Gay activist Pedro Julio Serrano cannot forget the frightening night when he had to run home to his Jackson Heights apartment two blocks away, after three angry Hispanic men began yelling anti-gay slurs.
“They screamed ‘faggot,’” Serrano said. “‘We are going to show you how to be a man.’”
The incident on Sunday, August 22 began around 1:35 a.m. as Serrano came out of Caja Musical (The Music Box), a popular gay club on 74th Street and Broadway. Serrano alleged that when he tried to report the incident to the police, they told him to call back in a few minutes since officers from the 115th Precinct were changing shifts.
“I didn’t call back because it was too stressful for me,” Serrano said. “I have been a victim of hate crimes before in Puerto Rico. It brought back memories of the attack. I didn’t feel safe.”
Serrano, 35, who is the New York communications manager for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said eventually he did call the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) LGBT liaison to report the incident. He said he knows it could have been much worse like the time when he had a gun pointed at him or when his car was vandalized in Puerto Rico because he was gay.
According to an NYPD spokesperson, as of August 31, there have been two incidents against gays reported in the 115th precinct. None have been reported so far this year in the 110th precinct. Last year, there were two incidents reported in the 115th precinct and one in the 110th precinct.
City Councilmember Daniel Dromm, a long-time gay activist in Jackson Heights who represents the growing community, said these figures are low because many gay victims are scared and don’t report hate crimes. Dromm recalled that in 1990, Julio Rivera was murder in Jackson Heights for being a Latino gay man. In 2001, Edgar Garzon was also killed.
“In general, people come to the community to find gay people to attack,” he said.
Dromm himself was recently a victim of an alleged hate crime. Two weeks ago, an angry caller, who was upset about Dromm’s editorial supporting building the Mosque near Ground Zero, left a voicemail at his district office calling him “Mr. or Mrs. Dromm.” The police are investigating the incident as aggravated harassment.
“What I try to do is make a connection that a hate crime against one group of people is a hate crime against all,” Dromm said.
Dromm said he has reached out to the 115th precinct to come up with solutions to prevent hate crimes against gays in the neighborhood. He said he wants police officers to be trained about LGBT issues and have a forum in a month about what to do when a hate crime happens.
“Jackson Heights is a very tolerant and diverse place,” Dromm said. “There is one thing we don’t tolerate, and that is hate.”
Serrano, who moved from Harlem to Jackson Heights three years ago, said even after the ordeal, he still likes the neighborhood because it is diverse and mostly gay-friendly.
“The neighborhood is so much more than three bigoted men,” Serrano said. “We don’t want Jackson heights to be a place of hate, but a place of love.”
