A 30-year-old Wrigleyville gay man was attacked while purchasing food at the Checkers fast-food restaurant across from the Town Hall District Police Station Friday, Aug. 27.
No suspects have been arrested.
Checkers employees did not intervene in the attack, which happened just after 11:30 p.m. in the small enclosed space where customers get pick-up items. The victim, Steve Schering, said he asked the employees to call police, but they did not. Even after Schering crossed the street and told a police officer about the incident, that officer said Schering had to go inside to report the crime. By then, the attackers had fled the scene.
Schering went to Illinois Masonic Hospital and received nine stitches where he was cut.
That Checkers, on the corner of Halsted and Addison in the heart of the gay community, has a history of problems on gay issues, with employees in the past accused of anti-gay behavior. A forum was even held a couple of years ago to address company insensitivity to gays.
The incident started when Schering entered the Checkers to place an order Friday night. He told Outlines that a transgendered, a cross-dresser and an apparently "straight" man began harassing him and tried to take his wallet. Schering said it was clear all three customers in the establishment knew one another. After a brief altercation, Schering retrieved his wallet. He turned around and the transgendered individual pushed himâ€'and ScheringÂ's pop went flying all over the attacker, who was then more upset. Schering said he asked the employee to call the police, but the employee did not respond. Next, a pop was thrown in ScheringÂ's face and his forehead was deeply cut with a razor. Schering then ran across the street, where an officer told him to go inside.
Schering described the first attacker as white, "transgendered" with breast implants, 5Â' 11", 160 pounds, around age 30, with short blond hair. The second attacker he said was a Black cross-dresser, dark black hair, 5Â' 10", 155 pounds, mid-20s. The third attacker is between 25-30, a heavy-set Black male, with very short hair, 5Â' 9", 170 pounds.
Activist organizations are continuing to respond to attacks. On the first anniversary of the murder of Matthew Shepard, Chicago Anti-Bashing Network will host a march and rally. The event will be Friday, Oct. 8, Halsted and Roscoe. Call ( 773 ) 878-4781.
Transgendered activist Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, upset after the recent murder and attempted murder of two transgendered young women on the South Side, has formed an emergency fund for trans victims. The fund is dedicated to recent slaying victim Barretta Williams, and two others killed, Quona Clark and Christine Paige. One of the South Side shooting victims did survive, and is in hiding, fearing for her life because the three suspects have not been arrested.
Send donations to Transgenesis Memorial Emergency Fund, c/o Baskerville, Suite 2609, 3550 N. lake Shore Dr., Chicago, 60657.