random act of hate on elm st

[aurewl.livejournal.com]

I've lived in this neighborhood for ten years and there have been very few incidents in which I feel unsafe.  Unfortunately I have an incident that just happened to me to add to the list.  It's random but I just want to give people the heads up.

I was crossing Elm at Willow this evening and was slightly in the crosswalk as the last car was going by.  It was filled with guys (late teens or early twenties) and as it passed someone yelled "faggot" and threw an open cup of soda really hard into my stomach.  Not only did it get soda all over me but it also hurt.  And they were gone too fast for me to get the license plate number so no real sense calling the cops.

I'm actually a gay woman with short hair and I'm not sure if they just couldn't see me well and mistook me for a man or if they have their gay terms confused.  Regardless, this was definitely a gay bash incident.  

Has anyone else in the Davis square area had a similar experience? I mean gay bash, not being thrown in the gut with an object although I'm curious about how common that is too.  Maybe I've just been lucky that it's never happened to me here before?

Comments

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

How horrible! I'm so sorry this happened to you. :(

I think you should report it to the police, though. If they don't know about these sorts of incidents, they won't know if they might be increasing and something needs to be done.

[taura-g.livejournal.com]

Yes, good point. It would be a good idea to report it.

[ron_newman]

Yes, please report it.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

PLEASE report this.

I'll keep my eyes open. I live in Arlington but I'm in the Square a lot, and at 5'9" with short hair I get mistaken for a man and a dyke a lot.

[cravereality.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. It sounds horrible.

[taura-g.livejournal.com]

I am so very sorry to hear about this. I have not heard of anything similar in my recent memory.

Positive thoughts to you.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

That's awful and scary. I'm so sorry they did that to you. :(

I agree that it's better to alert the police, in case a pattern begins to emerge.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's awful. I'm sorry you had to experience that. And yeah, I'd report it. If there's someone going around doing this at least the police can use your report to correlate it with any similar incidents.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely horrible; I really hope you can feel all right and safe again soon.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

That's terrible! I'm so very sorry this happened to you.
Please do report it so that the police can be watchful.
I am sick at the idea that this happened at all and in our neighborhood.

[scotteaux.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry to hear that you had deal with idiots like that. I hope you're doing alright.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry that this happened to you. Please let us know if there's anything we can do for you. I appreciate your letting us know.

I've known of a few gay bashing incidents in and around Davis Square over the years (since '96 or so), mostly menacing and threatening, but including a few assaults like the one that happened to you. I particularly recall a spate of them around 2001 or 2002 against perceived-to-be-queer women. It does seem to follow downturns in the economy somewhat. I mention these not to suggest that they are typical of the area, or are on any kind of upswing, but just to say that it does still happen, sadly, and you're not alone.

Anyhow, if you're not quite up for a chat with the police, I believe some queer-advocacy organizations also track civil rights violations like these for the community's benefit. I want to say that GLAAD is one, but I could very easily be mistaken. Maybe someone closer to Boston has the latest information.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

That sucks! I wish I could give you a huge hug and then go do unspeakable things to those idiots.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I do think you should report it anyway to the police. Sad to say, it sounds like the idiots in the car were emulating a Glee-like Slushie toss. Don't you love popular television shows that give you direction on how to abuse others? According to the show, you're supposed to stand there, dripping, accepting that this is your lot in life, and accept it as inevitable because you aren't a "cool kid".

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

Well I'm glad these tough guys are fans of the singing show featuring many gay protagonists.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

How awful. I do think it's worth reporting even without a plate number, just so they can track these things.

There is certainly added ugliness of a hate crime, Glee didn't make up the throwing-soda-out-of-a-car thing. Teens once did the same thing to my (straight, but obviously harrassable dorky adult riding a *bicycle* in the *suburbs* *late at night*) spouse probably ~10 years ago.

It is quite possible that these jerks would have thrown a soda at someone who looked harrassable whether that was because they were queer, biking, pimply and wearing glasses, just because they were in that moment of being loud and stupid with a half-full cup of soda. I don't know whether that makes you feel better or worse. =/

[noire.livejournal.com]

That's a dreadful thing! How awful for you to have to experience!

That kind of behavior is absolutely abhorrant to the entire community and, if you can stomach it, should really be reported to the police. They cannot help, or possibly prevent another attack, if they don't know this one happened.

I do hope you are able to feel supported in the community and know that YOU are wanted here and the scum who attacked you most definitely are NOT.

[gingicat]

This!

[pakoo.livejournal.com]

That is so disturbing, I am so very sorry.......I hope all the support/comments you've received on this board take away some of that awful feeling.....take care.

[myfatcat.livejournal.com]

I am sorry to hear about this.

I do have a similar but less hateful experience that happened walking out of Davis Sq a 1-2 months ago.

My wife and I were waiting to cross Summer street at the Cutler intersection, when a car of guys (probably late teens, early twenty's) speed by and yelled something at us, neither my wife or I recognized what they had said, but if I recall the car was a dark colored (possibly dark green), older model Toyota Camry.

