Buckley, Jr.,” with the subheading, “Can there be any justification in calling a man a pro crypto Nazi before ten million people on television?”  The cover of the magazine flashed the title, “The Kids vs. The Pigs” and a photo of a collegiate boy face-to-face with a live pig, to reflect the confrontation of youth and police at the Chicago Democratic National Convention–the nub of the argument between Vidal and Buckley.

Twice Vidal ran unsuccessfully for public office as a Democrat in New York. But his real charism was writing, and through that medium he left an indelible stamp on the creation and definition of what it means to be gay in American life. For many years, he lived abroad in Ravello, Italy, returning as needed to the States. He once said, “In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you are a great writer, you must say that you are.”  Vidal followed his own advice.  He was never able to remain quiet about his own genius.  In large measure, he was right–both about himself and the American people. 

Gore Vidal was an outlaw prince amidst a band of queer princelings who changed the fortunes of the countless LGBTQ people who followed them.  From the era prior to World War II, when gayness was thought to be unspeakably dirty and verboten, to the 21st century when queer folk have become media darlings, Vidal and his associates wrote a whole new reality into existence–a more diverse and tolerant nation than the one into which they were born.  We owe him and them for that.  And we will not forget it.

August 1, 2012 Posted by | California, gay men, Gore Vidal, Remembrances | , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Gay Couple Brutally Attacked in D.C.

Washington, D.C. – A gay couple was bashed by three men on the sidewalk near their home early on Sunday morning in NE D.C.  Michael Joel Hall (l), a popular yoga instructor in the District, and his partner, Michael Roike (r), were ambushed by three men, according to MYFOXDC.  The couple had been driven to their neighborhood at about 2 a.m. and were walking to their home on 3rd and T Streets NE when the attack materialized seemingly out of nowhere. Investigators say that the three bashers were yelling anti-gay slurs as they pressed their assault against the couple. Police are investigating the case as a probable anti-gay hate crime.

Both Hall and Roike were injured in the assault.  Hall’s injuries were by far the most severe, suffering a broken cheek bone and fractured face where one of the assailants struck him.  Roike’s mother says that the couple would surely have been killed if passers-by had not shouted at the attackers and rushed to the scene.  The thugs escaped with a cell phone belonging to one of the victims. Hall was rushed to Howard University Hospital where he underwent surgery to repair his shattered face on Monday.

Because Hall has no health insurance and lost his apartment in a recent fire, friends in the yoga community and Hall’s students have created a Facebook page, “Friends of Michael Joel Hall and Michael Roike,”  and established a fund to help defray his medical expenses. The response of the community has been heartening to the couple.  Cobalt/30 degrees is hosting a fundraiser for Hall on Thursday evening, and Flow Yoga in Logan Circle is hosting a “In the Name of Love” fundraiser on Friday night. The Facebook page has details about both these events and the MJH Fund on PayPal.

A local blog, dcist, reports that this hate crime attack is part of a disturbing pattern in the nation’s capital.  Numbers of anti-gay hate crimes have spiked alarmingly in recent months.  Of the 57 confirmed hate crime attacks in the District in 2011, 37 of them targeted LGBTQ people.  In March of this year, hundreds of members of the gay community and straight allies marched from Columbia Heights to Georgia Avenue to draw attention the issue and demand an end to the senseless violence.  As of this writing, there is no report of an arrest in the case.

July 24, 2012 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crime Statistics, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, LGBTQ, Metropolitan Police (D.C.), Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy, Unsolved LGBT Crimes, Vigils, Washington, D.C. | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Gay Couple Brutally Attacked in D.C.

Gay Religious Pioneer Honored as Hero of Hope in Dallas

Rev. Dr. William R. “Bill” Johnson will be celebrated as the 2012 Hero of Hope by Cathedral of Hope on Sunday, July 22.

Dallas, Texas – Rev. Dr. William R. “Bill” Johnson is Cathedral of Hope’s 2012 Hero of Hope. Dr. Johnson will be honored at both the 9 and 11 a.m. services at CoH Dallas on Sunday, July 22. Congratulations, Bill!

The Rev. Dr. William R. Johnson (born June 12, 1946 in Houston, Texas) was the first openly gay person ordained in the United Church of Christ and the first such person ordained in the Christian Church in modern times. The historic ordination took place on June 25, 1972, at the Community United Church of Christ in San Carlos, California. His ordination is the subject of the documentary film, “A Position of Faith” (1973; released on video in 2005). Throughout his career, Bill has provided counsel and support to hundreds of LGBT seminarians and clergypersons in the United Church of Christ and ecumenically. ~ From Religious Archives Network

The Cathedral of Hope, a congregation of the United Church of Christ, is the world’s largest liberal Christian church with a primary outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning people, with 52,000 worldwide constituents, more than 4,000 members and 1,200 weekly attendees.  The Senior Pastor of the congregation is the Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson.

