January 24,1992 Other Feature the Other Press Q PATROL Out in the streets defending queer visibility SEATTLE(CUP)—Think of this: You’re on the street coming back from anight at the barwith friends, or a movie with a date. Suddenly, a group of six youths wielding bats approach you out of thenight. “Hey, queer. We're going to kill you.” Pl by Paul Dayson Everyday, this orsimilar incidents are beingreported with increasing frequency in North America. Anti-gay violence, or “queer bashing’ ,regualrlyresults in hospitalization and death, as well as fear. But now another outcome is becoming imaginable. As they run towards you another group of a dozen people turn the corner. Dressed in uniforms and walking in formation they put themselves between you and the would be attackers. The six youths, seeing - their arrival, turn and leave. In at least nine cities across the United States, including New York, San Francisco, Houston and Seattle, lesbianand gaystreet patrols are working to combat violence in -lesbianand gayneighbourhoods. The Q Patrol, Seattle’s lesbian and gay street patrol, began training in October 1990 and have beennowsafeguarding the streets for ten months. The patrol is usually composed of six tonine members each night with about 30 active members in the organizattion, according to Alex Cleghorn, Q Patrol coordinator. Like some patrol members, Cleghorn is a student. Others are warehouse workers, machinists or computer operators. But all are united bya desire to end the violence directed at gays and lesbians. “I can’tstand by and watchanother queer get bashed,” she said. Patrol members tend to be in their mid-20s. “Eighteen or 17-year olds show some interst but they don’t seem to stick around,” said Q Patrol member Dave Kreft, a food bank worker who has been with the patrol since March. The commitment of both Friday and Saturday night, prime bar time, for patrolling and a third night for training might be one of the “reasons for this, he added. “We have a fluctuating membership, about 80 people in total have been involved. There is a high turnover due to high stress,” Cleghorn said. PATROLLING THE STREETS Patrols start at 10 o'clock on Friday and Saturday night. For the next four hours the O Patrol criss-crosses Seattle’s Capitol Hill gay and lesbian district, first concentrating on the Broadway shopping area, then later around the bars near Pike Street. Their patrols follow the "| can't stand by and watch another queer get bashed.” -Alex Cleghorn, Q Patrol coordinator flow of people in the area. _. They see themselves as a visual deterant to queer bashing. Decked out in black berets sporting gay and lesbian liberation badges and grey jackets with “Q Patrol” printed on the back, they walk in pairs about six feet apart. “Mostpeople whocome here [to attack or harass gays and lesbians] don’t expect to see people prepared,” Cleghorn said. The Q Patrol was origninally trained by the Guardian Angels who taught them basic self-defense, to perform shakedowns, how to work together as a group and how to take verbal abuse. Yet, Cleghorn said, “We don’t know how much of a> difference we make.” RISE OF ANTI-GAY VIOLENCE Reported incidents of queer bashing have increased by approximately 70% in Seattle this year. Cleghorn said this could either be an increase in the level of violence, or it may be a result of people being less afraid to report attacks. Seattle’s increase of reported queer bashings are part oflargertrend.Incidentsreported tolesbian and gay victim services increased by 11% inChicago,29% in San Francisco, 65% in New York and 133% in Minneapolis- St. Paul last year. ‘The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force estimates 1,000 incidents of queer bashing or verbal assaults occur each day inthe US and 70% of these attacks go unreported. The frequency of attacks, most unreported, is a reality which prompts a patroller like Pam Foss, who has been with Q Patrol for three months, to say, “Something has to be done.” “We've only had one serious injury from something happening on patrol,” said Cleghorn, omitting she was the one attacked. Two gay men returning from a club were ina parking lot when people began leaving a dance at the Knights of Columbus Hall. “They were calling them ‘faggot’ in Spanish. We arrived and talked them down,” explained Mark Scheiele, a computer science student. “Thenthis carpulled up. the driver and another man got out and went straight for [Cleghorn] and started kicking her,” he said. Cleghorn went to the hospital. . Another time the patrol was jumped by two station wagon-loads of teenagers wielding guns. Kreft said, however, the patrol spends most of their time following people. Foss said, “The other night there were these two guys carrying sticks on the corner. We just followed them and we followed them right out of the Capitol district.’ “They kept looking back. It was obvious something was up,” Kreft said. “People in the community feelsafer,” Cleghorn said. SUPPORT OF THE QUEER COMMUNITY Indeed, it is the lesbian and gay community the Q Patrol relies upon for its existance. Cleghorn acknowledges volunteers and funding come from the community. Businesses fund the group and provide uniforms and walkie talkies. Two weekends ago, a fund-raiser Thanksgiving dinner was held for them by the Wild Rose, a local tavern. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE POLICE The patrol also has a good relationship with the Seattle Police Department, mostly interacting with the East Precinct. Cleghorn attributes this partly to Seattle’s ordinances regarding hate crimes, which give increased sentences for crimes motivated by prejudice. Seattle’s police have manditory sensitivity training regarding the lesbian and gay community, on top of regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. “(The police] can be bigots all they want off duty, but on duty they can’t. It/ll cost them their jobs,” Cleghorn said. Another reason is, according to Foss and Scheiele, the patrol helps drunken fights outside bars and “take care of a bit of the nuisance stuff.” They often use their walkie talkies to radio a base where another volunteer phones andalerts the police of problems. “We share information with the police. We tell them what’s happening and they sometimes tell us people to watch out for,” Cleghorn said. “They must like us— they giveus things,” joked Kreft, motioning to a bicycle patrol badge on his beret. CRITICISM OF GUARDIAN ANGELS LINK Some community members have criticized the patrol for its connection to the Guardian Angels, who are seen by many as being homophobic. But Cleghorn said her experience with the Guardian Angels has been positive. “They trained us in techniques but when I thanked them, they thanked us for teaching them things about our community,” she said. The same sentiment has been echoed by Christopher Ford, a straight Guardian Angel whohelped train San Francisco's street patrol. “It’s beena learning experience forme,” hesaid.”We were training them, butthey were training us in terms of sensitivity.” Cleghorn states the Q Patrol are not vigilantes and members do not see themselves as judge and jury. “We do everything legally and are careful to stay within those bounds,” she said.