Members of the LGBT community of Newark, as well as civil rights advocates from elsewhere in New Jersey and from New York, marched on Newark’s City Hall on Tuesday, June 3, calling on Mayor Sharpe James to honor his pledge to establish a gay and lesbian counseling center for teens.

James promised the center on May 16, the day of Sakia Gunn’s funeral. Gunn, 15, a lesbian was stabbed to death on the corner of Broad and Market Streets, on May 11, by a man whose sexual overtures she rebuffed.

James did not appear at the rally, that numbered more than 100 people, despite heavy rain.

Tuesday’s protest was conducted by members of the Newark Pride Alliance (NPA), an LGBT advocacy group formed in the wake of Gunn’s murder.

Corey Booker, James’ opponent in his last run for the mayoralty, addressed the crowd of protesters. Booker, an attorney, is a former city councilmember.

Referring to the loss of Sakia Gunn as a “jagged wound” inflicted upon Newark, Booker said, “I am appalled that we as a community aren’t rising up to deplore this crime.”

Quoting Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker warned, “Let not me be the one who said I did nothing when they came for the gay and lesbian members of the community.” He referred to the city’s LGBT community as a “valued part of the rainbow of Newark.”

Laquetta Nelson, a member of NPA, excoriated the city’s commissioner of health and human services, Cathy Cuomo-Cacere, for failing to convene a meeting with the city’s LGBT leaders in order to establish a center. Nelson is the founder and former president of New Jersey’s Stonewall Democrats, an LGBT political club.

“We will unseat you, Mr. Mayor,” said Nelson. “We will not be ignored.”

As she has throughout the period of mourning for her daughter, LaTona Gunn, the victim’s mother, thanked the protesters for their support.

“My family and I greatly appreciate your support,” said Gunn.

She called upon the city to open a facility for gay and lesbian teens. She mentioned that Sakia was returning from New York City’s Greenwich Village the night she was murdered and noted that had a safe space been available in her home town, her daughter might not have died.

Cuomo-Cacere has not returned calls made to her office. On the day of Sakia’s funeral, as she and other city officials scrambled to cope with the thousands of grieving and distraught youth, many of whom were lesbian and gay, she committed herself to meeting with Newark’s LGBT leaders and conducting outreach efforts among the city’s LGBT youth.

The city administration’s efforts to stonewall Newark’s LGBT leaders appeared to be the flash point upon which Tuesday’s rally centered.

Anthony Hall, a cousin of Sakia’s, addressed the crowd.

“Where’s the mayor now? He makes so many promises, but he never shows up. He’s not a man of his word,” said Hall.

As he has since the death of his cousin, Hall criticized the police department for not manning a police booth at the intersection of Broad and Market Streets at the time of Sakia’s stabbing.

“Yes, of course it is a possibility that it would have made a difference if there was a police officer on that corner,” said Joy Black, a lesbian activist. “Today is Election Day. I bet there is a police officer on every corner today.”

A phalanx of officers lined the middle of Broad Street, as well as guarding the wide steps up to the doors of City Hall. At one point, an officer prevented Nelson from speaking into a bullhorn, stating that she had not applied for a permit.

Gail Bailey, an out lesbian, is the mother of Valencia Bailey, 16, who was accompanying Sakia, her cousin, the night she was killed. The younger Bailey flagged down a passing car the night of the death and cradled her bleeding cousin as they sped to the emergency room.

“My niece did not deserve to die the way that she did,” the older Bailey told the crowd. “First of all, a 29-year old man had no business talking to kids. They could drive up and tell these were kids, not adults. He got very upset when his advances were rebuffed by them, and, of course, Sakia and my daughter Valencia, being the two true AGs that they are, for their protection, and to protect the young femmes that were with them, and themselves, words were said, and he got very upset and it is just a shame how the incident had to end up with my niece being dead.”

In Newark’s LGBT community, “AG” refers to aggressive, or “butch” lesbian, whereas “femme” refers to feminine, or “lipstick” lesbian.

On the morning of the murder, Richard McCullough, 29, of Newark, and an unidentified male, allegedly drove up to the group of five young lesbians as they stood at a bus stop. McCullough is believed to have approached the group and subsequently stabbed Sakia. After a four-day manhunt, McCullough surrendered to Newark police. Among other charges, he faces trial under the hate crime statute on the books in New Jersey.

Bailey also took on city leaders, including Fernand Williams, the principal of West Side High School, Sakia’s high school, who reportedly have criticized the teenager for being out late on a Saturday night. Sakia was stabbed at 3:30 Sunday morning.

“My daughter had permission to be out,” Bailey said. “Coming from New York back into Newark at three in the morning, that’s an early time. I hang out in the Village. I am gay. I didn’t have nobody to tell I was gay. I couldn’t go to my mother 35 years ago and tell her I was gay. She would have had me in a straight jacket or an insane asylum.”

LaTona Gunn knew Sakia was a lesbian and had spent time with her and the young women she dated.

Members of the Empire State Pride Agenda, including Joe Tarver, its spokesperson, picketed outside City Hall with members of NPA. Representatives from Housing Works, the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), and Brendan Fay of Lavender and Green, the Irish LGBT advocacy group, also joined the protest. Robert Lubell, the director of Technical Career Institute’s Out and About Program, an educational institute for LGBT youth in New York City, was also present with some of his students.

AVP’s Clarence Patton told Gay City News, “We are monitoring the progress of the murder investigation and thus far we are pleased with the work the police and prosecutor have done.”

The next meeting of the Newark Pride Alliance is scheduled for Friday, June 6 at 6:30 PM in Rutgers University’s Paul Robeson Hall in Newark.