11th Matthew Shepard March for LGBT Freedom, Chicago 2009

From www.GayLiberation.Net :

The annual Shepard March memorializes the 1998 lynching of the gay Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who came to symbolize the vicious hatred and violence that many Americans still harbor against LGBT people.

Each year since our founding that same year, the Gay Liberation Network has sought to use the march to highlight not only anti-LGBT violence, but the hatred and violations of civil rights which fuel it. Each year we choose a contemporary theme which illustrates this. Our theme this year is demanding that the justice system in Chicago adequately deal with police officers who violate the civil rights of LGBT people.

In particular, we are demanding that the City take action against Officer Richard Fiorito -- the subject of 20 federal lawsuits charging him with framing, and sometimes beating LGBT motorists in the heart of the Boystwon entertainment district. We demand that the police department put him on desk duty until the internal and external charges against him are adjudicated. Furthermore, given the extensive evidence showing probable cause of criminal wrongdoing, we demand that the Cook County States Attorneys Office press criminal charges such as Obstruction of Justice and Aggravated Battery

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Matthew Shepard
• Chicago
• Gay
• GLBT
• LGBT
• civil rights
• homosexual
• Richard Fiorito
• GLN