The last thing Gregory Beauchamp did was get ready for a New Year's Eve party.
Gregory A. Beauchamp, 21, of English Woods, was shot and killed at about 9:05 p.m. Dec. 31 at 2 West Liberty St., Over-the-Rhine, while walking with three friends to Venus Club, a Vine Street dance spot.
Police said at least one man in the group was dressed in drag, but wouldn't say if it was Beauchamp.
The shooting is listed as an anti-homosexual hate crime, according to the police incident report, but Sgt. Lisa Thomas of the Cincinnati Police Department's Homicide Unit said police are looking at other possible motives as well.
"It would be premature to start talking about the motivation of the killer before we've caught anyone," she said. "We are looking at a hate crime being a possibility, but there are many possibilities when you're at the start of an investigation."
Police believe a blue Cadillac pulled up alongside Beauchamp's group as they stood at the corner of Liberty and Vine and shouted at them. The car then pulled away, circled the block, and then someone inside the car blasted away at the group with a handgun. Beauchamp was shot in the chest and died at the scene; police aren't sure if the shooter was aiming at Beauchamp specifically.
Witnesses told police that four to five black men, all in their late teens or early 20s, were in the car, said police Sgt. Rudy Gruenke. The burned-out hulk of a car matching the description of the Cadillac was found the next day with a gas can in the back seat, he said.
Many in the gay community say that witnesses said the men in the car yelled anti-gay slurs at the group, but Thomas wouldn't confirm that.
"And even if you call someone a name before you shoot them, that isn't necessarily the reason why you shot them," she said. "Honestly, what we need people to do is to come forward and talk to us about this. If someone has information that this was done because someone perceived Mr. Beauchamp to be gay, we need them to call us and let us know what they know.
"Anybody who saw anything that night, or who knew Mr. Beauchamp, or has had similar problems down there in the past, please give us a call. You could shed a lot of light on this case."
Gay rights organization Stonewall Cincinnati said the other three men involved are too scared to tell anyone what happened for fear of retaliation.
Dianne Brewer, a Stonewall board member, said the group has written a letter to Chief Thomas Streicher Jr., urging him to look into the incident as an anti-gay hate crime.
"I understand that sometimes a crime is just a crime. But this was not a random act of violence or a drug-related shooting. Gregory Beauchamp was killed simply because he was gay," said Carl Fox, who owns the Crazy Fox Saloon in Newport, a bar that draws a mixed gay/straight clientele.
"Maybe you don't understand cross-dressing. Maybe you find it sick and repulsive. But should you get a death sentence for wearing a dress? That boy got a death sentence. Hate is what killed him," Fox said.
"In a city as intolerant as Cincinnati, I think people have the idea that an attack on a gay man or a young man who cross dresses is acceptable, or at least, will not be as pursued as vigorously as other crimes," said gay rights advocate Heidi Bruins.
"Remember that we have a law on the books in Cincinnati that says these people aren't acceptable in our community," said Bruins, speaking of Article 12 -- more commonly known as Issue 3 -- the law that prohibits the city from enacting or enforcing any measure that gives 'minority or preferential status' to homosexuals, in effect preventing gays from seeking protection against discrimination.
"If City Council wanted to send a message that this kind of crime is not acceptable and that we are paying attention to this issue, they could put the repeal of Article 12 on the ballot. That would tell people in our community that it is inappropriate to commit hate crimes against any citizen in our community."
Curtis Johnson holds a photograph of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp, who was killed Dec. 31 at Vine and Liberty streets.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
| ZOOM |
He was walking to an Over-the-Rhine bar with friends, two of whom were men dressed in women's clothes. A Cadillac pulled up near Vine and Liberty streets. Anti-gay epithets flew.
Someone in the car fired a gun, sending Mr. Beauchamp to the morgue as Cincinnati's 65th, and last, homicide victim of 2002.
The gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Streicher asking him to see that the case is thoroughly investigated. They've also contacted the city's Human Relations Commission and the FBI.
Mr. Beauchamp's friends want justice for the 21-year-old gay man.
"He just died, in the street - it's terrible,'' said Curtis Johnson, a friend who was getting ready to meet Mr. Beauchamp at the party when his friend was shot. "I just want people to know he's more than just the 65th homicide victim.
"He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person.''
Stonewall wants that, too, plus something bigger - attention to how often gay people are victimized and to what members see as a need for effective national legislation that covers actual and perceived sexual-identity hate crimes.
"This sends a threat message to the whole community of Over-the-Rhine and to the whole city,'' said Doreen Cudnik, a Stonewall board member.
"That is that if you don't conform to the expectations of wherever you live, you can be killed.
"In this environment, the gay man is the lowest of the low.''
The case is drawing attention also from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group based in Los Angeles that tracks similar incidents and promotes fair media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Michael Young, a regional media manager for the group, echoed Ms. Cudnik's concerns about the message - and the media portrayal of it - such an attack sends.
Overall crime motivated by hate rose nationally just over 17 percent from 2000 to 2001, the latest statistics compiled by the FBI. That jump is partially a result of an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies supplying hate crime data to the FBI.
In Ohio, there were 477 hate crimes reported by police in 2001 - and 22 percent of them involved assaults, according to the FBI.
While police have an idea who killed Mr. Beauchamp, they have not released the names of any suspects or made any arrests. The case is logged as a suspected hate crime.
The four people with Mr. Beauchamp the night he was killed are traumatized and afraid for their safety, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Cudnik said. She hopes Stonewall can act as a liaison between the witnesses and police to help draw out more information for detectives to use.
For Mr. Johnson, 24, the focus is more personal. He and Mr. Beauchamp met about five years ago at The Warehouse in Over-the-Rhine, where they would dance from 10 p.m. to nearly dawn. Mr. Beauchamp's favorite singer was Erykah Badu.More recently, they talked about their common interest - fashion design. Mr. Johnson is studying fashion design at Cincinnati State and Mr. Beauchamp hoped to move to California to study it there.
"This one time, he took these pants and bleached the pockets and the cuffs,'' he said. "Then he took safety pins and put them all the way up the leg. It looked like something the MTV generation would wear.
"I just knew one day he'd call me and say he was dressing Halle Berry or something.''
Mr. Beauchamp, who lived in English Woods, had recently gotten his certificate to move into Section 8 housing, Mr. Johnson said. He planned to move to Northern Kentucky.
"He wanted a better life,'' Mr. Johnson said. "Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough. It's just not cutting it.''
Stonewall members are pleased, Ms. Cudnik said, with the cooperation they're getting from police. She has spoken with one of the detectives working on the case, Keith Witherell, and hopes to meet with him and another investigator this week to talk about what the group can do to help.
"It's about life having value,'' Ms. Cudnik said, "and every life having value.''
∼The last thing Gregory Beauchamp did was get ready for a New Year's Eve party.
Curtis Johnson holds a photograph of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp, who was killed Dec. 31 at Vine and Liberty streets.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
| ZOOM |
He was walking to an Over-the-Rhine bar with friends, two of whom were men dressed in women's clothes. A Cadillac pulled up near Vine and Liberty streets. Anti-gay epithets flew.
