Union Square Vigil Commemorates Fatal Attack on Texas Lesbians

 

The crowd in Union Square the evening of July 1. | DONNA ACETO

As many as 100 demonstrators answered a call from the grassroots group Queer Rising for a vigil to commemorate a June 22 shooting attack on two Texas lesbian teenagers that left one of them dead and the other recovering from a head wound. Mollie Olgin, 19, and her girlfriend Mary Kristene Chapa, 18, were attacked by an unknown male assailant who looked to be in his 20s in Violet Andrews Park in Portland. Olgin was pronounced dead at the scene, and Chapa only regained consciousness after several days of hospitalization. Portland police authorities are saying they have found no evidence the attack was motivated by anti-lesbian bias. Cleve Jones, a San Francisco gay activist, called on the LGBT community nationwide to respond to the Texas attack. The Queer Rising vigil was held late in the evening on July 1 in Union Square Park.