Commenting on the news that Bill Johnson will be honored as this year’s Hero of Hope, Rev. Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle, Theologian-in-Residence of the Congregation, said, “Bill Johnson’s courage and faith mark him out as a leader and ground-breaker for the LGBTQ community, and for the cause of American religious liberty.  No one has opened more doors for LGBTQ people of faith than Bill Johnson.  This honor is richly deserved.”

July 21, 2012 Posted by | Cathedral of Hope, gay men, GLBTQ, Hero of Hope, LGBTQ, Social Justice Advocacy, Texas | , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Gay Religious Pioneer Honored as Hero of Hope in Dallas

Teen Lesbian Latina Released From Hospital Care After Head Shot

Mary “Kristene” Chapa behind the wheel of her car. Released after three weeks in intensive care since a possible hate crime shooting, she assisted police in sketching the likeness of the man who attacked her and killed her lover [NBC Latino photo courtesy of Hilario Chapa].

Portland, Texas – Pink News, a well-connected LGBTQ news source from Great Britain, reports that the lesbian teen victim of a possible hate crime has been released from hospital three weeks after she was shot in the head.  Mary Kristene Chapa, 18, was attacked along with her girlfriend, Mollie Olgin, on June 22 at Violet Andrews State Park in the Texas Gulf Coast city of Portland. Olgin, who was also shot in the head, died at the scene.  Chapa, known to her family and friends as Kristene, was rushed to an intensive care facility at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital where she was treated for grave injuries to her brain.

According to her brother, Hilario Chapa, Kristene is now in rehab and is “doing awesome.”  NBC Latino reports that Hilario, a tech sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, is astounded at the progress his little sister has made since someone attempted to kill her with a high caliber hand gun, and left her for dead in the tall grass of the state park. Hilario relates that in the last days of her hospital care, friends were allowed to visit her, and “she lit up” when she saw them. Kristene faces a long medical recovery, and just as challenging a recovery from the loss of her girlfriend, Mollie.  “She’s in neurological rehab, getting her speech and her way of thinking better,” Hilario told NBC Latino. “She also is in physical therapy to help strengthen her left side and mental therapy as well.”

Initially reluctant to let Kristene know that Mollie had not survived the attack, the family finally let her know that Mollie was dead. Police specialists and Mollie’s family were present to help break the news to Kristene. “With that support group we passed the info to my little sister,” Hilario said. “She was brokenhearted, very upset.”  Hilario went on to say how difficult it was to know how to comfort his sister. “They told us you have to let her cry. I didn’t want to tell her not to cry. But Mollie’s father (Mario) is a very good man, considering he lost his daughter.” Grateful for Mr. Olgin’s support for his sister, Hilario says, “He comes to visit her and when he does she gets emotional but he is supporting her. He wants to go visit her in rehab.”  

Portland Police released the information that Kristene was the previously unidentified eyewitness who aided them and the Texas Rangers in creating both the first and second renderings of the attacker’s likeness.  She was reportedly eager to help authorities apprehend the person who killed Mollie. The suspect is a 5-feet-8-inches tall, 14o pound Anglo male, with brown hair and a scruffy beard.  Kristene’s assistance with the sketch has prompted great public interest in finding the man who shattered the Portland community’s peace of mind, and set the South Texas LGBTQ community on guard against a possible hate crime.  Police authorities have repeatedly said that the attack did not appear random, but they have declined so far to support an anti-gay hate crime motive for the shooting. According to friends and family, Kristene and Mollie had been in a five-month love relationship at the time of the assault.

July 17, 2012 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, gay teens, GLBTQ, gun violence, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, Texas, Unsolved LGBT Crimes | , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Teen Lesbian Latina Released From Hospital Care After Head Shot

“Why We Fight”: Fallen Gay Activist’s Fierce AIDS Speech Remembered on His Birthday