Someone in the car fired a gun, sending Mr. Beauchamp to the morgue as Cincinnati's 65th, and last, homicide victim of 2002.
The gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Streicher asking him to see that the case is thoroughly investigated. They've also contacted the city's Human Relations Commission and the FBI.
Mr. Beauchamp's friends want justice for the 21-year-old gay man.
"He just died, in the street - it's terrible,'' said Curtis Johnson, a friend who was getting ready to meet Mr. Beauchamp at the party when his friend was shot. "I just want people to know he's more than just the 65th homicide victim.
"He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person.''
Stonewall wants that, too, plus something bigger - attention to how often gay people are victimized and to what members see as a need for effective national legislation that covers actual and perceived sexual-identity hate crimes.
"This sends a threat message to the whole community of Over-the-Rhine and to the whole city,'' said Doreen Cudnik, a Stonewall board member.
"That is that if you don't conform to the expectations of wherever you live, you can be killed.
"In this environment, the gay man is the lowest of the low.''
The case is drawing attention also from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group based in Los Angeles that tracks similar incidents and promotes fair media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Michael Young, a regional media manager for the group, echoed Ms. Cudnik's concerns about the message - and the media portrayal of it - such an attack sends.
Overall crime motivated by hate rose nationally just over 17 percent from 2000 to 2001, the latest statistics compiled by the FBI. That jump is partially a result of an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies supplying hate crime data to the FBI.
In Ohio, there were 477 hate crimes reported by police in 2001 - and 22 percent of them involved assaults, according to the FBI.
While police have an idea who killed Mr. Beauchamp, they have not released the names of any suspects or made any arrests. The case is logged as a suspected hate crime.
The four people with Mr. Beauchamp the night he was killed are traumatized and afraid for their safety, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Cudnik said. She hopes Stonewall can act as a liaison between the witnesses and police to help draw out more information for detectives to use.
For Mr. Johnson, 24, the focus is more personal. He and Mr. Beauchamp met about five years ago at The Warehouse in Over-the-Rhine, where they would dance from 10 p.m. to nearly dawn. Mr. Beauchamp's favorite singer was Erykah Badu.More recently, they talked about their common interest - fashion design. Mr. Johnson is studying fashion design at Cincinnati State and Mr. Beauchamp hoped to move to California to study it there.
"This one time, he took these pants and bleached the pockets and the cuffs,'' he said. "Then he took safety pins and put them all the way up the leg. It looked like something the MTV generation would wear.
"I just knew one day he'd call me and say he was dressing Halle Berry or something.''
Mr. Beauchamp, who lived in English Woods, had recently gotten his certificate to move into Section 8 housing, Mr. Johnson said. He planned to move to Northern Kentucky.
"He wanted a better life,'' Mr. Johnson said. "Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough. It's just not cutting it.''
Stonewall members are pleased, Ms. Cudnik said, with the cooperation they're getting from police. She has spoken with one of the detectives working on the case, Keith Witherell, and hopes to meet with him and another investigator this week to talk about what the group can do to help.
Cincinnati--The Queen City is riding high on a wave of successes that seems like it will never crest and wane.
In 2003, the city passed a hate crime ordinance that included sexual orientation, a reaction to the New Year's Eve 2002 murder of Gregory Beauchamp, a young gay man. That ordinance withstood legal challenges from anti-gay forces who argued that it contravened Article 12, the city charter amendment barring the city from passing civil rights protections for lesbians and gay men.
The following year, voters in the city, after an intensive campaign of voter identification and education by Citizens to Restore Fairness, struck Article 12 from the charter, sending the message that Cincinnati is an open, welcoming, caring city.
This past March, city council passed an ordinance adding LGBT people to the city's equal rights code, making it the second city in Ohio to protect transgendered people.
Now, Pride Alive 2006 has a message for the world: There is No Stopping Us Now!
Pride is two days of fantastic music, spoken word, drag and other performances, surrounded by a city full of events commemorating the occasion.
The official events start with the Cincinnati Youth Group Pancake Breakfast at 9 am on Saturday June 10. The CYG presents the breakfast at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church every year, and it's a great start to the weekend.
Once everyone's bellies are full, it's time to head off to the Pride Alive festival in Hoffner Park, 4111 Hamilton Avenue at Blue Rock St. in Northside.
The first day of the festival runs from 4 pm to 10 pm. Music will be provided by DJ Flex and BJ's DJ Service, and there will be hundreds of people performing.
Saturday's show includes performances by two mainstays, the Cincinnati Men's Chorus and the Queen City Rainbow Band.
They will be joined by the soulful sounds of the Beau Alquizola Band, Pamela Means' kamikaze guitar riffs and take-no-prisoners lyrics, Alix Olson's nationally renowned spoken word, Columbus' Katie Reider Band and Tim'm West, homohop rapper from the Deep Dickollective.
Sile Singleton's drag king character Lustivious de la Virgion will keep the crowd in stitches, as will the Drag Extravaganza featuring the Cincinnati Drag King Society, Ladies of Illusion and FuckHers.
The following day, June 11, is the Pride Alive Pep Rally and Parade, which lets out into the second day of the festival.
The Pep Rally and line-up for the parade are at 11 am in Burnet Woods, north of the University of Cincinnati in the Clifton neighborhood. The parade steps off at 1 pm and makes its way on Ludlow Ave. back to Hoffner Park, where the second day of the festival will have already started.
Performances start at 2 pm on Sunday, although the festival itself opens at 1 pm. Sile Singleton's Luster will perform with the Columbus Stompers, and dance music studpuppy Jason Walker will have the crowd going wild.
Cincy native Tracy Walker returns to Pride, cementing her claim as a hometown favorite, and soulful folk-rockers Lazy Sunday will play selections from their album Empty Song Space.
Also performing will be Nedra Johnson, R&B singer-songwriter from New York, and Karter Louis, dubbed the "Trip Hop Faggot," from Louisville, Kentucky.
DJ Flex and BJ's DJ Service will return for the second day of the festival as well, keeping everyone dancing.
There is no stopping the music, and there certainly is no stopping Pride Alive!
- A grand jury indicted a man Thursday on charges related to the fatal New Year's Eve shooting of a cross-dresser more than six years ago.
Jerry Jones
Jerry Jones was indicted on two counts of murder and two counts of having a weapon under a disability in the slaying of 21-year-old Gregory Beauchamp.
Police said Beachamp and some other men were dressed in women's clothing on their way to a party Dec. 31, 2002 at an Over-The-Rhine bar, when some other men drove past in a dark blue Cadillac.
The occupants yelled anti-gay slurs and Beauchamp and his friends, police said, and one person fired a gun from the car.
Gregory Beauchamp
Beauchamp was pronounced dead at the scene on West Liberty Street, and was the city's 65th and final homicide victim of the year.
Jones has not yet been arrested, authorities said.
