 |
 Military-Issue Grenade Thrown at Marchers/Spectators Small Children & Babies in Strollers Suffer in Attack |
|
By Rex Wockner
Family Matters is a social and educational group for gay and lesbian parents and their families and for gays and lesbians who are considering parenthood. The 70-person contingent included small children and babies in strollers. "I was introducing the contingents and then all of a sudden I see these hundreds of people screaming and running past the reviewing stand," said emcee Nicole Murray Ramirez. "It was like a Godzilla-is-coming stampede from the movies.
Hundreds of the more than 100,000 spectators along University Avenue were affected. "We just saw this cloud of smoke coming," said Guido Gaietta. "I thought it was a car fire or something. Then I saw the crowd screaming and running toward me. People were screaming, 'Run, run, run' and 'Get away, get away, get away.' So, obviously, I started running because all these people are running toward me. "And then all of a sudden there were tears in my eyes, and it got in my throat. It was pretty nasty. We ran for a couple a blocks to escape it and our faces were all red. Some people were vomiting in the street." Spectator Peter Rauber was also gassed. "We had to walk about two blocks south of University Avenue to be outside of the area," Rauber said. "There were hundreds of people walking down there and then washing their faces with garden hoses. "We were lucky, we were a block away from where it happened, but we were downwind. But a lot of people got hit pretty bad. Their eyes were hurting and their faces were red. "There was one good thing," Rauber added. "The cheering afterwards was about three times as enthusiastic. But it left me with a bit of a feeling of fear because you just never know when somebody might do something like this." The parade resumed after about 20 minutes. Pride Media Coordinator Frank Sabatini, told [name of this newspaper], "The fight for civil rights always carries a price tag and this reflects the type of price tag our community has to bear."
"But our community didn't run away in fear. We came back and were able to continue the parade and celebrate and be a strong, united front. It was a horrible and unfortunate moment and yet it was beautifully gratifying to see that we could all stand together." In a press statement, the executive director of the national Family Pride Coalition, C. Ray Drew, who was marching with the Family Matters contingent, said: "This was, quite simply, a terrorist act. I can't imagine how disturbed and psychotic someone must be to express their hate by deliberately harming small children and babies. "Every day, we hear the radical right call us pedophiles and a threat to children. Mentally disturbed people feed off the hate- filled rhetoric of the radical right. It emboldens the violent, disturbed person with a sense of legitimacy. "We as a nation must recognize the profound harm to children and families caused by the radical right and hold them accountable for their hate." Within 24 hours of the attack, Murray Ramirez, one of San Diego's leading gay activists, had raised $12,000 in reward money for the arrest and conviction of the person who threw the grenade. "Someone either saw the guy throw it or the guy went back to wherever he's from and is bragging about it," Murray Ramirez said. "The reward money is going to grow." At press time, a police spokesman said no suspects had been identified. Copyright (c) 1999 Rex Wockner. |
