AIDS Backlash Gets Violent, Gays Say

By James Coates

When he noticed last week that 5 of the past year’s IS unsolved murder cases here involved homosexual male victims, Police Chief Tony Bouza said he got “an old sinking feeling in the pit of my gut.” .,.’ . As authorities around the country follow what appears to be a major increase in street assaults on homosexuals, apparently motivated by fear about AIDS, Minneapolis police are investigating whether the murders here are finked, they all occurred within a seven-county metropolitan area where the homosexual population is estimated at 100,000. In Chicago, police say they have recorded no increase in assaults or homicides, although spokesmen for gay rights organizations disagree, claiming a clear increase in assaults and harassment. In Minneapolis last week, gay leaders walked areas frequented by homosexuals passing out flyers warning: “Play it safe! Don’t go home with strangers.” The flyers noted 11 gay men have been murdered since April 1984, in this pleasant lake-dotted city, which averages about 40 murders per year. There have been no arrests in the five killings since last December.

Chief Bouza said two things produced his “sinking feeling” about a potential serial killer. First, he noticed an upsurge in complaints of “gay bashing”, in which strangers attack homosexuals on the street and second, Bouza recalled that when he was police commander in the Bronx in New York City, borough detectives initially attributed a series of attacks on young couples there to lover’s spats. After David Berkowitz, who called himself “Son of Sam,” was convicted of several of the II serial killings, Bouza was transferred to the subway division. He became police chief of Minneapolis in 1980.

“I learned a hard lesson then, and now, with a noticeable national upward trend in assaults against gay people, I want to make certain that we don’t have a serial killer out there attacking our gay citizens,” the chief said. Last week Bouza, who says his gut reaction is that the murders are not linked, assigned three veteran local detectives to analyze the unsolved homosexual killings and affirm or dispel suspicions that a serial killer is responsible. The most recent murder was one week ago, Robert R. Churchill, 52, was stabbed to death, and his body was soaked with gasoline and set afire in his apartment in a homosexual enclave in the city’s Loring Park neighborhood. On Sept. 23, Floyd Olson, 30, a homosexual prostitute, was found strangled on a footbridge near the Baths & 90’s Bar, an establishment catering to homosexuals. Police said the autopsy showed that Olson tested positive for AIDS. Fred Riga, 30, a deaf-mute who frequented gay bars and took young men home to live with him until they found jobs, was found strangled in his apartment on September 17. And last December, Kyle Kastner, 43, and John Kieley, 58, both homosexuals, were found strangled in their separate apartments. Although other details of the murders diner, Bouza noted that four of the five men had been strangled, a relatively uncommon murder method. Brian Coyle, a city councilman and a leader in Minneapolis’ gay community, said he and other gay leaders are supplying data, about attacks on homosexuals to a national task force that is examining the phenomenal rise in assaults since AIDS began receiving national attention. Police in other areas with large homosexual populations also are examining recent homicides.

In San Francisco’s Mission . District, police have recorded five murders of homosexuals since Aug. 16, the latest a week ago. In Atlanta, there have been five such killings since late summer. In Washington, D.C., the United States Park Police reported a series of random attacks against homosexuals at the city’s P Street Beach, including three incidents this month in which three different gangs attacked lone men.

In early October, Rep. John Conyers D., Mich. held hearings into assaults on homosexuals before the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, which he heads. Ron Stroman, the subcommittee’s spokesman, said: “Basically the concern is that there appears to be a very dramatic escalation of attacks against gay. and lesbian people.” Kevin Berrill, director of the Violence Project of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, NGLTF, said an eight-city survey in 1984 showed that “more than 1 in 5 gay men and nearly 1 in 10 lesbians has been punched, hit, kicked or beaten because of their sexual orientation.” t The study covered Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, St Louis and Seattle. In the summary, the authors of the study attributed the attacks i in several cities to “AIDS backlash.? According to estimates by the Community United Against Violence CUAV in San Francisco, fear and hatred associated ‘ with AIDS was the motivating factor in nearly 20 percent of all ‘ incidents reported to it; the gay activist Dorian Group in Seattle also attributed 22 brutal attacks against gay men to “AIDS backlash,”the report said.

AIDS is an illness that has occurred most frequently among male homosexuals and intravenous drug users. It is believed to spread by intimate sexual contact, shared needles among drug users or contaminated blood supplies. CUAV said 185 attacks on homosexuals had been reported to it in 1984; in 1985, the number rose to 278.

, Urvasi Vaid, spokesman for the NGLTF in Washington, said that in New York City, 247 such assaults were reported m 1984 to the police department’s bias division. This year, Vaid said, the reports so far total 263 assaults, including 14 homicides and 77 attacks with weapons. Chicago police said they have no reports of “serial attacks” on homosexuals, according to Capt. Julien Gallet, deputy chief of detectives and police officials in districts with large homosexual populations. These officials also say attacks on suspected homosexuals no longer are a common occurrence, but they note there is no official category for keeping records of such incidents.

Despite that assessment, spokesmen for Chicago’s gay community said they believe violence against homosexuals is increasing, largely because of AIDS fears. They said bumper stickers saying, “Clean up Hyde Park. Stop AIDS, Castrate Gays,” have been seen in Hyde Park in recent, weeks. Paul Varnell, director, of research for the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said: “My impression is there has been a fairly constant level of anti-gay violence for the last several years. It’s centered, so far as we get information, in the New Town area, the center of the gay ghetto every day:” Gay councilman by Minneapolis homosexuals.

of Chicago. There are gaggles of young men, not necessarily gangs, who attack gay men.” Varnell charged that the police response to attacks on homosexuals has been poor. “They assume any gay man who gets beat up was asking for it by lurking or cruising,” he said. The eight-city survey report said that men are more likely than women to be the victims of attacks, because “in general, gay men are more visible than lesbians, and gay male establishments such as bars, businesses, and clubs are far more numerous.” Congressional expert Stroman said that such studies by gay leaders are the only source of information about attacks against homosexuals because most police agencies make no attempt to determine’ whether crime victims or perpetrators are homosexuals. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau told Conyer’s committee that even the increases recorded in attacks on homosexuals may be an understatement since many victims are afraid to call police officers who may be intolerant of their lifestyles. Homosexuals, Morgenthau added, “often are victimized all over again by the criminal justice system.” Councilman Coyle noted that with 11 homosexuals murdered .in Minneapolis, the city has become a “place of mean streets.” And he added, “The streets are getting meaner every day.”