Gregory A. Beauchamp, 21, of English Woods, was shot and killed at about 9:05 p.m. Dec. 31 at 2 West Liberty St., Over-the-Rhine, while walking with three friends to Venus Club, a Vine Street dance spot.
Police said at least one man in the group was dressed in drag, but wouldn't say if it was Beauchamp.
The shooting is listed as an anti-homosexual hate crime, according to the police incident report, but Sgt. Lisa Thomas of the Cincinnati Police Department's Homicide Unit said police are looking at other possible motives as well.
"It would be premature to start talking about the motivation of the killer before we've caught anyone," she said. "We are looking at a hate crime being a possibility, but there are many possibilities when you're at the start of an investigation."
Police believe a blue Cadillac pulled up alongside Beauchamp's group as they stood at the corner of Liberty and Vine and shouted at them. The car then pulled away, circled the block, and then someone inside the car blasted away at the group with a handgun. Beauchamp was shot in the chest and died at the scene; police aren't sure if the shooter was aiming at Beauchamp specifically.
Witnesses told police that four to five black men, all in their late teens or early 20s, were in the car, said police Sgt. Rudy Gruenke. The burned-out hulk of a car matching the description of the Cadillac was found the next day with a gas can in the back seat, he said.
Many in the gay community say that witnesses said the men in the car yelled anti-gay slurs at the group, but Thomas wouldn't confirm that.
"And even if you call someone a name before you shoot them, that isn't necessarily the reason why you shot them," she said. "Honestly, what we need people to do is to come forward and talk to us about this. If someone has information that this was done because someone perceived Mr. Beauchamp to be gay, we need them to call us and let us know what they know.
"Anybody who saw anything that night, or who knew Mr. Beauchamp, or has had similar problems down there in the past, please give us a call. You could shed a lot of light on this case."
Gay rights organization Stonewall Cincinnati said the other three men involved are too scared to tell anyone what happened for fear of retaliation.
Dianne Brewer, a Stonewall board member, said the group has written a letter to Chief Thomas Streicher Jr., urging him to look into the incident as an anti-gay hate crime.
"I understand that sometimes a crime is just a crime. But this was not a random act of violence or a drug-related shooting. Gregory Beauchamp was killed simply because he was gay," said Carl Fox, who owns the Crazy Fox Saloon in Newport, a bar that draws a mixed gay/straight clientele.
"Maybe you don't understand cross-dressing. Maybe you find it sick and repulsive. But should you get a death sentence for wearing a dress? That boy got a death sentence. Hate is what killed him," Fox said.
"In a city as intolerant as Cincinnati, I think people have the idea that an attack on a gay man or a young man who cross dresses is acceptable, or at least, will not be as pursued as vigorously as other crimes," said gay rights advocate Heidi Bruins.
"Remember that we have a law on the books in Cincinnati that says these people aren't acceptable in our community," said Bruins, speaking of Article 12 -- more commonly known as Issue 3 -- the law that prohibits the city from enacting or enforcing any measure that gives 'minority or preferential status' to homosexuals, in effect preventing gays from seeking protection against discrimination.
"If City Council wanted to send a message that this kind of crime is not acceptable and that we are paying attention to this issue, they could put the repeal of Article 12 on the ballot. That would tell people in our community that it is inappropriate to commit hate crimes against any citizen in our community."
Curtis Johnson holds a photograph of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp, who was killed Dec. 31 at Vine and Liberty streets.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
| ZOOM |
He was walking to an Over-the-Rhine bar with friends, two of whom were men dressed in women's clothes. A Cadillac pulled up near Vine and Liberty streets. Anti-gay epithets flew.
Someone in the car fired a gun, sending Mr. Beauchamp to the morgue as Cincinnati's 65th, and last, homicide victim of 2002.
The gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Streicher asking him to see that the case is thoroughly investigated. They've also contacted the city's Human Relations Commission and the FBI.
Mr. Beauchamp's friends want justice for the 21-year-old gay man.
"He just died, in the street - it's terrible,'' said Curtis Johnson, a friend who was getting ready to meet Mr. Beauchamp at the party when his friend was shot. "I just want people to know he's more than just the 65th homicide victim.
"He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person.''
Stonewall wants that, too, plus something bigger - attention to how often gay people are victimized and to what members see as a need for effective national legislation that covers actual and perceived sexual-identity hate crimes.
"This sends a threat message to the whole community of Over-the-Rhine and to the whole city,'' said Doreen Cudnik, a Stonewall board member.
"That is that if you don't conform to the expectations of wherever you live, you can be killed.
"In this environment, the gay man is the lowest of the low.''
The case is drawing attention also from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group based in Los Angeles that tracks similar incidents and promotes fair media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Michael Young, a regional media manager for the group, echoed Ms. Cudnik's concerns about the message - and the media portrayal of it - such an attack sends.
Overall crime motivated by hate rose nationally just over 17 percent from 2000 to 2001, the latest statistics compiled by the FBI. That jump is partially a result of an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies supplying hate crime data to the FBI.
In Ohio, there were 477 hate crimes reported by police in 2001 - and 22 percent of them involved assaults, according to the FBI.
While police have an idea who killed Mr. Beauchamp, they have not released the names of any suspects or made any arrests. The case is logged as a suspected hate crime.
The four people with Mr. Beauchamp the night he was killed are traumatized and afraid for their safety, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Cudnik said. She hopes Stonewall can act as a liaison between the witnesses and police to help draw out more information for detectives to use.
For Mr. Johnson, 24, the focus is more personal. He and Mr. Beauchamp met about five years ago at The Warehouse in Over-the-Rhine, where they would dance from 10 p.m. to nearly dawn. Mr. Beauchamp's favorite singer was Erykah Badu.More recently, they talked about their common interest - fashion design. Mr. Johnson is studying fashion design at Cincinnati State and Mr. Beauchamp hoped to move to California to study it there.
"This one time, he took these pants and bleached the pockets and the cuffs,'' he said. "Then he took safety pins and put them all the way up the leg. It looked like something the MTV generation would wear.
"I just knew one day he'd call me and say he was dressing Halle Berry or something.''
Mr. Beauchamp, who lived in English Woods, had recently gotten his certificate to move into Section 8 housing, Mr. Johnson said. He planned to move to Northern Kentucky.
"He wanted a better life,'' Mr. Johnson said. "Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough. It's just not cutting it.''
Stonewall members are pleased, Ms. Cudnik said, with the cooperation they're getting from police. She has spoken with one of the detectives working on the case, Keith Witherell, and hopes to meet with him and another investigator this week to talk about what the group can do to help.
"It's about life having value,'' Ms. Cudnik said, "and every life having value.''
∼The last thing Gregory Beauchamp did was get ready for a New Year's Eve party.
Curtis Johnson holds a photograph of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp, who was killed Dec. 31 at Vine and Liberty streets.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
| ZOOM |
He was walking to an Over-the-Rhine bar with friends, two of whom were men dressed in women's clothes. A Cadillac pulled up near Vine and Liberty streets. Anti-gay epithets flew.
