The other night there was a silent march here in Washington DC because of an increase in violent hate crimes against gay people. DC is in my opinion one of the most gay friendly cities in the country and that is one of the reasons I love living here. When the three gay bashings happened, everyone was in shock. One person was stabbed, another was shot and the third had their jaw broken in two places. All of them were beaten and it was because they were gay. As a way to show that we’re still here and not afraid, Patrick Pressman organized a silent march through one of the neighborhoods to 17th street where the violence had happened. 500+ people showed up including DC council members to show their support for the gay community in Washington DC.
The march was off to a great start. Marchers walked arm and arm through the street with colored duct tape wrapped around their arms forming a long chain of a rainbow flag. The silent march for anti-gay hate crimes and violence was making a statement and even the police blocked off streets. The silent march was getting it’s message across in a professional and dramatic positive way until the Occupy DC idiots came in and tried to make their cause be known.
Occupy DC is a failed attempt with no real cause, support or purpose and that is why they feel the need to latch on to any group that has any attention. This march was about remembrance, gay rights and non violence. It was a silent march to show our support and emotion to the people who were attacked and the OccupyDC people lined up after the parade and started chanting and making a ton of noise. Not only did they try to take away from a community that was showing it’s support for themselves, but I feel they insulted the people who were attacked by trying to make it a political thing that has nothing to do with anti-gay hate crimes. OccupyDC has done nothing to help DC.
Instead they destroyed a park that I used to love to go to lunch in with their tents. They made an eye sore of the square and made it uncomfortable to walk through for the people who work in the area and actually go to work and pay taxes to be able to enjoy the park. When they decided to make a mockery of a silent march in remembrance of people who were attacked for being gay, that is where I draw the line.
I encourage every person in Washington DC to write to our city council and demand they remove these OccupyDC people from our parks and I hope that if you are gay and you are against GLBT hate crimes, you never support OccupyDC again. In my opinion they have done nothing and now that they are destroying and mocking other people’s causes. Please help get the word out to get rid of OccupyDC by writing about taking our parks back by writing to your council members and tweet and share this post on Facebook.