Bienestar - GAY LATINO BEATEN IN SAN BERNARDINO

Mario Guerrero
323-727-7896 ext 115
mguerrero@bienestar.org
www.bienestar.org


GAY LATINO BEATEN IN SAN BERNARDINO
ASSAULT YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF RAMPANT HOMOPHOBIA

SAN BERNARDINO, California - (September 28, 2005) -On Monday September 19, a
man who openly identifies himself as a gay Latino was beaten in San
Bernardino. The man alleges that he was beaten by ten men with a hockey
stick, a dumbbell, and a brick. The attack is said to have left the man with
a 4-inch gash on his head. Fortunately, he lived through the attack.

The San Bernardino LGBT community including Bienestar Human Services will
participate in a candlelight vigil to show the community's outrage for the
lack of action from local police department to take the hate crime seriously.
The protest is scheduled for Friday, September 30th from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm
in Victorville on Amargosa Road in front of the Office Max shopping Center.

"Sadly, assaults like this still take place and unfortunately homophobia
continues to plague our community," said Ed Cueto, San Bernardino
Regional Director for Bienestar Human Services. "Bienestar is calling on
the San Bernardino Police Department to investigate this issue fully."

On August 21st Bienestar sent out a media advisory on two individuals that
were attacked while leaving a popular gay club in Silver Lake highlighting the
increase in violence against the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender
community. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs,
last year, there were 1792 hate incidents against lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) people nationwide. Seventeen-percent of these victims were
Latina/o.


Bienestar is committed to enhancing the health and well-being of the Latino
community and other underserved communities. Bienestar accomplishes this
through community education, prevention, mobilization, advocacy, and the
provision of direct social support services.