Someone in the car fired a gun, sending Mr. Beauchamp to the morgue as Cincinnati's 65th, and last, homicide victim of 2002.
The gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Streicher asking him to see that the case is thoroughly investigated. They've also contacted the city's Human Relations Commission and the FBI.
Mr. Beauchamp's friends want justice for the 21-year-old gay man.
"He just died, in the street - it's terrible,'' said Curtis Johnson, a friend who was getting ready to meet Mr. Beauchamp at the party when his friend was shot. "I just want people to know he's more than just the 65th homicide victim.
"He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person.''
Stonewall wants that, too, plus something bigger - attention to how often gay people are victimized and to what members see as a need for effective national legislation that covers actual and perceived sexual-identity hate crimes.
"This sends a threat message to the whole community of Over-the-Rhine and to the whole city,'' said Doreen Cudnik, a Stonewall board member.
"That is that if you don't conform to the expectations of wherever you live, you can be killed.
"In this environment, the gay man is the lowest of the low.''
The case is drawing attention also from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group based in Los Angeles that tracks similar incidents and promotes fair media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Michael Young, a regional media manager for the group, echoed Ms. Cudnik's concerns about the message - and the media portrayal of it - such an attack sends.
Overall crime motivated by hate rose nationally just over 17 percent from 2000 to 2001, the latest statistics compiled by the FBI. That jump is partially a result of an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies supplying hate crime data to the FBI.
In Ohio, there were 477 hate crimes reported by police in 2001 - and 22 percent of them involved assaults, according to the FBI.
While police have an idea who killed Mr. Beauchamp, they have not released the names of any suspects or made any arrests. The case is logged as a suspected hate crime.
The four people with Mr. Beauchamp the night he was killed are traumatized and afraid for their safety, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Cudnik said. She hopes Stonewall can act as a liaison between the witnesses and police to help draw out more information for detectives to use.
For Mr. Johnson, 24, the focus is more personal. He and Mr. Beauchamp met about five years ago at The Warehouse in Over-the-Rhine, where they would dance from 10 p.m. to nearly dawn. Mr. Beauchamp's favorite singer was Erykah Badu.More recently, they talked about their common interest - fashion design. Mr. Johnson is studying fashion design at Cincinnati State and Mr. Beauchamp hoped to move to California to study it there.
"This one time, he took these pants and bleached the pockets and the cuffs,'' he said. "Then he took safety pins and put them all the way up the leg. It looked like something the MTV generation would wear.
"I just knew one day he'd call me and say he was dressing Halle Berry or something.''
Mr. Beauchamp, who lived in English Woods, had recently gotten his certificate to move into Section 8 housing, Mr. Johnson said. He planned to move to Northern Kentucky.
"He wanted a better life,'' Mr. Johnson said. "Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough. It's just not cutting it.''
Stonewall members are pleased, Ms. Cudnik said, with the cooperation they're getting from police. She has spoken with one of the detectives working on the case, Keith Witherell, and hopes to meet with him and another investigator this week to talk about what the group can do to help.
Cincinnati--The Queen City is riding high on a wave of successes that seems like it will never crest and wane.
In 2003, the city passed a hate crime ordinance that included sexual orientation, a reaction to the New Year's Eve 2002 murder of Gregory Beauchamp, a young gay man. That ordinance withstood legal challenges from anti-gay forces who argued that it contravened Article 12, the city charter amendment barring the city from passing civil rights protections for lesbians and gay men.
The following year, voters in the city, after an intensive campaign of voter identification and education by Citizens to Restore Fairness, struck Article 12 from the charter, sending the message that Cincinnati is an open, welcoming, caring city.
This past March, city council passed an ordinance adding LGBT people to the city's equal rights code, making it the second city in Ohio to protect transgendered people.
Now, Pride Alive 2006 has a message for the world: There is No Stopping Us Now!
Pride is two days of fantastic music, spoken word, drag and other performances, surrounded by a city full of events commemorating the occasion.
The official events start with the Cincinnati Youth Group Pancake Breakfast at 9 am on Saturday June 10. The CYG presents the breakfast at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church every year, and it's a great start to the weekend.
Once everyone's bellies are full, it's time to head off to the Pride Alive festival in Hoffner Park, 4111 Hamilton Avenue at Blue Rock St. in Northside.
The first day of the festival runs from 4 pm to 10 pm. Music will be provided by DJ Flex and BJ's DJ Service, and there will be hundreds of people performing.
Saturday's show includes performances by two mainstays, the Cincinnati Men's Chorus and the Queen City Rainbow Band.
They will be joined by the soulful sounds of the Beau Alquizola Band, Pamela Means' kamikaze guitar riffs and take-no-prisoners lyrics, Alix Olson's nationally renowned spoken word, Columbus' Katie Reider Band and Tim'm West, homohop rapper from the Deep Dickollective.
Sile Singleton's drag king character Lustivious de la Virgion will keep the crowd in stitches, as will the Drag Extravaganza featuring the Cincinnati Drag King Society, Ladies of Illusion and FuckHers.
The following day, June 11, is the Pride Alive Pep Rally and Parade, which lets out into the second day of the festival.
The Pep Rally and line-up for the parade are at 11 am in Burnet Woods, north of the University of Cincinnati in the Clifton neighborhood. The parade steps off at 1 pm and makes its way on Ludlow Ave. back to Hoffner Park, where the second day of the festival will have already started.
Performances start at 2 pm on Sunday, although the festival itself opens at 1 pm. Sile Singleton's Luster will perform with the Columbus Stompers, and dance music studpuppy Jason Walker will have the crowd going wild.
Cincy native Tracy Walker returns to Pride, cementing her claim as a hometown favorite, and soulful folk-rockers Lazy Sunday will play selections from their album Empty Song Space.
Also performing will be Nedra Johnson, R&B singer-songwriter from New York, and Karter Louis, dubbed the "Trip Hop Faggot," from Louisville, Kentucky.
DJ Flex and BJ's DJ Service will return for the second day of the festival as well, keeping everyone dancing.
There is no stopping the music, and there certainly is no stopping Pride Alive!
- A grand jury indicted a man Thursday on charges related to the fatal New Year's Eve shooting of a cross-dresser more than six years ago.
Jerry Jones
Jerry Jones was indicted on two counts of murder and two counts of having a weapon under a disability in the slaying of 21-year-old Gregory Beauchamp.
Police said Beachamp and some other men were dressed in women's clothing on their way to a party Dec. 31, 2002 at an Over-The-Rhine bar, when some other men drove past in a dark blue Cadillac.
The occupants yelled anti-gay slurs and Beauchamp and his friends, police said, and one person fired a gun from the car.
Gregory Beauchamp
Beauchamp was pronounced dead at the scene on West Liberty Street, and was the city's 65th and final homicide victim of the year.
Jones has not yet been arrested, authorities said.
The last thing Gregory Beauchamp did was get ready for a New Year's Eve party.
