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Thursday 24 March 2005
The City Paper of Philly cites NEPA case of gay domestic violence
NEPA's Rainbow Alliance board member Stacy Hawkins was interviewed for this story that was the cover story for the Philadelphia City Paper. Michael Pierson, the late activist from Northeastern Pennsylvania, is mentioned, along with the organization founded in his memory.
The City Paper (Philadelphia) - Uncivil Unions
"It defies all the stereotypes"
What does same-sex abuse look like? It's a question primarily for law enforcement, expected to recognize what's happening on arrival at a domestic dispute. And without the traditional assumption that the man present is the aggressor, things get confused.
Mike Pierson was a star. A passionate outreach activist in Wilkes-Barre, he would tirelessly duck into bars to talk to men about HIV infection rates. Two years after his death, his friends in Luzerne County still talk affectionately about the impact of his work. Stacy Hawkins, a former chair of the Pennsylvania Lesbian Caucus, knew Pierson socially, in Northeastern Pennsylvania's gay scene, which she says "isn't what you'd call happening."
In January 2003, police responded to a call from Kenneth Stephens Jr., Pierson's partner. They found Stephens with a minor stab wound, which he claimed to have suffered in a domestic dispute. The night of the incident, he and Pierson had been driving home during a heavy blizzard. There had been a tussle, he said; he had been stabbed and Pierson had run off. Stephens was young 21 to Pierson's 40 and slightly built. Police followed his advice to search for Pierson outside Pennsylvania.
However, Hawkins remembers that "Mike's friends knew something was just wrong." They called on the police to search the area of road where the altercation had occurred, at the edge of Glenmaura National Golf Course in Moosic. But the snowdrifts were thick and, as Hawkins puts it, police "believed they already had the victim." It wasn't until the snow melted two months later that Pierson's body, bearing a fatal stab wound, was discovered near the 16th hole.
"It defies all the stereotypes, you know?" Hawkins says. Police "are used to assuming that the stronger partner has the power, and that's not always the case. Even in lesbian couples, the idea of butch partners as stronger than femme isn't true."
In Pierson's case, the judgment call made by the police, based on a traditional reading of the situation, didn't fit.
Photo of Michael Pierson at the 2001 AIDS Walk in Wilkes-Barre:
Watermelon Punch - Photo Album - 23 Sep 2001 - Mike Pierson at AIDS Walk picnic in Wilkes-Barre
Photo of Michael Pierson's 'place setting' at a Domestic Violence Awareness Vigil:
Watermelon Punch - Photo Album - 16 Oct 2003 - Mike Pierson's 'Empty Place at the Table' @ Domestic Violence Awareness Vigil
Photo of Stacy Hawkins speaking at a Domestic Violence Awareness Vigil:
Watermelon Punch - Photo Album - 16 Oct 2003 - Stacy Hawkins speaks @ Domestic Violence Awareness Vigil
posted by Chloe | Thursday 24 March 2005 5:24 PM
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