Trans Activist: Boston Police Abusive at Protest

[Shana A]

Posted on Advocate.com April 16, 2012 03:13:24 PM ET

Trans Activist: Boston Police Abusive at Protest
An activist with Occupy Boston's LGBT group says she and others were treated roughly at a Tea Party rally, where they were protesting antigay speakers.
By Trudy Ring

http://www.advocate.com/Society/Activism/Trans_Activist_Boston_Police_Abusive_at_Protest/

A transgender activist says she was abused by a Tea Party member and a police officer while protesting a Tea Party rally in Boston Sunday and that fellow protesters were received rough treatment as well.

The Tea Party's Patriots' Day rally on Boston Common featured antigay speakers such as minister Scott Lively, MassResistance director Brian Camenker, and former Boston Herald columnist Don Feder, along with some focusing on economic and other issues. At least five groups demonstrated in opposition to the Tea Party message, including Occupy Boston's Queer/Trans Direct Action Working Group, the website Back2Stonewall reports.

[Annah]

I always like to get both sides of the story before forming an opinion. I've heard from others that the LGBT protestors were pretty rude (the LGBT ones...not the anti LGBT ones). One woman even held up a sign of a pink triangle and it read  "this symbol is a "fu**ing nazi symbol." She was pro LGBT and supporting the LGBT but she had no idea the pink triangle was another symbol representing gay rights. She didn't realize the history behind the triangle...when it was originally conceived it was made by the Nazi Party to show who was gay in the concentration camps. The triangle was upside down. This woman painted the triangle right side up and then bashed the symbol. She had utterly no idea that the gay movement reclaimed the triangle and inverted it to show victory.

Nevertheless, there is no excuse for the cop to put his hand around her neck.

[gennee]

Keep in mind that there are provocateurs infiltrating these groups. I noticed this in the occupy movements. It's nothing new because it has happened through history. Keep in mind that the police have been militarized. Prtestets can be arrested in some state just by having a sign in front of congresman or other public official.  Would like to know more facts myself.

[MrTesto]

MassResistance has been named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have particularly targeted trans people in MA and other states in New England. It's hard to tell from the pics, but the person being grabbed looks like a 'known' community member.

Rude signs (imo) don't work very well, though, especially in protests where the theocrats believe they are being persecuted "for the Kingdom," to quote the Sermon on the Mount. But locally-ish, I haven't heard anything off-base about the coverage of the choke-grab, even from mainstream media. The sequence of those events is undisputed.