Gregory A. Beauchamp, 21, of English Woods, was shot and killed at about 9:05 p.m. Dec. 31 at 2 West Liberty St., Over-the-Rhine, while walking with three friends to Venus Club, a Vine Street dance spot.
Police said at least one man in the group was dressed in drag, but wouldn't say if it was Beauchamp.
The shooting is listed as an anti-homosexual hate crime, according to the police incident report, but Sgt. Lisa Thomas of the Cincinnati Police Department's Homicide Unit said police are looking at other possible motives as well.
"It would be premature to start talking about the motivation of the killer before we've caught anyone," she said. "We are looking at a hate crime being a possibility, but there are many possibilities when you're at the start of an investigation."
Police believe a blue Cadillac pulled up alongside Beauchamp's group as they stood at the corner of Liberty and Vine and shouted at them. The car then pulled away, circled the block, and then someone inside the car blasted away at the group with a handgun. Beauchamp was shot in the chest and died at the scene; police aren't sure if the shooter was aiming at Beauchamp specifically.
Witnesses told police that four to five black men, all in their late teens or early 20s, were in the car, said police Sgt. Rudy Gruenke. The burned-out hulk of a car matching the description of the Cadillac was found the next day with a gas can in the back seat, he said.
Many in the gay community say that witnesses said the men in the car yelled anti-gay slurs at the group, but Thomas wouldn't confirm that.
"And even if you call someone a name before you shoot them, that isn't necessarily the reason why you shot them," she said. "Honestly, what we need people to do is to come forward and talk to us about this. If someone has information that this was done because someone perceived Mr. Beauchamp to be gay, we need them to call us and let us know what they know.
"Anybody who saw anything that night, or who knew Mr. Beauchamp, or has had similar problems down there in the past, please give us a call. You could shed a lot of light on this case."
Gay rights organization Stonewall Cincinnati said the other three men involved are too scared to tell anyone what happened for fear of retaliation.
Dianne Brewer, a Stonewall board member, said the group has written a letter to Chief Thomas Streicher Jr., urging him to look into the incident as an anti-gay hate crime.
"I understand that sometimes a crime is just a crime. But this was not a random act of violence or a drug-related shooting. Gregory Beauchamp was killed simply because he was gay," said Carl Fox, who owns the Crazy Fox Saloon in Newport, a bar that draws a mixed gay/straight clientele.
"Maybe you don't understand cross-dressing. Maybe you find it sick and repulsive. But should you get a death sentence for wearing a dress? That boy got a death sentence. Hate is what killed him," Fox said.
"In a city as intolerant as Cincinnati, I think people have the idea that an attack on a gay man or a young man who cross dresses is acceptable, or at least, will not be as pursued as vigorously as other crimes," said gay rights advocate Heidi Bruins.
"Remember that we have a law on the books in Cincinnati that says these people aren't acceptable in our community," said Bruins, speaking of Article 12 -- more commonly known as Issue 3 -- the law that prohibits the city from enacting or enforcing any measure that gives 'minority or preferential status' to homosexuals, in effect preventing gays from seeking protection against discrimination.
"If City Council wanted to send a message that this kind of crime is not acceptable and that we are paying attention to this issue, they could put the repeal of Article 12 on the ballot. That would tell people in our community that it is inappropriate to commit hate crimes against any citizen in our community."
Curtis Johnson holds a photograph of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp, who was killed Dec. 31 at Vine and Liberty streets.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
| ZOOM |
He was walking to an Over-the-Rhine bar with friends, two of whom were men dressed in women's clothes. A Cadillac pulled up near Vine and Liberty streets. Anti-gay epithets flew.
Someone in the car fired a gun, sending Mr. Beauchamp to the morgue as Cincinnati's 65th, and last, homicide victim of 2002.
The gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Streicher asking him to see that the case is thoroughly investigated. They've also contacted the city's Human Relations Commission and the FBI.
Mr. Beauchamp's friends want justice for the 21-year-old gay man.
"He just died, in the street - it's terrible,'' said Curtis Johnson, a friend who was getting ready to meet Mr. Beauchamp at the party when his friend was shot. "I just want people to know he's more than just the 65th homicide victim.
"He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person.''
Stonewall wants that, too, plus something bigger - attention to how often gay people are victimized and to what members see as a need for effective national legislation that covers actual and perceived sexual-identity hate crimes.
"This sends a threat message to the whole community of Over-the-Rhine and to the whole city,'' said Doreen Cudnik, a Stonewall board member.
"That is that if you don't conform to the expectations of wherever you live, you can be killed.
"In this environment, the gay man is the lowest of the low.''
The case is drawing attention also from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group based in Los Angeles that tracks similar incidents and promotes fair media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Michael Young, a regional media manager for the group, echoed Ms. Cudnik's concerns about the message - and the media portrayal of it - such an attack sends.
Overall crime motivated by hate rose nationally just over 17 percent from 2000 to 2001, the latest statistics compiled by the FBI. That jump is partially a result of an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies supplying hate crime data to the FBI.
In Ohio, there were 477 hate crimes reported by police in 2001 - and 22 percent of them involved assaults, according to the FBI.
While police have an idea who killed Mr. Beauchamp, they have not released the names of any suspects or made any arrests. The case is logged as a suspected hate crime.
The four people with Mr. Beauchamp the night he was killed are traumatized and afraid for their safety, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Cudnik said. She hopes Stonewall can act as a liaison between the witnesses and police to help draw out more information for detectives to use.
For Mr. Johnson, 24, the focus is more personal. He and Mr. Beauchamp met about five years ago at The Warehouse in Over-the-Rhine, where they would dance from 10 p.m. to nearly dawn. Mr. Beauchamp's favorite singer was Erykah Badu.More recently, they talked about their common interest - fashion design. Mr. Johnson is studying fashion design at Cincinnati State and Mr. Beauchamp hoped to move to California to study it there.
"This one time, he took these pants and bleached the pockets and the cuffs,'' he said. "Then he took safety pins and put them all the way up the leg. It looked like something the MTV generation would wear.
"I just knew one day he'd call me and say he was dressing Halle Berry or something.''
Mr. Beauchamp, who lived in English Woods, had recently gotten his certificate to move into Section 8 housing, Mr. Johnson said. He planned to move to Northern Kentucky.
"He wanted a better life,'' Mr. Johnson said. "Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough. It's just not cutting it.''
Stonewall members are pleased, Ms. Cudnik said, with the cooperation they're getting from police. She has spoken with one of the detectives working on the case, Keith Witherell, and hopes to meet with him and another investigator this week to talk about what the group can do to help.
"It's about life having value,'' Ms. Cudnik said, "and every life having value.''
∼The last thing Gregory Beauchamp did was get ready for a New Year's Eve party.
Curtis Johnson holds a photograph of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp, who was killed Dec. 31 at Vine and Liberty streets.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
| ZOOM |
He was walking to an Over-the-Rhine bar with friends, two of whom were men dressed in women's clothes. A Cadillac pulled up near Vine and Liberty streets. Anti-gay epithets flew.
