Queer Women’s March against hate

In the last week of January on a Thursday night of biting cold, Minneapolitans far and wide descended on Bryant Avenue and Lake Street. But what were they there for? (UPDATE: Original KSTP video is linked with the victim speaking out)

Andy Birkey of Eleventh Avenue South called it “Hundreds march against hate crime in Minneapolis’ Uptown” while the Facebook event conservatively used the term “Queer Womens March.” An estimated 200 to 300 people showed up stretching along West Lake Street at Bryant Avenue. It was publicized by City Pages on Monday and via Facebook where 238 people confirmed attendance. There the description read:

Join us at Bryant and Lake in Minneapolis at 9 pm on Thursday, January 29th to march in solidarity with Kristen Boyne, who was violently gay-bashed in the streets of Uptown. Kristen was walking less than three blocks from her home when she was brutally attacked by two men. The unidentified assailants called her an “f—ing dyke”, then punched and kicked her until she lost consciousness.

The event description seemed to target queer women specifically, though explained it was open to all. I think in these cases, violence against women is especially heinous why with the history of suffrage and social class. Chatting with the Women’s Student Activist Collective in Coffman Memorial Union at the U, seemed to impress upon me the issue that marginalization of women continues to this day, subtlety here and violent elsewhere. There is necessary outrage for any small act. Necessary outrage for a potential hate crime.

The state is rather advanced in female social movements which provides a buffed platform for any cause. The University of Minnesota offers a Violence Against Women resource site under the Minnesota Center for Violence and Abuse. In recent years, the Department of Women’s Studies was renamed Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, continuing to emphasize women as a pivotal position in the discussion. MN leads in abuse awareness with the Domestic Abuse Project and last year Women’s Press did an article on women’s shelters. One of the leading organizers attends the College of St. Catherine – The Nation’s Largest College for Women in Saint Paul.

Why so much attention to this incident besides the LGBT element? On January 24th, KSTP-TV Channel 5 which is infamous for its sensational coverage, reported an anonymous woman named “Ann” told them she was beaten and kicked while en route to Rainbow Foods after work (exactly at the Dupont and Lagoon crossing where Lake turns into a one-way). The Associated Press investigated and sent their story across the newswire which was picked up by papers in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin (see Minneapolis woman attacked in apparent hate crime). Subsequently with the quickness of the interwebs, a march was announced to be the week after the alleged assault.

Birkey covered most of the details in his article. Speakers emboldened the crowd over speakerphone and then the group marched toward Uptown and back. I was perplexed by this since the more seedy and avoided parts of the extended definition of “Uptown” are toward Lyn-Lake and stretching east to 35W. Why walk toward the new condo and pricey apartments buildings between Lagoon and Lake? Why make your statement of safe streets to the middle class denizens and sidewalk-fearing suburbanites driving through? Why not take your message to the Section 8 housing along 31st Street?

Somewhere near the end of the march, about 45 minutes in, there were a few chants I heard that rang familiar to last year. “What do we want?” “Rights.” “When do we want them?” “Now!” At that point I wondered if the march had evolved into a pseudo LGBT rights rally. Do people realize that Kristen Boyne possibly sleeps restlessly now, the scars of the event reminding her day on end of an outrageous and senseless act for which the only reasoning was her presumptuous choice of love? That she possibly fears going out at all? And as the cold burned into my face I wondered if anyone can explain where the outcry was for others, why someone murdered Annshalike Hamilton and left her pregnant body in a garage at 2222 4th St. North to be found on New Year’s Eve. Not many went to the vigil for this 15 year old girl and unborn child. Maybe it was too cold that day.

Mpls Crime Watch audaciously posted a link to the (conservative and sexist) Lake Minnetonka Liberty who suggests the woman cried wolf. I withhold judgment until MPD releases a statement.

For anyone who has information, the MPD tip line is 612-692-8477.

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Queer Women’s March against hate

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