It used to be that Jessica Graves was always up for a dance party. So when she headed out to Dupont Circle gay bar Cobalt one night in 2006, Graves and a male friend hit the crowded dance floor hard. “We were being kind of raunchy,� she says. “When we go out, my friend says things like, ‘Trash me!,’ and I play along. It gets pretty outrageous sometimes. But my friend is gay, and we’re just being ridiculous and having fun.�

Later in the evening, another dancer decided to join in on the fun. “I was grinding with my friend, and this dude got up on me from behind,� says Graves, now 27. The interloper inserted a leg between Graves’ legs and latched his hands around her waist. “He was strong enough that I had to adjust my body to not get knocked over,� she says. But everyone at Cobalt that night was dancing close, and Graves didn’t think much of it—until something shifted.

“At some point I figured out the guy was straight,� she says.
Read More ““I Just Wanted Him to Finish And Leave”: Why Some Groping Victims Stay Silent” »

In a staff editorial, George Washington University newspaper the Hatchet reacted to two recent incidents of on-campus violence by calling for a “shared responsibility for safety.” In the first incident, a stranger approached a graduate student in the bathroom of an academic building and hit him in the head with a hammer. In the second, a stranger approached several sleeping women in a Freshman dorm and sexually assaulted them.

“Both of these incidents exemplify ways that GW can improve security on its campus,” the Hatchet editorial informed students. According to the camps paper, the bathroom hammering reveals how the university needs to “better expedite information in response to major security threats on campus.” The sexual assault, meanwhile, “shows that students have a responsibility to keep themselves safe.”

Perhaps it was not the best choice of words.

Read More “G.W. Paper Criticizes Sexual Assault Victims’ Lack of “Responsibility”” »

NewsChannel 8 talk show co-host Doug McKelway threatened gay blogger Michael Rogers yesterday on live television, DCist reports. McKelway was interviewing Rogers about Outrage, a new documentary on closeted gay politicians and the activists who out them. Rogers, who advocates outing gay politicians who promote homophobic legislation, appears in the film.

“I have a problem with your community,” McKelway says, before telling him (at about the 2:30 mark): “I’m going to do more than just point my finger at you. I’m gonna take you outside and give you a punch across the face.”

Watch the video on PageOneQ here.

The Oregon House voted on Tuesday to pass House Bill 2478 [PDF], a measure which would modify its “sexual abuse in second degree” crime to include throwing semen at people. House members declined to discuss the bill at length before the vote, preferring to let the bill speak for itself. The bill, if passed by the state’s senate, would incorporate the following acts into the crime:

For the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of the person or another person, intentionally propels any dangerous substance at a victim who does not consent thereto. . . . As used in this section, “dangerous substance� means blood, urine, semen or feces.

Read More “Oregon Legislature Won’t Comment on Semen Bill” »

DoSomething.org has staged a video reenactment of Chris Brown’s assault of Rihanna, based on details from the police report. The video features two fresh-faced white teenagers (not the celeb look-a-likes) miming the fight while a narrator reads from the police detective’s account of the incident:

Read More “Chris Brown Rihanna Assault Reenactment: Activism or Voyeurism?” »

Domestic violence victim leaves boyfriend, finds bus

The GLLU, MPD’s Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit, serves the District’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender communities. Last week in police activity related to the GLBT community—including a domestic violence victim who takes refuge in a bus, and a man who clubs his boyfriend while in da club—below.

SURPRISE VISIT. MONDAY, MARCH 9 AT 11:40 PM. Members of the Fifth District responded to a hotel located in the 600 block of New York Avenue, N.E. for a destruction of property complaint. Upon arrival, the officers discovered a large window had been shattered and identified the individual who did the damage. He was arrested. Further investigation revealed the incident was motivated by a domestic dispute between the arrest subject and two other men staying at the hotel.

Read More “Gay Crime Log: Clubbing In Da Club Edition” »

On Nov. 4, 2007, a man was kicked out of Glover Park’s Good Guys strip club for taking photos of the strippers with his cell phone. He left, but returned with a lighter and gasoline and set the club’s manager on fire. Two days later, police and U.S. Marshalls found their suspect, Vasile Graure, in a hotel room at Alexandria’s Days Inn. He was charged with assault with intent to kill eight people—the manager, who suffered second and third degree burns, and seven others inside the club.

One year later, the 38-year-old Romanian citizen, a Phoenix resident, is being tried in D.C. Superior Court. Opening statements in the case began on Monday; I’ll be at the trial all day today, posting updates of the proceedings as they happen.

The GLLU, MPD’s Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit, serves the District’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender communities. Last week in police activity related to the GLBT community:

* On September 19, GLLU responded to a call from a Maryland man who claimed that his ex-boyfriend had stalked him, and in the process caused “damage to the victim’s personal and work vehicle, the vehicle of a friend and also the victim’s home.”

* On September 18, an intoxicated person was arrested in Adams Morgan after yelling “racial and homophobic epithets at pedestrians, as well as making physical threats towards them.”

* On September 19, police responded to a complaint from a 15-year-old student at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, who “was complaining he was sexually assaulted by another male student three weeks prior to reporting the incident to his mother.”

* On September 20, police responded to reports of an assault in the Dupont Circle area. The victim claimed to have been “attacked by his former boyfriend at a local bar,” suffering injuries that “did not require medical attention.”

* Later that day, police arrived at a hospital in response to sexual assault claims from a 21-year-old male. The patient claimed that the night before, he “was rendered unconscious by an unknown means and ended up in the rear of a residence,” where he “believes he may have been the victim of a sexual assault.”

* On September 21, a “semi-conscious” man was found at the corner of 8th St and Florida Ave. NW., the apparent victim of a hit-and-run. There is no description of the suspect, whose vehicle is described as a “brown or burgundy Mazda.”

Read the complete GLLU blotter after the jump.

Read More “GLLU Police Blotter” »

Tony Randolph Hunter, the victim of an assault outside Mt. Vernon Square nightclub BeBar, has died, Metro Weekly reports. Hunter, a gay man, was struck in the back of the head while walking near the club on the evening September 7th. He died yesterday afternoon.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime by MPD. Hunter’s assault is one of several recent incidents that have heightened attention on hate crime investigation in the District. I’ll update with more as the investigation continues.

Update: Feministing has a piece on the perceived spike of LGBT-related hate crimes in the District. Miriam notes that “Nationally, around 16% of hate crimes are LGBT related. In DC, it’s 60%.” Miriam also points readers to the resurgence of D.C.’s GLBT Anti-Violence Group, or “GLOV.” GLOV was active in the 1990’s, but stopped meeting in recent years. On Monday, Sept. 22, the group will begin meeting again. Interested parties can join GLOV at the law offices of Dewey and LeBoeuf, 1101 New York Avenue NW, at 7:30 p.m.