I’m still trying to collect details,and if you have any information about this, please pass it along to me.

It seems that on Friday evening, there was an incident in Highland Park that may have been a gay bashing. I say “may have been” very intentionally, and I may piss off some people by trying to draw a distinction. Unless any investigation is done, and the three thugs who were involved are caught, we won’t know what the motivation of the attack was, but the fact that the victim is a gay man suggests that it could have been the cause of the attack.

The few details I have were posted by Justin Cummings to the Highland Park email list. An earlier post to the email list asked for any information. A woman had seen a rally while riding the bus home and wanted to know what had happened. The rally was at the corner of Stanton and Negley around noon on Saturday.

I’m calling this Highland Park, however, this is also being referred to as East Liberty. The corner of Stanton and Negley is about where East Liberty and Highland Park meet, with Stanton Heights close as well.

What I have seen about this. I do not know who the author of the email is:

A friend of mine was jumped in East Liberty last night. They didn’t try to rob him. There were three kids, two of them crossed the street and then the third, from what I understand, came up behind Joe and pushed him then slugged him in the face. Joe ran into the street away from him and ran home. This happened Friday evening across from the Union Project. There was a small rally last night since the police took forever (I got the call at Gooski’s…… and headed over there by bike, and the police didn’t get there for a good 30-40 minutes or so after I reckon). But there’s gonna be another gathering today at Negley & Stanton. As my friend happens to be queer, it’s being taken as another gay bashing incident. It could just be shitty young kids f’ing with people who look hip and nonviolent though.

I’ll be calling the mayor’s office as well as my City Council Rep, in the morning to see what I can learn about the slow police response. With a police station only a few blocks away, there is no reason for it to take so long to get a cop there following an incident. Gay bashing or not, our streets and our neighborhoods should be safe enough for anyone to be out walking without being attacked, and slow response from the police is never acceptable. Generally, Highland Park is safe. Brad and I frequently hold hands as we are walking the dog, and just this evening, we saw another gay couple, walking, holding hands. It becomes the responsibility of everyone in the community to stand up for and demand safety for everyone, or this community (or any) will not thrive and grow.