Someone in the car fired a gun, sending Mr. Beauchamp to the morgue as Cincinnati's 65th, and last, homicide victim of 2002.
The gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Streicher asking him to see that the case is thoroughly investigated. They've also contacted the city's Human Relations Commission and the FBI.
Mr. Beauchamp's friends want justice for the 21-year-old gay man.
"He just died, in the street - it's terrible,'' said Curtis Johnson, a friend who was getting ready to meet Mr. Beauchamp at the party when his friend was shot. "I just want people to know he's more than just the 65th homicide victim.
"He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person.''
Stonewall wants that, too, plus something bigger - attention to how often gay people are victimized and to what members see as a need for effective national legislation that covers actual and perceived sexual-identity hate crimes.
"This sends a threat message to the whole community of Over-the-Rhine and to the whole city,'' said Doreen Cudnik, a Stonewall board member.
"That is that if you don't conform to the expectations of wherever you live, you can be killed.
"In this environment, the gay man is the lowest of the low.''
The case is drawing attention also from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group based in Los Angeles that tracks similar incidents and promotes fair media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Michael Young, a regional media manager for the group, echoed Ms. Cudnik's concerns about the message - and the media portrayal of it - such an attack sends.
Overall crime motivated by hate rose nationally just over 17 percent from 2000 to 2001, the latest statistics compiled by the FBI. That jump is partially a result of an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies supplying hate crime data to the FBI.
In Ohio, there were 477 hate crimes reported by police in 2001 - and 22 percent of them involved assaults, according to the FBI.
While police have an idea who killed Mr. Beauchamp, they have not released the names of any suspects or made any arrests. The case is logged as a suspected hate crime.
The four people with Mr. Beauchamp the night he was killed are traumatized and afraid for their safety, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Cudnik said. She hopes Stonewall can act as a liaison between the witnesses and police to help draw out more information for detectives to use.
For Mr. Johnson, 24, the focus is more personal. He and Mr. Beauchamp met about five years ago at The Warehouse in Over-the-Rhine, where they would dance from 10 p.m. to nearly dawn. Mr. Beauchamp's favorite singer was Erykah Badu.More recently, they talked about their common interest - fashion design. Mr. Johnson is studying fashion design at Cincinnati State and Mr. Beauchamp hoped to move to California to study it there.
"This one time, he took these pants and bleached the pockets and the cuffs,'' he said. "Then he took safety pins and put them all the way up the leg. It looked like something the MTV generation would wear.
"I just knew one day he'd call me and say he was dressing Halle Berry or something.''
Mr. Beauchamp, who lived in English Woods, had recently gotten his certificate to move into Section 8 housing, Mr. Johnson said. He planned to move to Northern Kentucky.
"He wanted a better life,'' Mr. Johnson said. "Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough. It's just not cutting it.''
Stonewall members are pleased, Ms. Cudnik said, with the cooperation they're getting from police. She has spoken with one of the detectives working on the case, Keith Witherell, and hopes to meet with him and another investigator this week to talk about what the group can do to help.
Cincinnati--The Queen City is riding high on a wave of successes that seems like it will never crest and wane.
In 2003, the city passed a hate crime ordinance that included sexual orientation, a reaction to the New Year's Eve 2002 murder of Gregory Beauchamp, a young gay man. That ordinance withstood legal challenges from anti-gay forces who argued that it contravened Article 12, the city charter amendment barring the city from passing civil rights protections for lesbians and gay men.
The following year, voters in the city, after an intensive campaign of voter identification and education by Citizens to Restore Fairness, struck Article 12 from the charter, sending the message that Cincinnati is an open, welcoming, caring city.
This past March, city council passed an ordinance adding LGBT people to the city's equal rights code, making it the second city in Ohio to protect transgendered people.
Now, Pride Alive 2006 has a message for the world: There is No Stopping Us Now!
Pride is two days of fantastic music, spoken word, drag and other performances, surrounded by a city full of events commemorating the occasion.
The official events start with the Cincinnati Youth Group Pancake Breakfast at 9 am on Saturday June 10. The CYG presents the breakfast at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church every year, and it's a great start to the weekend.
Once everyone's bellies are full, it's time to head off to the Pride Alive festival in Hoffner Park, 4111 Hamilton Avenue at Blue Rock St. in Northside.
The first day of the festival runs from 4 pm to 10 pm. Music will be provided by DJ Flex and BJ's DJ Service, and there will be hundreds of people performing.
Saturday's show includes performances by two mainstays, the Cincinnati Men's Chorus and the Queen City Rainbow Band.
They will be joined by the soulful sounds of the Beau Alquizola Band, Pamela Means' kamikaze guitar riffs and take-no-prisoners lyrics, Alix Olson's nationally renowned spoken word, Columbus' Katie Reider Band and Tim'm West, homohop rapper from the Deep Dickollective.
Sile Singleton's drag king character Lustivious de la Virgion will keep the crowd in stitches, as will the Drag Extravaganza featuring the Cincinnati Drag King Society, Ladies of Illusion and FuckHers.
The following day, June 11, is the Pride Alive Pep Rally and Parade, which lets out into the second day of the festival.
The Pep Rally and line-up for the parade are at 11 am in Burnet Woods, north of the University of Cincinnati in the Clifton neighborhood. The parade steps off at 1 pm and makes its way on Ludlow Ave. back to Hoffner Park, where the second day of the festival will have already started.
Performances start at 2 pm on Sunday, although the festival itself opens at 1 pm. Sile Singleton's Luster will perform with the Columbus Stompers, and dance music studpuppy Jason Walker will have the crowd going wild.
Cincy native Tracy Walker returns to Pride, cementing her claim as a hometown favorite, and soulful folk-rockers Lazy Sunday will play selections from their album Empty Song Space.
Also performing will be Nedra Johnson, R&B singer-songwriter from New York, and Karter Louis, dubbed the "Trip Hop Faggot," from Louisville, Kentucky.
DJ Flex and BJ's DJ Service will return for the second day of the festival as well, keeping everyone dancing.
There is no stopping the music, and there certainly is no stopping Pride Alive!
- A grand jury indicted a man Thursday on charges related to the fatal New Year's Eve shooting of a cross-dresser more than six years ago.
Jerry Jones
Jerry Jones was indicted on two counts of murder and two counts of having a weapon under a disability in the slaying of 21-year-old Gregory Beauchamp.
Police said Beachamp and some other men were dressed in women's clothing on their way to a party Dec. 31, 2002 at an Over-The-Rhine bar, when some other men drove past in a dark blue Cadillac.
The occupants yelled anti-gay slurs and Beauchamp and his friends, police said, and one person fired a gun from the car.
Gregory Beauchamp
Beauchamp was pronounced dead at the scene on West Liberty Street, and was the city's 65th and final homicide victim of the year.
Jones has not yet been arrested, authorities said.
