Jan 09, 2009  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR  | COMMENTS     

Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence announced New Year’s Day that Mayor Adrian Fenty has agreed to meet with the group to discuss ways to curtail anti-gay violence in the city.

The meeting’s announcement came just hours after two men embracing each other outside a Northwest Washington apartment 30 minutes into the new year were allegedly assaulted and called anti-gay names by unidentified revelers from a nearby New Year’s Eve party.

Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees the D.C. police’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, said the two victims sustained non-life threatening injures. The incident occurred outside and inside the apartment belonging to one of the victims at 13th Street and Iowa Avenue, N.W.

Police have classified the incident as a “potential hate/bias crime based upon the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation,” according to Parson. He said police also listed the incident as a first-degree felony burglary because the attackers kicked open the apartment door and chased and assaulted one of the two victims in his bedroom.

The New Year’s Day incident was the latest in a flurry of recent attacks against gays or people perceived to be gay in the city, including last month’s murder of a gay man near Logan Circle.

Durval Martins, 35, an openly gay waiter, was shot to death shortly after 3 a.m. Dec. 16 at 11th and Q streets, N.W., near Logan Circle.

Fenty’s decision to formally address the attacks came less than one week after GLOV released a statement criticizing him for repeatedly spurning its request to call a community meeting with police, top city officials and members of the community to discuss ways to address anti-gay violence, including hate crimes.

In its Jan. 1 announcement, GLOV said Fenty scheduled the meeting for Jan. 16 and that D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier would attend.

“Mayor Fenty has shown great foresight by inviting Chief Lanier to the meeting,” said Chris Farris, a GLOV co-chair. “We know that our police play a crucial role in solving the problem and we look forward to hearing how he and the MPD are working to end the violence plaguing our community, as well as how he plans to see that justice is served on behalf of the victims.”

Todd Metrokin, GLOV’s other co-chair, joined Farris and other gay community representatives to testify last month before a D.C. City Council hearing on anti-gay violence. Farris, Metrokin and other witnesses voiced concerns about police handling of some of the recent incidents of anti-gay violence in the city.

Farris testified that GLOV learned of some cases where police did not identify in reporting documents that assault incidents were hate crimes targeting gay men, even though evidence showed that anti-gay bias was the clear motive for the crime.

“The problem of bias crimes is complex and we believe the mayor understands that it must be addressed on multiple levels,” Metrokin said. “We applaud his leadership on this issue and are looking forward to seeing progress.”

Remarks spur attack

Parson said the New Year’s Day incident began about 12:30 a.m. Jan. 1 when the two victims stepped outside a basement apartment to smoke cigarettes.

One of the victims later told police that three females who were attending a nearby New Year’s Eve party began to yell “homophobic remarks” at the two men after the women saw the men embracing each other.

“One of the victims yelled back at the three females and the two groups exchanged insults and obscenities with each other,” Parson said in a statement describing the incident.

The women returned to the party they were attending, then reappeared outside with two adult males who joined the women in yelling anti-gay names at the two victims, Parson said.

The victims initially retreated into their apartment, but came back out to confront the group from the party. The two men then attacked and assaulted one of the victims, Parson said.

According to Parson’s statement, upon seeing the assault, the other victim went back inside his apartment to obtain a knife. Before he could get back outside, the male assailants kicked open the apartment door and assaulted him inside his bedroom.

“During the assault, more homophobic remarks were made,” Parson said.

Parson said that when police arrived on the scene to take a report from the two victims, they found that both were “heavily intoxicated,” with one refusing to talk to police and the other too disoriented to provide a coherent account of what happened.

Parson said that a GLLU officer returned later in the day to take a statement from the victim who lives in the apartment. The other victim “did not make himself ...