For hate-crime victim Richard De Teso, one of the most frustrating things about being the target of anti-gay harassment is that he is sure he knows who his attacker is, and there doesn't seem to be anything he can do about it.
De Teso said he usually tolerates the drug activity and violence that go on in his Uptown building, but he eventually hit his limit several weeks back. He anonymously notified the authorities about one of his neighbors, a woman he said he used to have a friendly acquaintance with. Officials visited his building, but he believes nothing happened with his complaint.
Shortly afterward, he said, his neighbor lured him out of the building with an errand. When they returned, he went downstairs to do laundry in the washing machine and dryer that he and his partner privately own. Every tenant has access to the basement, but only he and his partner use the machines.
As he descended the stairs, he smelled something that he assumed was bug spray. The smell got stronger the longer he walked, and he was confused about it until he reached his washer and dryer. Inside, he found black enamel paint that coated the sides of each machine. It took he and his partner six and a half hours, 10 rolls of paper towels and four and a half gallons of paint thinner to clean their machines, which he said have since recovered from the incident.
"We took the washer and dryer apart," he said. "We were so lucky she didn't turn the washer on."
De Teso filed a report with the police, but no one was arrested. It was two weeks before his harasser struck again. De Teso and his partner participated in a community yard sale, and used an old dining room table from the basement to display their goods. He said his neighbor walked by as he was setting up and said, "You'll think twice before ( calling authorities ) on me again, won't you?" De Teso, caught off guard, said nothing and returned to what he was doing. Later that afternoon, he cleared the table and took it back to the basement. Sometime between then and the next day, someone wrote anti-gay graffiti all over it.
The words "queen wannabe," "fag," and "queer," appeared, as did the phrase, "AIDS kills when you don't tell the other receiver."
De Teso said the incidents are the first trouble he's had in the building in five years. "Just because I'm gay, just because I'm HIV positive ... this gives no one a right to destroy my property and deface me," he said.
When he reported the incident to his landlord, he said the man responded by saying, "Ya'll just need to mind your own business."
Without witnesses or proof, there is little that De Teso can do. He said he views the attacks as just one more thing he has to deal with. "If it's not one thing it's another," he said. He reported the harassment to his alderman, who referred him to the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network. CABN is assisting De teso and his partner.