4 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

January 16, 2009

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Four charged in California hate-crime gang rape

by Lisa Leff

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Martinez, Calif.-Two men and two teen were charged in the alleged gang rape of a San Francisco Bay area woman, an incident that has sparked protests and an outpouring of support for the 28-year-old woman.

Prosecutors on January 6 charged 31year-old Humberto Hernandez Salvador of Richmond and 21-year-old Josue Gonzalez, who has Richmond and San Rafael addresses, with kidnapping, carjacking and gang rape in last month's attack.

The pair did not enter pleas when they appeared in Contra Costa County Superior Court but asked the court to appoint attorneys to represent them. Salvador was being held at Contra Costa County jail in lieu of $2.2 million bail. Gonzalez's bail was set at $1.9 million.

They could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty, prosecutors said.

Registry

Continued from page 1

organizing the field team, and building a multi-racial team of campaign volunteers, the latter to ensure that the campaign does not become racially polarizing.

While the opposition to the registry is racially diverse, it is primarily being driven by black pastors.

Caldwell led Heights Families for Equality, the group that created the Cleveland Heights registry with a 2003 voter initiative. He is a nationally recognized expert on ballot initiatives, has been a trainer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and was the field director for the campaign attempting to defeat Florida's 2008 marriage ban amendment.

Pointing to his experience and to the Proposition 8 campaign in California, Caldwell, who is white, said, "The opposition has shown in other campaigns a desire to be racially divisive."

Does he fear that in Cleveland? "Yes." "Already, they are exploiting process resentment, which dovetails with race," Caldwell said.

Registry opponents have put out three messages in the black community newspaper, the Call and Post: that the registry was rushed through; that it is undemocratic because council passed it instead of the voters;

Darrell Hodges, 16, was charged as an adult with similar offenses Monday. A 15year-old boy whose name has not been released was also arrested last week on suspicion of participating in the Richmond. attack.

Hate-crime enhancements were added to charges against Salvador, which could mean a more severe sentence if he is convicted.

Authorities say the woman was taunted for being lesbian during the 45-minute assault. Salvador was also charged with being armed with a gun.

The woman, who lives with her partner, was attacked on December 13 after she got out of her car which had a rainbow gay pride sticker, according to investigators.

She was raped multiple times inside and outside the vehicle and left naked outside an abandoned building while the alleged assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car, police said.

The brutality of the attack shook even

and it was a waste of council's time.

Opponents have also suggested that the registry runs afoul of Ohio's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage-which it doesn't and the pastors have complained that city council did not consult them before passing the measure.

Rod McCullom of Chicago is a black gay blogger who frequently writes on these matters at Rod 2.0. He wrote a column excoriating the two black pastors at the heart of the registry opposition earlier this month.

The two ministers are Rev. C. Jay Matthews of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, who also chairs the local NAACP's Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, and Rev. Marvin McMickle of Antioch Baptist Church, which has a large AIDS ministry called Agape.

"It's ironic and all too typical that the city's most prominent anti-gay black pastors are those responsible for church-based HIV/AIDS services in the black community. Yet another reason why black gay men are reluctant to come out," McCullom wrote.

In an interview, McCullom said he has been e-mailed by black gays in Cleveland who are upset about the challenge to the registry.

McCollum said the fact that the pastors are protesting about process, not substance,

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seasoned investigators in Richmond, a city of about 100,000 across the bay from San Francisco with one of California's highest homicide rates. Police say they have received hundreds of calls from across the country offering money and support for the

woman.

"The crimes that were committed at face value were shocking," Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said. "But when it was revealed there was also a hate crime enhancement, it really prompted outcry.".

The case has galvanized gay equal rights advocates and bloggers to seize on the attack to highlight violence against gays and lesbians. Supporters have also been working to raise money for the woman, her partner and her daughter as they deal with the trauma of the attack.

"The idea that a peace-loving lesbian was minding her own business, was attacked and gang-raped is an outrage. And people are stepping forward," said Betty Sullivan

is understandable. "They learned it from the Proposition 8 campaign."

"It plays in the black community where there is a history of disenfranchisement," he said..

McCullom said running anti-gay campaigns is how old-guard black pastors are clinging to power by getting their congregations riled up.

"It gets them national and local attention, and gets them political mileage," McCullom said.

McCullom was extra critical of McMickle, who has run unsuccessful political campaigns and tried to get an appointment to Congress when Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones died.

"McMickle is pulling a political stunt," McCullom said. "He has aspirations."

"This is one trick that the magician can pull out of the hat and know the audience is going to clap," McCullom said.

McCollum quoted a January 11 keynote speech made by Rev. Al Sharpton to the Alliance of Affirming Faith-Based Organizations, whose mission is to unite gayfriendly churches.

"There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people's bedrooms and claim that God sent you," Sharpton said.

"It amazes me," Sharpton said, “when I looked at California and saw churches that

of San Francisco, who runs a web site and e-mail list publicizing gay and lesbian

events.

Sullivan is publicizing several benefits to raise money for the woman, known among her supporters as Richmond Jane Doe. She says the support is being driven not just by anger but by a sense among gays and lesbians that they too could have been targets. "We know it could have been any of us," Sullivan said.

Wen Minkoff of Oakland is organizing of a swing-dance benefit later this month. She said the passage of California's samesex marriage ban in November has spurred more active involvement in issues affecting gays and lesbians.

Money raised at the benefit will go to both Richmond Jane Doe and the effort to overturn the ban.

"I think there's a lot of motivation in the wake of having these fundamental rights taken away," Minkoff said.

had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being [relegated] into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners."

McCullom said the Cleveland ministers opposing the registry are exactly who Sharpton was talking to.

Caldwell said, "The strategy is simple. We need to tell the truth to a lot of people and we need to scale it up rapidly from where we are now."

McCullom said that to subvert the pastors in the black community, “Let them know how the registry is good for Cleveland."

"Encourage everyone to talk to their friends and family," he said, "If it's good for Cleveland, it's good for you and me."

"Let people know it's not marriage," McCullom said, and [keep the registry] because we want to be fair."

"Remember," McCullom concluded, “in the black community, there is a tradition of extended families."

"We have gotten off the ground better than expected, but there's lots of work ahead and we need more people," Caldwell said.

Caldwell can be reached at david@cleveland familiescount.org. A website will be launched

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