NYC-WTC_000230648

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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§ Don’t Let Jackson Heights Gay Murder Be Forgotten Seven days before thousands ofNew Yorkers A Colombia native, Garzon settled in centers — in Corona and Woodside — and an perished at the hands of suicide hijackers, Queens’ largest gay community in Jackson openly gay candidate for City Council, Jimmy O EdgarGarzonmetanequallysenselessfate.He Heights. Some residents believe that thebor- Van Bramer, finishing second in the multi-can­ died from wounds sustained in a bias attach in ough, no matter how tolerant of its wide diver- didate District 25 race. . ® Jackson Heights. He had been beaten into a sity, is more susceptible to this kind of bias at- For now, there’s a $15,000 reward for infor- coma with a baseball bat or lead pipe three tack than a lot of people might assume. mation leading to Garzon’s killers, including weeksearlier—because he was gay. ' Znfact.anotherbiaskilJinghorrifiedthegay $10,000 from thecity. Community leaders also Thepolice, who are actively pursuing leads community 11 years before, when Julio Rivera hope to reschedule a town-hall meeting with i in the case, have not forgotten about Garzon, was beaten to death a block away from where police ofScials that was originally planned for c Let’s hope no one else has either, especially Garzon was attacked in mid-August. That Sept. 12, a day after the World Trade Center o O H public officials whose duty is to remind resi- high-profile murder helped galvanize the com- terror attack. 1 dents that brutally attacking people because munityand heighten its social and political in- Gay residents’ fear and anxiety are just as I of their sexual orientation is outrageous and fluence, culminating this year with the open- real today. So it's up to law enforcement and g co . unacceptable.ing of the boroughlsjfrstjtwo_gay com munity. elected officials to.puLthfiitinillds^at ease. w ro co ro § o o I o

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NYC-WTC_000230648