Last week, Bill O'Reilly decided to address the problem of lesbian gangs. You probably never heard of this epidemic, but apparently they are a big problem. Hell, they must be because Bill O'Reilly said so, even calling them "roving". Or maybe, just maybe Bill O'Reilly is full of crap again. He has on his website a link to the story about the Lesbian 7. They are the women who were accosted by filmaker named Dwayne Buckle after he rebuffed his advances, defended themselves and now are sitting in jail for six months to 11 years in prison for doing so. We have been especially pissed off about this because these women are from Newark, and that was where 15-year-old lesbian Sakia Gunn was murdered after rejecting someone who approached her at a bus station
LESBIAN 7: THE ANGER GROWS
Written by One People's Project
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Last week, Bill O'Reilly decided to address the problem of lesbian gangs. You probably never heard of this epidemic, but apparently they are a big problem. Hell, they must be because Bill O'Reilly said so, even calling them "roving". Or maybe, just maybe Bill O'Reilly is full of crap again. He has on his website a link to the story about the Lesbian 7. They are the women who were accosted by filmaker named Dwayne Buckle after he rebuffed his advances, defended themselves and now are sitting in jail for six months to 11 years in prison for doing so. We have been especially pissed off about this because these women are from Newark, and that was where 15-year-old lesbian Sakia Gunn was murdered after rejecting someone who approached her at a bus station. Some of the Lesbian 7 knew Sakia, so these women are now being told by a system that there is no recourse against these predators when they approach. Well, finally there are people stepping up to support them. One group called FIERCE is acting in solidarity with the women, and a local filmmaker making a documentary. Bottom line: the women didn't deserve this, and they need to be cleared of this. Buckle meanwhile wants to do a documentary on how straight men are the victims of hate crimes. We assure him, he will find very little material - or support.
By Steph, One People's Project
A few months back, OPP reported on the Lesbian 7 (link here), seven young lesbians from Newark who were harassed by a man in the West Village and ended up in a fight with him. Last month, three of the women entered into plea agreements and received six-months in prison. On Friday, June 15, the remaining four received sentences ranging from 3 ½ to 11 years in prison. That's right, not only has the criminal "justice" system failed to condemn the attacker, it has actually criminalized the women themselves.
The treatment these women have received has been despicable and shows how little protection youth, women, people of color, and queers really have. The criminals here aren't these seven young women. The criminals are Dwayne Buckle, Judge McLaughlin, and the media.
DWAYNE BUCKLE
The first culprit is, obviously, Dwayne Buckle, the 28-year-old man who harassed the girls to begin with. The night of the incident, Buckle spat at the women, threw a lit cigarette at them, pulled one of the women towards him, and told the women that having sex with them would turn them straight.
Now, sometimes, when people act like complete assholes and get what they deserve, they admit that they were assholes and back off. Other people decide to simply forget the incident and move on. Buckle, on the other hand, is not only denying that he did anything wrong, but is actually using the event to bolster his career and get his name in the news. Immediately following the night of August 18, Buckle gave interviews to several newspapers in which he said he was "the victim of a hate crime against a straight man." Several newspapers ran articles in which Buckle painted himself as a gentleman who was wronged by a vicious pack of man-hating lesbians. After getting his time in the spotlight, Buckle decided it wasn't enough to stop there. Nope, now he's trying to really cash in: the man is making a movie about the oppression of straight men! Oh my.
There are folks who make mistakes and try to change, and there are opportunistic lowlifes like Buckle. He, and his career, must be stopped.
JUDGE McLAUGHLIN
The judge presiding over the trial was Justice Edward J. McLaughlin of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan. McLaughlin gave arbitrary sentences to the women, not based on facts but rather on his perception on what kind of people they were and how sorry they were for what happened. He even said that he only gave Terrain Dandridge 3 ½ years in prison because she was the only one who "took responsibility" for what happened.
MEDIA
With headlines like "Lesbian Gang-Stab Shocker," the media misrepresented the situation from the beginning. In the initial news coverage last August, most of the articles focused on the condition Buckle was in and relayed the story from Buckle's point of view.
Two more waves of news coverage followed. One was in April after four of the women were convicted, and the other is the current wave of news surrounding the women's convictions. These two recent waves of media coverage were riddled with inaccuracies of even the most basic facts, showing how little thought and research, if any, the writers put into the story.
The most obvious inaccuracy was the number of women involved! Most journalists, having heard that four women were convicted, assumed that it was only four women involved in the initial attack. Some basic investigation would have revealed to these journalists that there were seven women involved, three of whom pleaded out, but since no one bothered looking into this painfully basic fact, the story began circulating as four women having been harassed, thus confusing people who had been following the story from the beginning.
Other inaccuracies included what the heck actually happened that night. In the initial wave of news coverage, the media at least agreed when they said that the women claimed Buckle spat at them and threw a lit cigarette at them. This time around, each story reported something different about Buckle's actions. Most stories neglected to mention the women's side of the story: that Buckle tried pulling one of the women towards him, that he told them he could make them straight, and that he tried strangling one of them. Only WBAI mentioned the attempted strangling.
NEXT STEPS
The women's lawyers are appealing the case. In the meantime, the NYC queer community group FIERCE is stepping up to act in solidarity with the women. FIERCE is asking for support in the following ways:
* pro-bono legal work to aid in the appeals process
* media contacts and writers to spread the story
* pen pals to write to the women in prison
* money to help with legal fees as well as expenses in prison
The Lesbian 7 will be the topic at FIERCE's next meeting:
Tuesday, July 10th at 6:30pm
147 West 24th Street, 6th Floor
(between 6th & 7th Ave. - 1/F/C/E to 23rd Street)
FIERCE's Website
Support Flyer
In addition, a local filmmaker named Wade Rosenthal has decided to make a short documentary about the women. To help out in any way, e-mail Wade at piratequr@fmguy.com.This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Steph is the editor of Suburban Blight Zine
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