Fridae

Thousands of people of all ages and identities in Portland, Oregon gathered in the rain Sunday night to hold hands in a show of solidarity with with two gay men who were apparently attacked after doing just that the previous Sunday. 

Oregon's LGBT newsmagazine, Just Out, said the 4,000-strong crowd packed into the space beneath the bridge before filing down both sides of the bridge with hands held.

Organised by Basic Rights Oregon, Q Center, Cascade AIDS Project and Pride Northwest, the demonstration was held across the Hawthorne bridge where the attack reportedly occurred.

The Oregonian reported: 

Brad Forkner and Christopher Rosevear were walking east across the Hawthorne Bridge Sunday evening vaguely aware of a group of young men behind them. 

The two were out for a stroll, said Forkner, 23, of Southeast Portland. It was about 8:30 p.m. and the couple headed for the Esplanade for a view of the city. 

And the two men, who are gay, were holding hands. 

As they neared the pathway down to the Esplanade, Forkner felt someone push him, knocking him against a railing. Then, he said, fists. 

He pulled out a cell phone and called 911 as the attackers hit Rosevear a few more times, Forkner said. They then ran off. 

Forkner said he couldn't tell what the attackers were saying. He didn't hear clearly anti-gay epithets. They were yelling, I don't know what, he said, adding that they may have been speaking another language. So much was happening and I couldn't catch onto what was happening.

Forkner addressed the crowd before they moved to the bridge, explaining that the violence he experienced is part of a larger culture of discrimination and fear.

"This is not the first time I have feared for my safety or my life and, sadly, I don’t expect it to be the last,” Forkner was reported to have said in Just Out. “What I want to talk about is a much larger cultural issue we have with making different people feel like they’re worth less than normal people, as if there is such a thing as “normal.” In this instance, it was because we are gay.

"Thousands of people walk the streets of America and yes, even Portland, feeling like they are less than human, that their life is not as valued by society as their other, supposedly more 'normal,' peers. The effects of this internalised hatred are endless. They contribute to gang violence, to depression, to self-medicating via alcohol and drug abuse, to sexuality that people feel must be kept secret, explored in dark alleys and bathhouses rather than openly and safely. How can we talk about keeping ourselves safe, about being healthy, about being loved, if we are doing so in secret, if we are hurting in silence?"

"I would like to make a special appeal to fear. Many people I’ve spoken to have the well intending but incorrect response of: 'If you know that holding hands might upset people, might cause you harm or harassment, isn’t it better to not just do it?' To this I respond: 'Would you have told feminists asking for the right to vote, you know it upsets people, so isn’t it better not to ask? Would you have told the interracial couple black and white holding hands, you know it upsets people, so isn’t it better to just not to do it?'"

Forkner concluded: "This country has a long history of struggling against depression and nothing has ever been gained by thinking, 'I know this upsets a few folks so I better just let it go.' So to my LGBT brothers and sisters and to everyone. Fear is too easy of a response. Never stop holding hands." 

Basic Rights Oregon Executive Director Jeana Frazzini explained why they have asked protesters to hold hands.

“Holding hands,” Frazzini said, “is an act of love. It’s an expression of affection and it’s a symbol of faith in another human being. And tonight in this crowd we’re surrounding Brad and Christopher – and everyone who’s been the victims of violence and oppression and hateful words because of who they love or who they are – with the love that is Portland, with love that is Oregon and with the love that we can spread across this city, this state, this nation and the world.”

Last June, two gay men were set upon by a group of men who yelled anti-gay slurs while beating them up in the middle of the street.

The Cascade AIDS Project has launched a campaign on their Facebook page encouraging people to hold hands in public while the Q Center has restarted its Q-Patrol program comprising volunteers. They will walk the more popular areas of downtown Portland and have been trained to de-escalate any tense situations. The Q-Patrols start at 11pm and continue until 2am every Friday and Saturday night, from now until Halloween weekend.