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Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Summary: Starting a little after 7PM on the 20th of March, a crowd that appeared to be in excess of 1,000 people marched in DC against the recent string of beatings, "robberies" and outright murders of Gay and esepcially Trans people in DC.
The march proceeded East on Irving Street, scene of some of the crimes, one of which left a Gay man in the hospital with a broken jaw after an assault that lasted over three blocks of pursuit, according to a speaker. Present in the march was the mother of a Trans woman who was murdered on East Capitol Street. These murders of Trans folks seem to attract far less attention from the police than things like shoplifting at Neiman-Marcus does.
At the intersection of Ga Ave and Irving street, a "Radical Queer" contingent including some people who work with Occupy set up an shrine with candles and posters of one of the Trans women who was murdered. Similar shrines may have been left at other intersections according to a poster on Twitter, I can only confirm the one I saw at Ga Ave and Irving.
At this point, police started pushing some of the radical Queer folks, trying to prevent them from gaining control of the northbound lanes of Ga Ave. There was some unnecessary roughness, the police would have shown more respect if it was the conduct of some of their own at a memorial for a fallen officer in questions!
As the march proceeded down Ga Ave towards U st, the police aggression seemed to die out, and the march finally passed west on U st. A left turn took the march south on 14th st-past the Black Cat where at large candidates for council were having a candidates forum. They were challenged to come out and show some respect for the fallen, but not one of them did. Finally the march turned west again on R st, finishing up at 17th and R street.
Washington, DC Independent Media Center: http://dc.indymedia.org/
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