[Press release: AIDS, gay and lesbian protesters attacked by riot police at Republican national convention] Page: 2 of 4
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blocked the entrance. The protesters had just completed a three-
mile march from Houston's Herman Park through the Texas Medical
Center to the convention site. Demonstrators were engaged in
protests and street theater at the Astrodome fence, including a die
in and the burning of a George Bush effigy. The incident was
videotaped by several media outlets, including gay and lesbian
video crews.
Suddenly, and without a warning to disperse, the police
charged the crowd on horses and on foot. Protesters participating
in the die-in were trampled by horses. Activists standing along
the sideline were charged by a running phalanx of police officers,
most of them swinging clubs and striking activists. Several
officers were observed beating activists lying on the ground.
Police chased demonstrators across a dark field near the site,
beating activists who had fallen.
BC Craig of ACT UP/NY and an organizer for Gay and Lesbian
VOlCE '92, was struck with a baton in the leg by a policeman as she
attempted to move people away from the site. Although Craig
indicated to the officer she was acting as a monitor, he struck her
anyway, saying she was moving "not fast enough."
During the demonstration and police attack, former GOP
presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan was addressing the
Republican convention floor and a prime time television audience.
Buchanan explicitly attacked gays and Democratic candidate Bill
Clinton for being the "most pro-lesbian and pro-gay ticket
history." Meanwhile, fireworks exploded over the Astrodome,
creating a surreal backdrop for the police violence on the gay and
AIDS demonstrators.
Following the attack, the Houston Police Department claimed
they were responding in an acceptable manner. An HPD spokesperson
told one reporter for the gay press that he was "unaware of any
beatings. We don't carry batons," although hundreds of witnesses
watched the beatings with batons by scores of police.
NGLTF Condemned the police violence, noting the 29 percent
increase in police abuse against gays in 1991 over 1990 in five key
cities in the U.S. "The incident is part of a pattern of police
abuse against gays, lesbians, people with AIDS and people of
color," said Suzanne Pharr, long-time grassroots organizer in
Arkansas and a co-organizer with the VOICE '92 coalition at the
Republican Convention.
"The purpose of police brutality against oppressed people,
like the rape of women, is to threaten and terrorize all who belong
to that group. The objective of the police brutality in Houston
was to threaten all of us in the gay and lesbian movement," said
Pharr.
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National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (U.S.). [Press release: AIDS, gay and lesbian protesters attacked by riot police at Republican national convention], text, August 18, 1992; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc916136/m1/2/: accessed June 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.