Last night in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, a man was shot dead in what is being investigated as a possible anti-gay hate crime. The murder follows a string of anti-gay attacks in New York City in recent weeks and a rally against anti-gay violence held in the city Thursday evening.
NBC New York reports that the victim was walking along sixth avenue when a group of passersby made anti-gay remarks. There was no phsycial confrontation at that time. Later in the evening, the 32yo victim and one of the men in the aformented group again crossed paths. Police report that the suspect allegedly said the victim look like a ‘gay wrestler’ before shooting him in the head. The victim later died in hospital. The suspect was arrested at the scene.
According to the NY Post, the suspect hurled homophobic slurs just prior to shooting him. He allegedly asked the victim “do you want to die here?” before shooting him in the face. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Saturday said to reporters that “this is clearly a hate crime.” Saturday’s murder is the 5th reported incident of homphobic violence in NYC this month.
City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, expressed her dismay and disgust following this latest incident of anti-gay violence: “I am horrified to learn that last night, a gay man was murdered in my district after being chased out of a Greenwich Village restaurant and assailed by homophobic slurs. I stand with all New Yorkers in condemning this attack.”
Community Outreach
In response to the murder and recent wave of anti-gay assaults in NYC, the Anti-Violence Project will be holding a community safety night on Friday May 24th and each Friday through Pride Month. These sessions will aim to raise awareness about anti-gay violence in the city and discuss ways to counteract it. See the official press release here.
Anyone with further information is encouraged to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS. Reports of anti-gay violence and abuse can also be made to the LGBT Anti-Violence Project which has a 24 hour bilingual (English/Spanish) hotline: 212 714 1141.
GAY MARRIAGE USA 
Lord help this world..this is absolutely horrific.
Ok you got the guy now don’t drag it around in the courts for years. Blow his head off now.
I’d rather see him spend the rest of his life rotting away in jail. Of course, the only down side to that is he gets free meals and lodging
And now he can be someone’s BITCH in the BIg House.. Who’s the punk now ?
thank you Cardinal DOLAN for helping CREATE such a situation wit hyour hate speech and “dirty hands” comments.. YOU have blood and dirty hands
All religions condone this behavior. Sick!
No not all…. mine doesn’t.
It’s not the religion it’s the Sect, Methodists are Christian but they are also all accepting. After her divorce my Mom went from Roman Catholic to Methodist & we really noticed the difference! I’ve seen 2nd & 3rd weddings w/o having to PAY for an annulment, my daughter was baptized & I didn’t have to pay a single cent to the church also the Minister was FEMALE & her my child’s father & are not married but that was not even mentioned as an issue! I’ve seen gay weddings. Anyone who has felt ostracized by the R.C. church has found a home w/ the Methodists! I really don’t think Dolan & his Church are much longer for this changing world! They will eventually go the way of the Churches & religions they tried to wipe out!!
Nope, It is mostly the Catholics. When I was a kid in Catholic school,the nuns turned a blind eye to the bullies who beat me daily. I think I was 11 years old. I am no longer a Catholic. I belong to another mainstream Christian church that DOES NOT CONDONE homophobia, but embraces all of creation.
Philip I would not only say ithat Cardinal Dolan has blood on his hands but every member of the cloth that stands at the pulpit and preaches hate because hatred is a taught emotion love is natural
There will be a ‘dirty hands’ vigil outside St Pats on 5/26. https://www.facebook.com/events/548060291912325/?fref=ts
“The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a woman or man with a same-sex attraction . . . while reminding him or her of our clear teaching that, while the condition of homosexuality is no sin at all, still, God’s teaching is clear that sexual acts are reserved for a man and woman united in the lifelong, life-giving, faithful, loving bond of marriage.” Cardinal Dolan. So not really sure where you get this information that the Cardinal engages in hate speech. He is just saying that sex outside of marriage whether it be gay or straight is a sin. Being gay is NOT a sin according to the Catholic church.
My recollection of Catholic church preachers is that homosexuality is wrong and that according to the bible, a man should not sleep nor have intimacy with another man. If this cardinal thinks otherwise, why doesn’t he support SAME SEX MARRIAGE?
How does he have a gun with all the NYC gun laws?
Well, NYC doesn’t have locked borders. People can buy guns legally or illegally in other states and bring them in to NYC.
Gun laws don’t make us safe, it makes us victims!
That is just an absolutely ridiculous and untrue statement.
Your reply is the most ridiculous I have seen all day, Shannon.
This is just really ridiculous. We need to take our city back. Scum like that can’t be allowed to make people afraid to be themselves. NYC has been one of the gay friendliest cities for years and it is a title we hold with pride. It is this type of thing that makes it imperative that SCOTUS do the right thing and rule in favor of marriage equality.
Also, it is Christine Quinn not Christine Queen.
HAHAHA! Paging Dr. Freud…
Corrected typo, thank you!
