Saturday, August 11, 2001
Service remembered 2 men killed in Colorado and
Tennessee
Continued anti-gay violence prompts Roanoke vigil
"It is only the people, not the governments, that can stop the hate crimes," one participant said.
By LINDSEY NAIR
THE ROANOKE
TIMES
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The people surrounding him in a crescent at Unitarian Universalist Church on Grandin Road murmured their assent.
Some in Roanoke might agree that the issue of gay rights has recently been "beaten to death," but so was 16-year-old homosexual Fred Martinez of Cortez, Colo. So on Friday, Roanoke activists for ending violence toward gays gathered again to light candles for their cause.
Ratliff, executive director of Roanoke7.com, a Web site dedicated to victims of last September's shootings at Roanoke's Backstreet Cafe, organized the vigil in response to an e-mailed plea from Martinez's mother, Pauline Mitchell. In her e-mail, Mitchell begged communities to hold vigils in support of the message that "this must stop and stop now."
In June, Martinez was beaten in what has been called a hate crime based on his sexual orientation. He was left to die amid garbage in a canyon in Cortez.
Also cited at the vigil was the slaying of Chicagoan Willie Huston in Nashville, Tenn., on July 21. After a double date, Huston, his fiancee and another couple stopped at some restrooms. While holding his fiance 's purse, Huston's blind friend asked that he escort him to the men's room.
According to The Tennessean newspaper, a man ridiculed the friends inside the bathroom and "used very harsh words to taunt Huston because he carried a purse and his friend was holding his arm as they entered the lavatory."
Huston remained nonconfrontational, even after he left the restroom and the man followed him, taunting his fiance , too. Then the man got a gun from his car and shot Huston to death. Lewis Davidson III is being sought by police.
Tennessean reporter Sheila Burke said police refused to call the slaying a hate crime because not all of the insults hurled at Huston were based on homosexuality and, once outside, the attacker appeared to recognize that Huston had a girlfriend.
Still, the crowd at the vigil paid tribute to Huston and bemoaned the manner of his death.
Also spurring the vigil were recent incidents in Roanoke, primarily the Aug. 1 attack of two parishioners and a minister outside Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge. Last month, the Roanoke7.com Web site was vandalized on the day of Ronald Gay's sentencing. Gay was convicted of the Backstreet Cafe shootings.
Friday's gathering opened with a word from Ratliff, followed by a series of speakers who addressed the violent incidents here and elsewhere. Those speakers included Suzann Robins of Interfaith Sexual Ministries; Roanoke7.com spokesman John Goodhart; and the Rev. Catherine Houchins, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church.
Recurring themes at the vigil seemed to be that a change in attitudes toward gays and lesbians will require great diligence, patience, strength and time and can be achieved only with unity. Another theme was that change is best born within individuals.
"It is only the people, not the governments, that can stop the hate crimes," said the Rev. Karen Young. "It does take risks, but you do not stand alone. Look around you."
Near the end of the program, Backstreet Cafe victim Danny Overstreet's niece, Misty Overstreet, stepped forward, flanked by her mother and another relative who held her uncle's poodle, Friday.
Misty Overstreet said she has become an activist "not by choice but because of necessity."
She said Overstreet, who was like a father to her, was open about the gay lifestyle with her at an early age, so she never realized that being gay was considered wrong by some until her uncle was murdered last September.
"The past year has been difficult," she said. "I lost my best friend, and the only consolation I have is the ability to speak out."
Robins pointed out that some gays and lesbians in Roanoke do not have that consolation because they fear losing their jobs and relationships if others learn of their sexual orientation.
"How sad it is that people have to be so afraid that other people have to come and stand united for hate," she said.
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