Gregory A. Beauchamp, 21, of English Woods, was shot and killed at about 9:05 p.m. Dec. 31 at 2 West Liberty St., Over-the-Rhine, while walking with three friends to Venus Club, a Vine Street dance spot.
Police said at least one man in the group was dressed in drag, but wouldn't say if it was Beauchamp.
The shooting is listed as an anti-homosexual hate crime, according to the police incident report, but Sgt. Lisa Thomas of the Cincinnati Police Department's Homicide Unit said police are looking at other possible motives as well.
"It would be premature to start talking about the motivation of the killer before we've caught anyone," she said. "We are looking at a hate crime being a possibility, but there are many possibilities when you're at the start of an investigation."
Police believe a blue Cadillac pulled up alongside Beauchamp's group as they stood at the corner of Liberty and Vine and shouted at them. The car then pulled away, circled the block, and then someone inside the car blasted away at the group with a handgun. Beauchamp was shot in the chest and died at the scene; police aren't sure if the shooter was aiming at Beauchamp specifically.
Witnesses told police that four to five black men, all in their late teens or early 20s, were in the car, said police Sgt. Rudy Gruenke. The burned-out hulk of a car matching the description of the Cadillac was found the next day with a gas can in the back seat, he said.
Many in the gay community say that witnesses said the men in the car yelled anti-gay slurs at the group, but Thomas wouldn't confirm that.
"And even if you call someone a name before you shoot them, that isn't necessarily the reason why you shot them," she said. "Honestly, what we need people to do is to come forward and talk to us about this. If someone has information that this was done because someone perceived Mr. Beauchamp to be gay, we need them to call us and let us know what they know.
"Anybody who saw anything that night, or who knew Mr. Beauchamp, or has had similar problems down there in the past, please give us a call. You could shed a lot of light on this case."
Gay rights organization Stonewall Cincinnati said the other three men involved are too scared to tell anyone what happened for fear of retaliation.
Dianne Brewer, a Stonewall board member, said the group has written a letter to Chief Thomas Streicher Jr., urging him to look into the incident as an anti-gay hate crime.
"I understand that sometimes a crime is just a crime. But this was not a random act of violence or a drug-related shooting. Gregory Beauchamp was killed simply because he was gay," said Carl Fox, who owns the Crazy Fox Saloon in Newport, a bar that draws a mixed gay/straight clientele.
"Maybe you don't understand cross-dressing. Maybe you find it sick and repulsive. But should you get a death sentence for wearing a dress? That boy got a death sentence. Hate is what killed him," Fox said.
"In a city as intolerant as Cincinnati, I think people have the idea that an attack on a gay man or a young man who cross dresses is acceptable, or at least, will not be as pursued as vigorously as other crimes," said gay rights advocate Heidi Bruins.
"Remember that we have a law on the books in Cincinnati that says these people aren't acceptable in our community," said Bruins, speaking of Article 12 -- more commonly known as Issue 3 -- the law that prohibits the city from enacting or enforcing any measure that gives 'minority or preferential status' to homosexuals, in effect preventing gays from seeking protection against discrimination.
"If City Council wanted to send a message that this kind of crime is not acceptable and that we are paying attention to this issue, they could put the repeal of Article 12 on the ballot. That would tell people in our community that it is inappropriate to commit hate crimes against any citizen in our community."
Curtis Johnson holds a photograph of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp, who was killed Dec. 31 at Vine and Liberty streets.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
| ZOOM |
He was walking to an Over-the-Rhine bar with friends, two of whom were men dressed in women's clothes. A Cadillac pulled up near Vine and Liberty streets. Anti-gay epithets flew.
Someone in the car fired a gun, sending Mr. Beauchamp to the morgue as Cincinnati's 65th, and last, homicide victim of 2002.
The gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Streicher asking him to see that the case is thoroughly investigated. They've also contacted the city's Human Relations Commission and the FBI.
Mr. Beauchamp's friends want justice for the 21-year-old gay man.
"He just died, in the street - it's terrible,'' said Curtis Johnson, a friend who was getting ready to meet Mr. Beauchamp at the party when his friend was shot. "I just want people to know he's more than just the 65th homicide victim.
"He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person.''
Stonewall wants that, too, plus something bigger - attention to how often gay people are victimized and to what members see as a need for effective national legislation that covers actual and perceived sexual-identity hate crimes.
"This sends a threat message to the whole community of Over-the-Rhine and to the whole city,'' said Doreen Cudnik, a Stonewall board member.
"That is that if you don't conform to the expectations of wherever you live, you can be killed.
"In this environment, the gay man is the lowest of the low.''
The case is drawing attention also from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group based in Los Angeles that tracks similar incidents and promotes fair media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Michael Young, a regional media manager for the group, echoed Ms. Cudnik's concerns about the message - and the media portrayal of it - such an attack sends.
Overall crime motivated by hate rose nationally just over 17 percent from 2000 to 2001, the latest statistics compiled by the FBI. That jump is partially a result of an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies supplying hate crime data to the FBI.
In Ohio, there were 477 hate crimes reported by police in 2001 - and 22 percent of them involved assaults, according to the FBI.
While police have an idea who killed Mr. Beauchamp, they have not released the names of any suspects or made any arrests. The case is logged as a suspected hate crime.
The four people with Mr. Beauchamp the night he was killed are traumatized and afraid for their safety, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Cudnik said. She hopes Stonewall can act as a liaison between the witnesses and police to help draw out more information for detectives to use.
For Mr. Johnson, 24, the focus is more personal. He and Mr. Beauchamp met about five years ago at The Warehouse in Over-the-Rhine, where they would dance from 10 p.m. to nearly dawn. Mr. Beauchamp's favorite singer was Erykah Badu.More recently, they talked about their common interest - fashion design. Mr. Johnson is studying fashion design at Cincinnati State and Mr. Beauchamp hoped to move to California to study it there.
"This one time, he took these pants and bleached the pockets and the cuffs,'' he said. "Then he took safety pins and put them all the way up the leg. It looked like something the MTV generation would wear.
"I just knew one day he'd call me and say he was dressing Halle Berry or something.''
Mr. Beauchamp, who lived in English Woods, had recently gotten his certificate to move into Section 8 housing, Mr. Johnson said. He planned to move to Northern Kentucky.
"He wanted a better life,'' Mr. Johnson said. "Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough. It's just not cutting it.''
Stonewall members are pleased, Ms. Cudnik said, with the cooperation they're getting from police. She has spoken with one of the detectives working on the case, Keith Witherell, and hopes to meet with him and another investigator this week to talk about what the group can do to help.
"It's about life having value,'' Ms. Cudnik said, "and every life having value.''
∼The last thing Gregory Beauchamp did was get ready for a New Year's Eve party.
Curtis Johnson holds a photograph of his friend, Gregory Beauchamp, who was killed Dec. 31 at Vine and Liberty streets.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
| ZOOM |
He was walking to an Over-the-Rhine bar with friends, two of whom were men dressed in women's clothes. A Cadillac pulled up near Vine and Liberty streets. Anti-gay epithets flew.
