Kevin Aviance, the flamboyant and popular singer who is one of the most recognizable dance music artists in the genre, was attacked on Saturday night in the East Village. This horrible hate crime has no place in New York City, where all of us gay or straight, black or white, American or immigrant should have the right to walk down the street without fear of violence. Let’s hope these two 20-year olds and the 16-year old learn a hard lesson about hate crimes and violence when the judge sees them on Monday morning.
Here is the article:
I’ve pasted it as well. NYTimes ususally moves articles to their paid section after a couple of days, so I’m posting here and giving the paper the proper attribution so that my readers can access an important article such as this one for free. Although, I’m sure the Village Voice’s Michael Musto will weigh in shortly and that paper is always free.
3 Arrested in Attack on Singer on East Side
By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: June 11, 2006
A Manhattan singer was taunted and beaten early yesterday by a group of young men who shouted anti-gay slurs and then broke his jaw as he walked in the East Village, the police and the singer’s publicist said. During the attack, the singer said, no bystanders came to his aid.
The singer, Kevin Aviance, 38, who has recorded a number of popular dance songs, underwent surgery for a broken jaw at Beth Israel Medical Center last night, said his publicist, Len Evans, who said he talked with Mr. Aviance after the beating.
Two 20-year-old men and a 16-year-old boy were arrested in connection with the beating last night. The men, Akino George of Townsend Avenue in the Bronx and Sears Jarell of Newark, and the 16-year-old, who lives within blocks of where the police said the attack took place, were charged with first degree assault as a hate crime, the police said.
According to Mr. Aviance, Mr. Evans said, he was heading to his Chelsea home about 1 a.m. yesterday after leaving Phoenix, a bar on East 13th Street, where he had been relaxing with friends. As he walked on East 14th Street near First Avenue, Mr. Evans said, Mr. Aviance was approached by six or seven young men who shouted anti-gay slurs and threw objects at him, including a spray can that one of them had fished out of a trash bin.
One of the young men punched Mr. Aviance, and the others attacked him.
“They dragged him to the curb,” said Mr. Evans, adding that Mr. Aviance said that the men threatened to kill him. “There were pedestrians everywhere. No one helped him.”
The young men stole Mr. Aviance’s cellphone, Mr. Evans said. After the singer passed out, some bystanders apparently came to help him, Mr. Evans said.
Mr. Aviance performs in drag but was “dressed like a boy,” before the attack, according to Mr. Evans. “They kept using these words. They said, ‘You’re not diesel.’ He didn’t know what that meant.”
Mr. Evans said that the singer had planned to take part in next week’s annual Gay Pride parade and festivities. “He won’t be able to perform now that his jaw is wired shut,” Mr. Evans said.
“Din Da Da,” Mr. Aviance’s infectious remake of a 1980’s song, reached the top of the Billboard dance chart in August 1997, and another song, “Alive,” was No. 1 on the chart in 2002.