I grew up and came out in NYC. How sad I was when I read this sorry. I have NO FAITH in THIS SCOTUS. They gave bush the White House, doesn’t that speak to their integrity?
what kind of monsters are we raising!!! Truly disgusting what hate creates 😦
People need to accept the gay they are people also and NOT going any where so live your life and leave people alone so they can be their selfs
My prayers are with the gay community for loosing another angel. My thoughts are about the hatred straight people think they are justified to have towards our community. We are all people. We work, we love, we should be safe from people filled with such hatred. The murder’s parents and friends must be proud of him – they taught him and supported him to hate so much – and there hearts must also be filled with such hatred. Let us pray that society turns from hatred to love. Are we allowed to remind the bishop – Jesus said – “the greatest commandment is to love one another.”
So what’s the suspect’s name? Where does he live? Where does he work? Why is there no information on this guy? Scum like this needs to e exposed.
There is no information on him because he’s not the one we should be focusing on. Our culture inadvertently glorifies the perpetrator and forgets the victims. I don’t want to know his name or anything about him, just like I didn’t want to know anything about the guy from the Newton Shooting or the Boston Bombings. I don’t want to know because they’re not important, they’re the lowest forms of humanity and they deserve to be forgotten. I always want to know about the victims, I want to know so I can remember them even though I never knew them, because they don’t deserve to be forgotten. So please, don’t release information on the suspect, because he’s not the one that matters in this story.
You deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Faith in humanity is somewhat slightly restored. Only when I see an end to the violence will I want to father a child.
You’re so right Nick! Let’s expose this asshole and make him suffer for as long as he lives.
The reality of the situation, is that, after the Bloomberg administration took power, they stopped enforcing zoning laws, and it has invited more and more garbage to our neighborhoods.
Homophobic rhetoric from society and politicians is not without cost. This is an example of why politicians and preachers need to keep their anti-gay comments to themselves. Sure, there’s the 1st Amendment. But there’s also the 2nd. Maybe we should all buy guns. (Things must be bad if that even occurs to me as an option.)
This terrifying! I was just in Greenwich for the first time a few weeks ago. The place is one of the nicest places I’ve ever been. Lots of young people and lots of folks with a sense of flair and unusal but fun quirks. I don’t understand. Are back in the days where people hunted just because there is something you don’t agree?
Gay people made Greenwich Village a charming, beautiful, and pleasant neighborhood. It used to be a total dumpster. People were afraid of going there back in the days. If it weren’t for gay people, it would still be a ghetto.
My Heart aches for this young man and to all that loved him.Prayers to all of you
An innocent man is dead because some punk was afraid his dick was going to get hard and violence is what religious bigots told him to do to keep his own gay feelings away.
That’s the truth! What’s the role of “religion” after all? Isn’t it to promote love, friendship, and compassion for one another? Should it be its mission? On the other hand, they promote hatred. It has been like that for centuries.
Simply awful. Now all the homophobic anti-Obamans are armed. Stupid isn’t just stupid any more, it’s lethal.
The likes of Timothy Dolan of the Catholic Church and all other anti-gay hatemongers in this city have blood on their hands after last night’s murder. Enough is enough. It’s time we challenged those who FUEL homophobia in this city. Murderers and homophobes are created by society and those who spew discrimination and hatred from the pulpit are central to the problem.
I couldn’t agree more!
“The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a woman or man with a same-sex attraction . . . while reminding him or her of our clear teaching that, while the condition of homosexuality is no sin at all, still, God’s teaching is clear that sexual acts are reserved for a man and woman united in the lifelong, life-giving, faithful, loving bond of marriage.” Cardinal Dolan. I don’t know where you are getting your information that the Catholic church are hatemongers. If you would really SEE and LISTEN to what it is teaching you would be surprised it is not the hate filled cult you may believe it is. The church just says sex outside of marriage is a sin whether it be gay sex or straight sex.
The new pope thinks same-sex marriage is the work of the devil. He could not wait to have his hateful speech to be heard all over the world. The catholic church has always preached that and that’s why I walked away from this institution. The cardinal might be saying something different on his blog, while preaching the same rhetoric and hateful teachings. Same-sex marriage is a human right and should be viewed like such. Church and state are two separate things.
The sad fact is that this kind of thing can happen anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city, small town or way out in the sticks. I have to watch my back because I know that not everybody is going to accept the fact that I am gay. I truly hope the suspect gets punished to the fullest extent of the law.
It happened in New York City where Bloomberg has been trying to push his anti-gun idiology on the rest of the Country and stood shoulder to shoulder with Cuomo when he was pushing the toughest gun legislation in the country. That’s why this murder is far worse then it happening anywhere else. NYS is supposed to have the toughest gun laws in the nation and that NYC has been getting illegal guns off the street. The NYPD wasn’t going to do anything about the first incident until the media ran the story and made it a big deal. Apparently Cuomo, Bloomberg and Kelly haven’t done anything because now a gay man has been murdered in GREENWICH VILLAGE !!!!!!