Vito Russo delivering his powerful AIDS activist speech, “Why We Fight,” as part of the ACT-UP protest against callous government neglect of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Vito Russo (1946-1990) would have been 66 today, had the AIDS pandemic not robbed us of him. As a gay activist and groundbreaking film historian, Russo is best remembered for authoring the 1981 book, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. But Russo’s impact on LGBTQ equality and American culture and politics reached farther.  He was a participant in virtually every landmark gay and lesbian rights effort since the Stonewall Rebellion in the streets of New York City in 1969–where he was actually present, protesting in the crowd who fought back against police oppression in what has come to be known as the birth date of the gay rights movement. He became a leader in the Gay Activists Alliance in the aftermath of Stonewall, and a co-founder of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) because of his concern about how gay people were portrayed by the media. In the 1980s, Russo became involved in ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) out of deepening frustration over federal and state governmental refusal to take the HIV/AIDS epidemic seriously.  In 1990, he died of complications from the disease, but his legacy became secure after HBO aired a documentary film version of The Celluloid Closet narrated by comedy great, Lilly Tomlin. Russo’s family authorized a biography in 2011 published by the University of Wisconsin Press, Michael Shiavi’s Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo. On July 23, HBO will premier a new documentary film, Vito. 

On the anniversary of his birthday, July 11, we at the Unfinished Lives Project join Jeffrey Schwarz, the Producer/Director of Vito, to recall Russo’s powerful AIDS activism, and to remember the multitudes of women, men, and youth cut down so senselessly by a pandemic the U.S. government would not acknowledge until it began to affect the heterosexual population of this country. As Schwarz says in the Huffington Post: “During the AIDS epidemic Vito watched the world he loved crumble beneath his feet. By the time Vito received his AIDS diagnosis in 1985, the epidemic was well into its first decade, and thousands had already died. Vito had long been involved in empowering his community, so he found a way to channel his rage and grief into effective and history-making activism. ‘Why We Fight,’  Schwarz goes on to say, “was a fiery 1988 speech given before a tumultuous crowd of angry ACT UP demonstrators at the New York State Capitol in Albany.” The Queer Rhetoric Project records that the speech was delivered first in Albany as a part of the “9 Days of Protest” demonstration, and then later in Washington, D.C. at the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Why We Fight,” in its entirety, can be found here.  Toward the climax of his fierce indictment of a medical and political regime in the U.S. marked by footdragging and homophobia, Russo said, almost prophetically:

“Someday, the AIDS crisis will be over. Remember that. And when that day comes, when that day has come and gone, there’ll be people alive on this Earth, gay people and straight people, men and women, black and white, who will hear the story that once there was a terrible disease in this country and all over the world, and that a brave group of people stood up and fought and, in some cases, gave their lives, so that other people might live and be free. So I’m proud to be with my friends today and the people I love, because I think you’re all heroes, and I’m glad to be part of this fight. But, to borrow a phrase from Michael Callen’s song, ‘all we have is love right now. What we don’t have is time.'”

The wrack and ruin of the AIDS pandemic is still with us, and the disease as dangerous as ever.  The Unfinished Lives Team asks you to join us in honoring Vito Russo on the anniversary of his birth by advocating for increased research funding, effective education, and regular testing until this horrible disease is finally defeated.  For now, like Russo, we must continue the struggle–remember the fallen–and do the work of hope.  Happy Birthday, Vito!

July 11, 2012 Posted by | ACT-UP, gay men, GLAAD, GLBTQ, Heterosexism and homophobia, HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS prevention, LGBTQ, New York, Protests and Demonstrations, Remembrances, Social Justice Advocacy, Vito Russo, Washington, D.C. | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Why We Fight”: Fallen Gay Activist’s Fierce AIDS Speech Remembered on His Birthday

Hate Charges Dropped Against East Texan

Burke Burnett, victim of gay bashing in Reno, Texas, shown soon after the Halloween Party attack.

Paris, Texas – Hate crimes charges were dropped against an East Texas man in the notoriously savage bashing of a gay man in Reno, a community in Lamar County, last Halloween weekend.  The Paris News reports that Daniel Shawn Martin, 33, arrested  along with two other suspects on November 1 for attacking 26-year old gay man, Burke Burnett on the night of October 30, 2011, is now free with all charges dropped. Martin contended that he was not present at the Halloween Party where Burnett was slashed and stabbed with a broken beer bottle, beaten, and then thrown bodily into a lit burn barrel while his assailants yelled anti-gay slurs.  The Lamar County District Attorney, Gary Young, announced that all charges have been dropped against Martin.

KETR Radio reports that several witnesses came forward to corroborate Martin’s claim that he was not at the Reno party when Burnett was brutalized.  Burnett himself affirmed that Martin was not a party to the assault that nearly cost him his life, leaving him with over 30 stitches and second-degree burns.

Two other suspects, James Mitchell Laster III and Mickey Smith, were found guilty of carrying out the homophobic attack, and are now serving prison terms.

July 6, 2012 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, immolation, LGBTQ, Slashing attacks, Slurs and epithets, stabbings, Texas | , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Hate Charges Dropped Against East Texan

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