Someone in the car fired a gun, sending Mr. Beauchamp to the morgue as Cincinnati's 65th, and last, homicide victim of 2002.
The gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Streicher asking him to see that the case is thoroughly investigated. They've also contacted the city's Human Relations Commission and the FBI.
Mr. Beauchamp's friends want justice for the 21-year-old gay man.
"He just died, in the street - it's terrible,'' said Curtis Johnson, a friend who was getting ready to meet Mr. Beauchamp at the party when his friend was shot. "I just want people to know he's more than just the 65th homicide victim.
"He loved clothes, music, he could sew. He was just a good person.''
Stonewall wants that, too, plus something bigger - attention to how often gay people are victimized and to what members see as a need for effective national legislation that covers actual and perceived sexual-identity hate crimes.
"This sends a threat message to the whole community of Over-the-Rhine and to the whole city,'' said Doreen Cudnik, a Stonewall board member.
"That is that if you don't conform to the expectations of wherever you live, you can be killed.
"In this environment, the gay man is the lowest of the low.''
The case is drawing attention also from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national group based in Los Angeles that tracks similar incidents and promotes fair media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Michael Young, a regional media manager for the group, echoed Ms. Cudnik's concerns about the message - and the media portrayal of it - such an attack sends.
Overall crime motivated by hate rose nationally just over 17 percent from 2000 to 2001, the latest statistics compiled by the FBI. That jump is partially a result of an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies supplying hate crime data to the FBI.
In Ohio, there were 477 hate crimes reported by police in 2001 - and 22 percent of them involved assaults, according to the FBI.
While police have an idea who killed Mr. Beauchamp, they have not released the names of any suspects or made any arrests. The case is logged as a suspected hate crime.
The four people with Mr. Beauchamp the night he was killed are traumatized and afraid for their safety, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Cudnik said. She hopes Stonewall can act as a liaison between the witnesses and police to help draw out more information for detectives to use.
For Mr. Johnson, 24, the focus is more personal. He and Mr. Beauchamp met about five years ago at The Warehouse in Over-the-Rhine, where they would dance from 10 p.m. to nearly dawn. Mr. Beauchamp's favorite singer was Erykah Badu.More recently, they talked about their common interest - fashion design. Mr. Johnson is studying fashion design at Cincinnati State and Mr. Beauchamp hoped to move to California to study it there.
"This one time, he took these pants and bleached the pockets and the cuffs,'' he said. "Then he took safety pins and put them all the way up the leg. It looked like something the MTV generation would wear.
"I just knew one day he'd call me and say he was dressing Halle Berry or something.''
Mr. Beauchamp, who lived in English Woods, had recently gotten his certificate to move into Section 8 housing, Mr. Johnson said. He planned to move to Northern Kentucky.
"He wanted a better life,'' Mr. Johnson said. "Being black and gay in Cincinnati is tough. It's just not cutting it.''
Stonewall members are pleased, Ms. Cudnik said, with the cooperation they're getting from police. She has spoken with one of the detectives working on the case, Keith Witherell, and hopes to meet with him and another investigator this week to talk about what the group can do to help.
Cincinnati--The Queen City is riding high on a wave of successes that seems like it will never crest and wane.
In 2003, the city passed a hate crime ordinance that included sexual orientation, a reaction to the New Year's Eve 2002 murder of Gregory Beauchamp, a young gay man. That ordinance withstood legal challenges from anti-gay forces who argued that it contravened Article 12, the city charter amendment barring the city from passing civil rights protections for lesbians and gay men.
The following year, voters in the city, after an intensive campaign of voter identification and education by Citizens to Restore Fairness, struck Article 12 from the charter, sending the message that Cincinnati is an open, welcoming, caring city.
This past March, city council passed an ordinance adding LGBT people to the city's equal rights code, making it the second city in Ohio to protect transgendered people.
Now, Pride Alive 2006 has a message for the world: There is No Stopping Us Now!
Pride is two days of fantastic music, spoken word, drag and other performances, surrounded by a city full of events commemorating the occasion.
The official events start with the Cincinnati Youth Group Pancake Breakfast at 9 am on Saturday June 10. The CYG presents the breakfast at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church every year, and it's a great start to the weekend.
Once everyone's bellies are full, it's time to head off to the Pride Alive festival in Hoffner Park, 4111 Hamilton Avenue at Blue Rock St. in Northside.
The first day of the festival runs from 4 pm to 10 pm. Music will be provided by DJ Flex and BJ's DJ Service, and there will be hundreds of people performing.
Saturday's show includes performances by two mainstays, the Cincinnati Men's Chorus and the Queen City Rainbow Band.
They will be joined by the soulful sounds of the Beau Alquizola Band, Pamela Means' kamikaze guitar riffs and take-no-prisoners lyrics, Alix Olson's nationally renowned spoken word, Columbus' Katie Reider Band and Tim'm West, homohop rapper from the Deep Dickollective.
Sile Singleton's drag king character Lustivious de la Virgion will keep the crowd in stitches, as will the Drag Extravaganza featuring the Cincinnati Drag King Society, Ladies of Illusion and FuckHers.
The following day, June 11, is the Pride Alive Pep Rally and Parade, which lets out into the second day of the festival.
The Pep Rally and line-up for the parade are at 11 am in Burnet Woods, north of the University of Cincinnati in the Clifton neighborhood. The parade steps off at 1 pm and makes its way on Ludlow Ave. back to Hoffner Park, where the second day of the festival will have already started.
Performances start at 2 pm on Sunday, although the festival itself opens at 1 pm. Sile Singleton's Luster will perform with the Columbus Stompers, and dance music studpuppy Jason Walker will have the crowd going wild.
Cincy native Tracy Walker returns to Pride, cementing her claim as a hometown favorite, and soulful folk-rockers Lazy Sunday will play selections from their album Empty Song Space.
Also performing will be Nedra Johnson, R&B singer-songwriter from New York, and Karter Louis, dubbed the "Trip Hop Faggot," from Louisville, Kentucky.
DJ Flex and BJ's DJ Service will return for the second day of the festival as well, keeping everyone dancing.
There is no stopping the music, and there certainly is no stopping Pride Alive!
- A grand jury indicted a man Thursday on charges related to the fatal New Year's Eve shooting of a cross-dresser more than six years ago.
Jerry Jones
Jerry Jones was indicted on two counts of murder and two counts of having a weapon under a disability in the slaying of 21-year-old Gregory Beauchamp.
Police said Beachamp and some other men were dressed in women's clothing on their way to a party Dec. 31, 2002 at an Over-The-Rhine bar, when some other men drove past in a dark blue Cadillac.
The occupants yelled anti-gay slurs and Beauchamp and his friends, police said, and one person fired a gun from the car.
Gregory Beauchamp
Beauchamp was pronounced dead at the scene on West Liberty Street, and was the city's 65th and final homicide victim of the year.
Jones has not yet been arrested, authorities said.
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