I doubt it's the same group of idiots - but I felt worth posting in case others come forward.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Did you see the op's comment below? Might it make sense for you to call the police if you have not already?

[jenej.livejournal.com]

Very sorry that you experienced this. I hope you report it. Who knows, maybe one of the stores in that area has a security camera that caught their license plate driving by. They would deserve it, for sure.

[aurewl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the love everyone. I ended up calling the police to report it but since I didn't catch the info about the car there's pretty much nothing they can do. Incidentally, the car was an older dark green sedan so it is a possibility it was the same group in the 1-2 mo ago incident specified in one of the comments.

[gingicat]

I'm glad you called, and hope that they are able to find the jerks and prosecute them.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Won't happen. I had a bunch of punks in a car throw crap at me last fall, and even though I was able to get the plate and description of the car, and the cops were able to identify them, they refused to prosecute since it wasn't a "serious crime". If they throw a brick at you, maybe, but I had eggs thrown at me (and had the stained shirt to prove it) but they wouldn't do anything.

Sorry to be a downer, but the cops just don't care.

[gingicat]

I'm so sorry to hear that. Sounds horrible all around.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

Reporting it to the police isn't just so they can catch the assholes, but it's also so the cops/city can get data that could potentially influence programs, funding, etc.

[plate-of-felt.livejournal.com]

I've had people yell "faggot" out of their cars at me on many occasions in the area while I was walking to and from Davis square.. It got to the point where I kind of figured it was a local hobby of ignorant young men in baseball caps (not stereotyping here- it was always young men in baseball caps).

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

That is terrible! I have lived in Davis Square for about 11 years now, twice i've had someone yell a comment about my weight out a car window. One of the times the person threw car garbage at me.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had to go through that.
I don't think it's a "gay" hate crime per-se. "Plate_of_felt" brings up a good point.
I think unfortunately we live in a society where many young men feel threatened
by anything/anyone that isn't just like them. They use terms like "faggot" and other
such gay slurs, even the word gay itself as insults against anyone. Including people who they know
aren't gay. I think it was a random act of violence. But either way I am glad you reported it and hope
you never experience anything like it again.

Guys today make me wish I was born a lesbian. Be thankful you were. Otherwise you would have
to deal with fools like that in the dating world, ugh.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's people feeling threatened, I think it's people looking for someone who is alone and looks like a target of a random act of "drive-by bullying the weak person". I'm not even sure it's gay-bashing, since today's teenage vernacular seems to put the word "faggot" into the same stack as "nerd" (in the 60's and early 70's), "f*ckhead", or any number of just plain ole idiotic cuss words that mean nothing except "I am going to say something that, if said to me, would be a reason for me to act violent towards you. yet I will run away before you can do anything about it. Aren't I a cool kid? I feel so powerful." The fact that they actually got someone of an alternaterate sexuality is just a chance.

[shaxxon.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry to hear this story. Admittedly, this is a rare occurrence in the square, but still shouldn't go unreported. Did you see the make and model of the car? Might help to share that information.

As for similar occurrences, I haven't experienced anything as severe as being hit with a full soda can, but occasionally there will be a car full of guys who will drive by and yell something I usually can't make out as I'm walking down Willow Street. It's happened a handful of times over the past few years and I assume that it's just boys being stupid - but i'll take a closer look next time they drive by just in case they're the jerks who did that to you.

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. How awful.

[tequilamckngbrd.livejournal.com]

That sucks. There are A-holes in general around here (and everywhere else for that matter). I was riding my bike from work over in Belmont over 2 years ago and the same thing about happened to me. Instead of a soda, they threw handfuls of pennies while going 45MPH in a 25MPH zone. Too fast for me to check out their license plate, and I was ducking for cover. Luckily all the pennies pretty much missed. Hope you're alright.

[rozhinka.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry this happened.

Women are targeted in general, but gay-bashing adds a particularly ugly and threatening twist.

Several similar incidents have happened to me in Davis, possibly because I am a could-be-perceived-to-be-queer woman. The first were in the early 80s, when beer cans were thrown at me from cars. More recently I've been harassed for being a (middle-aged butch) dork on a push scooter.

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine was cycling through the Davis Square area last summer and was deliberately hit by a car THREE times while the driver yelled out homophobic slurs. Fortunately there were witnesses, the driver was found, and the individual is being prosecuted.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

The FUCK???

I'm incredibly glad that santorum stain's getting prosecuted. Could you or your friend come back here when the case is over and tell us about it?

[cos]

I posted this on boston.reddit.com and people there have added a bunch of similar stories of things that happened to them. Their consensus seems to be that shouting "faggot" or throwing things at people from cars is a too-common pastime around here and that the perpetrators don't particularly care whether their target is gay or not.

I used to get a lot of it when I lived in Waltham, but hardly ever in the decade and a half I've lived in Somerville and Cambridge. Hmm.