So true. I really feel the pier situation. It seems they're changing it into something else, something other than the haven it has always been for SGL youth ... without providing reasonable alternatives for this isolated segment of society.

Where can the 'children' congregate without fear?

what irks me about the pier situation is how folks pussyfoot around the very clear issues of class that are operating in the debate.
these young men and women are no louder than the drunken NYU students that also populate the streets. i guess when you're an upwardly mobile college student, you're allowed to be disorderly... when you're blatino, queer and un/underemployed, the residents demand your silence and invisibility.

and i'm mortified by black gay men that have used their blogs to bemoan how these young people "camp out" on their doorsteps. "Camp out"?!?!? "CAMP OUT"!?!?!?!!?!?

this isn't a summer with the boy scouts of america! do you see sleeping bags and s'mores? I'M F*CKIN HOMELESS. "camping out" is a luxury afforded to folks who have homes! when you're poor and black and disowned because of your sexuality, sleeping on the street requires truer language than "camping out".

and if my sleeping on your stoop is what it takes to bring it to your attention that neither my family nor society at large gives a damn about me, then so be it. and while you're on your nifty little PC in your beautiful chelsea apartment blogging about how annoyed you are with the black faggot on your doorstep, do remember that your yuppie compatriots would just as soon lump you with the rest of us if you were unable to make the rent.

Truer words were never spoken Larry.

What kills me is the stories these murderers tell in their own defense to the police that we all know are such BS. The 44 year old saying the minister went into the kitchen to get a knife and grabbed his crotch when he refused his initial proposition to have sex. We all know that is such a lie. Most gay men would be done with a man if they came on to him and he said no and they never account for the fact that these men are ex prisoners many times (where the rules are TOTALLY different and gay relationships are not frowned upon as much) and that they went to the appartment willingly. I'm willing to bet, if the minister did ask him for sex, he told him he would for money and the minister probably refused to pay him and that's when he stabbed him. This crap makes me sick but what makes me more sick is how weak the black gay community is when it comes to standing up for each other and how these murderers often walk away scott free. The situation with the 3 gang members beating the gay man almost to death is repulsive and a true sign that many of our black men have no hearts at all for each other. They would have never beat a white gay man like that. It's like being a black gay man is the lowest for of life on the planet.

Back in November, I wrote a piece called The Right to Bear Arms that talked about promoting self defense within our community. I'm beginning to believe we need to be more agressive in that regard.