I expect this to generate a fair amount of controversy. As someone who has lived in the greater DC area and some of the nastier areas of DC proper for all of my life baring military tours I can't say I'm shocked. I also can't say I view this as an inherently bad thing. Gang violence has always been part of this city for as long as I can remember. And violence against LGBT community members has been increasing lately. I'm aware the concept of a "black gay gang" carries some fairly loaded terms anyways, so here's hoping this doesn't devolve into a mess. More below the break.
There are a couple articles on this, you can google-fu it if you care. I went with the Washington Post one as they tend to handle local issues fairly well. For those who aren't familiar with the problems of our nations capital gang violence and youth violence has been an issue for years. While the murder rate and violent crime rate is generally down since the crack years of the 90s, and a new class of affluent transplants have taken over some of the cities sketchier areas (at the cost of forcing natives into PG county and the issues with that) youth violence has been on a rise. The Post opens with this doozy...
Whenever there’s trouble around the Chinatown and Gallery Place Metro stations in the District, the finger of blame often points to a most unusual group of suspects: a black gay gang called Check It.
I hadn't heard that this particular gang was the usual suspects. I knew it was usually youth gangs, it's also been more than just those areas. The problem is that a lot of those attacks were rather vicious, as have been many of the attacks in more upscale areas. So right here they are attaching the gang to a known ongoing problem that has many here worried. Having seen a couple of these brawls it didn't set off my gaydar. I'm straight but having lived in the gay mecha of DC in Dupont for a while I'd assume I would have picked up on a gay youth gang. Who knows, maybe I was just to busy rushing to work.
Depending on whom you talk to, they’re just a bunch of mischievous gender benders and drama queens, vulnerable gay youths seeking safety in numbers. Or, they’re one of the largest, more aggressive gangs in the city.
I'm going to go with the former here.
D.C. police estimate that Check It has a core membership of about 20 and counts between 50 and 100 others as “associates.”
Yeah, sticking with the former, 100 odd members isn't that large for a gang here.
“At first, I tried fighting bullies one-on-one, but they don’t fight fair; they fight two and three on one,” Bennett said. So the youths got together and “started carrying mace, knives, brass knuckles and stun guns, and if somebody messed with one of us then all of us would gang up on them.”
In light of the rash of attacks on LGBT people I can't really find fault with this. Safety in numbers does count for something. While my personal feelings on some of what they carry varies (I know knives over a certain length and brass knuckles aren't legal) mace and stun guns falls squarely into anti-mugger territory and is a non issue.
There are two more parts of the article that caught my attention
The District may have a reputation as a “gay friendly” city, home to one of the largest, most affluent and politically influential gay and lesbian communities in the country. But Bennett and his friends live in a world where attitudes toward homosexuality are not always so progressive.
“It’s sad that we have all of these gay black men in Washington and all they do is work all day and go to black gay clubs on the weekends,” Pannell told me. “They won’t help out the gay youth because then they’d have to confront the homophobia of the larger black community.”
I think that speaks a ton about the core issues here. DC is extremely gay friendly, provided you live in the hip, affluent, areas like Dupont which are full of gay clubs and culture. Go down to the ghetto and it's a world of difference.
It's something the city needs to address, the wealth gap here also needs to be addressed. The truth is we've come a long way since the 80s and 90s. But we've come that way through driving up property values and importing well educated transients into the city and pushing the poor community farther into NE and SE DC, now we are stating to push them into PG county Maryland. We never solved the crime problem, we just pushed them into another area stuffed DC full of yuppies and pretend the crime went away, it never did.
I have a nasty feeling this group is going to get scapegoated and lumped in with larger gang problems.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...