The people of Roanoke have bravely and righfully stood with Families
United
Against Hate, Pauline Mitchell's mother, and the family of Willie
Houston
in Nashville.
Roanoke7, the nationally known hate crime group
that sprang up last year
after the Backstreet shootings, organized a vigil
that attracted over 100
people from the local Roanoke Community. We hit
the phone lines, organized
a group to make posters, built a backdrop, used
our email lists, and in
the end, this incident made a statement that "We are
Sharrowing The Sorrow."
The local vigil was held on Friday night instead of
Saturday night due
to logistics but we felt it was important to stand with
the Mitchell and
Houston families. Given what we experienced here
ourselves after the Backstreet
incident, how could we say no to this
plea?
Other Roanoke groups that answered the call included PFLAG,
Interfaith Sexual
Minorities/ISM, Civil Rights For Gays & Lesbians of
Virginia, the Hate Free
Roanoke Task Force, GLBT People For Community &
Justice, and the National
Coalition for Community Justice. Rev.
catherine Houchins of the Roanoke
MCC Church also spoke. She and a
couple members of the church were physically
attacked near their church while
leaving a prayer service. The family of
Danny Overstreet were also in
attendance and Misty Overstreet, Danny Overstreet's
niece and a spokesperson
for Roanoke7, Inc., deliverd words of hope and
comfort to the Martinez and
Houston families.
Eddie Ratliff, Executive Director of Roanoke7, noted
that this event was
not so much about gay or political activism as it was
about passion and
comforting fellow friends in a time of
loss.
Roanoke7 on the web at
http://www.roanoke7.comRoanoke7
Tribute
http://tampabaycoalition.homestead.com/ro7.html