Transcripts

STEPHEN SMITH: It was a recent summer evening on Hennepin Avenue. A 40-year-old man named Dan was walking back to his car with a friend after attending a play at the Hennepin Center for the Arts. The car was parked near the Gay 90's, a well-known gay bar. Dan says he and his friend were talking about the play as they walked.

SPEAKER: A man jumped in front of me and began to hit me, hit me in my throat first, and then by my chin and then my back. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that a second man was coming at me. He had a 2-by-4 club. And he was about to hit me with that when my friend pulled me and pulled me out of his way and said, we've got to run.

STEPHEN SMITH: Did they say anything to you?

SPEAKER: They were calling me a faggot. We're going to get you, you faggot. And they kept yelling faggots. And that's all I remember.

STEPHEN SMITH: Dan and his friend escaped by running into the bar. Dan was badly bruised by the attack and went to the hospital. Dan's case is one of more than 30 incidents reported by Twin Cities' gay and lesbian people in the last two months. The numbers are compiled by the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council, a statewide organization based in Minneapolis. Patti Abbott is the council's crime/victim advocate. She says the recent reports cover a range of incidents,

PATTI ABBOTT: Some who have been called names. Some people who have actually been so badly physically injured. They've required stitches, had bones broken and been in the hospital. And so I think the problem is extremely serious. And I don't think we're even seeing the tip of the iceberg yet in terms of numbers.

STEPHEN SMITH: The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington reports that in recent years, there has been an explosion of violence against homosexuals. In 1989, the task force documented more than 7,000 incidents of harassment and assault. The group says that number represents only a fraction of the true national problem. Under a new law, the state of Minnesota keeps track of bias crimes. As of July, the State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension recorded 11 bias crimes against homosexuals this year, compared to seven in 1989.

Police in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul say their records don't show any recent increase in gay bashing. Patti Abbott says many victims don't report the violence because they want to keep their sexual preference secret, or they don't believe the suspects will get caught. Abbott won't fault the police. She says society in general doesn't react to gay bashing with the kind of outrage it does to racist or anti-Semitic attacks.

PATTI ABBOTT: Gays and lesbians are, I think, a step behind in terms of being able to sway public opinion to see that those are very serious crimes, and that we are targeted purely because of who we are. Gays and lesbians are the last group, I think, in this country for whom it is OK to go out and actually physically accost. And you get a lot of reward for doing it and very little punishment.

STEPHEN SMITH: The victim of the Hennepin Avenue attack, Dan, says it's clear to gay people that violence is a growing problem in the Twin Cities. He thinks it may have something to do with the debate over the domestic partners ordinance in Minneapolis and the gay rights ordinance in Saint Paul. Dan fears that as homosexuals become more visible in society, more violence may be the reaction. This is Stephen Smith reporting.