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Violence Accompanies Mayor Giuliani's
Log Cabin Speech

Protestor is Hospitalized,
Several Activists Are Arrested

Group Expresses Its Fury
Over Log Cabin--GOP Alliance

Compiled by GayToday

New York City--August 28--Five activists were arrested Saturday night in the lobby of a midtown Manhattan hotel where the conservative gay political group, the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), was holding its annual convention.

A group of gay and lesbian activists, Fed Up Queers, staged a protest in the lobby of Roosevelt Hotel while New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gave the keynote speech.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
GayToday Illustration

Log Cabin members told reporters that gay Republicans were "overwhelmingly" in support of Mayor Giuliani's expected bid for the U.S. Senate.

One protester was assaulted by hotel staff: among other injuries, she suffered a broken nose and was taken to Bellevue Hospital by ambulance. More police were reportedly on the way to the hotel at press time.

The activists said they were planning a protest press conference outside the Roosevelt Hotel. Fed Up Queers invited representatives of the Log Cabin Republicans to attend.

The demonstrators were protesting against what they called the "perversity" of the alliance between gay and lesbian Log Cabin Republicans and the Mayor, whose record on gay issues, civil liberties, AIDS and other issues has generally incensed New York's gay and lesbian community.

"Your presence in the Republican Party keeps pushing us all to be the very best we can," he said.

Giuliani, in an attempt to make his message suitable to a national audience, boasted of his success reducing New York's crime rate, taxes and welfare rolls. He claimed that this was the result of his personal political philosophy.

The Mayor told Log Cabin attendees that they were helping to undermine popular stereotypes and praised them as a bold avant garde group in national politics.

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Fed Up Queers' Delia Handwerker disputed the Mayor's commentary:

"The Log Cabin Republicans are opposed to the interests and opinions of the vast majority of gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people, who stand with all the other communities who have been attacked by this Administration and its "quality of life" campaign," she said. "This evening's violence is part of a pattern."