Mark Carson was 32 Thousands of people have marched in Manhattan to protest the killing of a gay man who was taunted before being shot in the face in Greenwich Village. "You want to die tonight?" the alleged gunman reportedly said after repeatedly calling Mark Carson, 32, and a male companion "faggots" while they were walking down the street, before fatally shooting Carson in the face. A man has been charged with murder as a hate crime. The Village is regarded as a gay-friendly area, and the shooting happened not far from the Stonewall Hotel, where a 1969 raid has come to symbolise the gay rights movement. Police have promised to increase their presence through till the end of June, which is Pride month. They report attacks on GLBT people rose 13 per cent in 2011 and 11 per cent in 2010, while the figures for last year are not yet available. The Huffington Post quotes authorities as saying the shooting came after other attacks fuelled by anti-gay animus in recent weeks. “Those include a report last month of a man making anti-gay remarks and attacking a woman with a ketchup bottle at a Village diner; a man told police he and a friend were victims of a gay bashing outside a subway station in Midtown Manhattan this month; and two men walking arm-in-arm near Madison Square Garden report being jumped by a group of men on May 5, police said.” In a march to the shooting scene, gay City Council Speaker Christine Quinn told media: “I don't know why it feels like we have taken a step backward, but that is the case, and what we're going to do with that is push forward.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 21st May 2013 - 11:53am