Oct 03, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR  | COMMENTS     

About 200 people participated in a candlelight march and vigil Sunday night in honor of gay murder victim Tony Randolph Hunter, calling on the city’s politicians and residents to join them in a renewed effort to stop violence against gays.

Hunter, 37, a resident of Clinton, Md., died Sept. 17, 10 days after he was attacked and beaten by four unidentified males at 8th and N Streets N.W., while he and a friend were headed to a gay bar less than two blocks away.

“The police tell us they don’t have evidence that this was a hate crime, and that it was a robbery,” said Dana Fonville, a friend of Hunter’s and the lead organ

izer of the march and vigil. “But the person or persons who did this committed a senseless and hateful act, and now we have to do all we can to fight back against this violence in our community.”

Many who joined in the silent candlelight procession — including D.C. City Council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Carol Schwartz (R-At-Large), and Kwame Brown (D-At-large) — agreed that the city’s existing programs aimed at curtailing violent crime aren’t working.

Patrick Mara, who is challenging Schwartz in the November election, and Lee Brian Reba, the openly gay deputy chief of staff for D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray (D-At-large), also participated in the vigil.

The gathering occured two days after Mayor Adrian Fenty issued a statement condemning the violence that led to Hunter’s death. That statement came after some gay activists criticized him for not speaking out sooner on Hunter’s murder and on other recent anti-gay assaults in the city.
“My administration has a zero tolerance policy towards hate crimes,” Fenty said. “We take all incidents of homicide and assault very seriously, and it is a high priority of mine to decrease violence on our streets.
“The death of Mr. Hunter as a result of his attack on Sept. 7 is a tragedy, and my thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”
Gay activist Peter Rosenstein, who criticized Fenty for not speaking out sooner on the Hunter murder, issued a statement after the vigil that called on Fenty to “personally convene” a meeting of community groups, gay business leaders, police officials, and D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to address the issue of anti-gay violence and “its root causes.”

“Our leaders must become personally involved because literally lives are at stake,” Rosenstein said.
Christopher Dyer, director of the Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs, who also participated in the vigil, said his office is involved in ongoing school programs to address anti-gay bias, and Fenty supports expanding such programs.

The candlelight march began at Metropolitan Community Church, whose congregation at 5th and Ridge Streets N.W. is comprised mostly of gays. Following a memorial service for Hunter at the church, participants walked about five blocks through the heart of the city’s Shaw neighborhood to the site where Hunter was attacked.

Before reaching their destination, participants walked past public housing projects that city officials say are home to some of the youth gangs, or crews, that have been implicated in a rash of violent muggings and shootings in the neighborhood.

The candle-carrying marchers, among them same-sex couples holding hands, also walked past BeBar, the gay club at 1318 9th St. N.W. where Hunter was going when he was attacked at about 11:30 p.m. Sept. 7.

Police said a group of four black males appearing to be between 19 and 22 years old jumped Hunter and his friend, Trevor Carter, seconds after they stepped out of their car. Cash and car keys were among the items the attackers took from Hunter, according to a police report and accounts by Hunter’s friends.

Last week, Assistant D.C. Police Chief Diane Grooms said homicide detectives were “very close” to closing the case and making one or more arrests.

‘Enough is enough’

Rev. Abena McCray of D.C.’s Unity Fellowship Church, which has a mostly black gay congregation, led a brief ceremony on a sidewalk where police say Hunter and Carter were attacked.

Participants in the procession stopped and placed their candles on the sidewalk. McCray knelt and touched the pavement with her hands.

“This is the exact spot of the beginning of him being taken away,” she said, referring to the police discovery of Hunter unconscious at that location.

“We ask you for a healing, Lord, at this space where someone’s head was beaten for no real reason other than ignorance,” McCray said.
“Tony, we call your name because you have made an awareness. As long as your memory is alive, you are alive.”
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