I’m so sorry this has to happen and I pray for peace for the victim’s family. Greenwich Village of all places. Seems we’re not safe anywhere anymore. R.I.P. :’ (
That is too sad and rlly ridiculous is this what the world has come to I’m rlly disgusted
I believe that hate is a byproduct of fear. Fear that we on both sides of the line feel. If we can give the Community as a whole the ABILITY to hate we have done it through not teaching they have no need to fear. The people committing these crimes are sad cases not a new reason to return hate. I am surely sitting here ready to go out and find a hater and stomp them out of existence but i would rather enhance a sad persons beliefs than institute another hateful response. Teach peace and love in this world practice harmony. Or shut it and get out of the way because the world has always rid itself of the its more parasitic creatures!
Piece of crap! This is just AWEFUL!
Hey Ray, You’re only now calling this a hate crime???? WTF !!!!!! There were 5 incidents in the past 2 weeks !!!!! Are you now going to act on this Hate Crime violence?? I’m really glad that we have the strictest gun laws in the country. I can definitely see those gun laws working really well. NYC and NYS has just shown the entire country how weak we really are. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to the victim of this senseless act of terrorism. R.I.P. Ray, why hasn’t anything been done about increasing a Police presence in the areas of NYC frequented by the LGBT community. I’m gay and I’m terrrified to go to NYC because I might either get the shit kicked out of me or get shot.
if people overheard all of this going on prior to the actual gun shot why did nobody intervene or call the authorities? If they’re able to quote all of the hate speech that took place that means they knew things we escalating.
people need to stop being silent bystanders and look out for one and other.
i’m not saying put yourself in danger, but make a phone call, alert somebody who’s in a position to prevent the unthinkable from taking place.
Sad that someone had to be murdered for Ray Kelly start thinking about doing something to stop these homophobic rats to harm the LGBT community. Are we going back to the 60’s, now? SImply ridiculous! Get your act together and start protecting us NYPD! We pay our taxes with dollars like everyone else!
An eye for an eye – you take a life, you lose yours.
I live in Florida, but originally I am from Philly so I know big city gay life. Unless NYC gets it act together, and soon, they will lose millions in business from gay tourists. I’m having second thoughts about going there this summer. New Hope, Pa. seems to be a lot safer!
Possible hate crime, says the headline. Let’s get this straight: he was not in love with the victim, right? Not so difficult to draw a conclusion, or is it?
This type of thing just reinforces the belief that America is full of mentally unstable phyco’s. you need to take the gun lobby and lock them up, for god sake get a brain and change your gun laws it makes it so easy for nut cases to get guns and kill innocent people.
I don’t think the gun lobby would agree. NY has some of the strictest gun laws and this piece of garbage still got a gun. I doubt he had a concealed carry permit in NYC which was a law he violated, so why think more laws will keep jerks like this from getting their hands on one?
This is such a senseless tragedy. Hate of any kind is so destructive. Teach our/your kids to love all people and to hate none! Wow I am speechless. So sorry!
Pingback: One New Yorker’s Response to Saturday’s Anti-Gay Murder: A Free Hug Session! | GAY MARRIAGE USA
Back to using the religion card again. . Which I do not follow in any form btw. Just another bigoted, ignorant lunatic who has probably been brought up in a State which says it’s ok to hate. Because Jesus or whoever says so.a America has so many backward states its a scary place to be right now.
Thankfully I live in the UK. And am happy to be living free in a progressive country.
This is horrifying. For years before the gay marriage thing, gays never had much of a problem, well Stonewall, but its been a very safe city–I don’t live in the city, two hours away. Its not just RC who condone this behavior–without publically condoning this behavior–evangelists do as well.
Catholics and EVILGELICALS (should be the right spelling for this bigoted, fanatic, and hateful group) have spread nothing but hatred toward us for centuries. We, the LGBT community, have gone through so much for so long to allow these worms to intimidate or scare us. We have to go out there and make some noise. We, as citizens, should have to right to walk down the streets of the 5 boroughs without fearing for our lives!
I don’t know guys, to blame Cardinal Dolan and Catholics for creating this hatred is really out of line. You guys mention the Cardinal’s “Dirty Hands” comment but how many of you actually read the entire context? Also in his blog the Cardinal says,
“The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a woman or man with a same-sex attraction . . . while reminding him or her of our clear teaching that, while the condition of homosexuality is no sin at all, still, God’s teaching is clear that sexual acts are reserved for a man and woman united in the lifelong, life-giving, faithful, loving bond of marriage. We are part of a Church where, yes, all are welcome, but, no, not a Church of anything goes.” The bottom line is that the church considers sex, whether it be gay or straight, which is outside of marriage a sin. Gays ARE welcomed in the church.
Where did you get this and who wrote that? That’s the opposite if what the Catholic church has been preaching for centuries.
Andre, that is Cardinal Dolan’s words in his blog. So you see, the church IS evolving.
http://blog.archny.org/index.php/all-are-welcome/
Pingback: We Must Target the Origins of Homophobic Violence: Religion, Patriarchy and Heterosexism | Women Born Transsexual
Pingback: We Must Target the Origins of Homophobic Violence: Religion, Patriarchy and Heterosexism | MasterAdrian2nd
I like the valuable info you provide in your
articles. I’ll bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly. I’m quite certain I will learn plenty of new stuff
right here! Good luck for the next!