More Top Picks Best Air Purifiers For Offices
player ready...Gay and lesbian leaders in Chicago, stunned at the thought that Jeffrey L. Dahmer appears to have visited gay bars to find victims, are warning members of their community to be more vigilant.
At the same time, they are fearful that many heterosexual people will mistakenly assume that Dahmer`s alleged crimes stem simply from his being gay. ”What I am afraid of is that people may start to say this is a gay thing, and it isn`t a gay thing,” said Joanne Trapani, co-chairwoman of the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force. ”Richard Speck was not labeled a heterosexual mass murderer, and I am frightened that this will be labeled a gay crime when it is not.”
One of Dahmer`s alleged victims, Jeremiah Weinberger, left Carol`s Speakeasy, a gay bar at 1355 N. Wells St., with Dahmer. Another, Oliver Lacy, had in his pocket a business card from Man`s Country, a gay bathhouse at 5015 N. Clark St. Dahmer was a registered member of the bathhouse.
Although Dahmer has admitted having sex with at least one of his victims after killing him, investigators working on the case say the profile of Dahmer they are developing suggests that he hated gays and blacks, and sought them out as victims.
A street minister in Milwaukee who befriended Dahmer about a month ago said he, too, noticed a bias against homosexuals and blacks.
”He hated the gay community with a passion,” John Paul Ranieri said.
The easy way that Dahmer may have recruited victims among gays-allegedly offering them money to pose nude-shows that they must be more careful about whom they trust, Trapani said.
”We as parents caution our children not to go with strangers, but we get older and don`t take our own best advice,” she said. ”We need to learn how to identify the danger signals.”
Jan Crosby, an anti-violence specialist at Horizons Community Services, a gay counseling agency, said several gay bar owners have asked the agency to conduct support sessions for employees who think they may have seen Dahmer and not picked up on the threat he posed.
”Some of them felt that there was something that they could have done. We are helping people deal with those feelings. If anybody has any feelings of self-blame, we are willing to assist them by speaking to them,” Crosby said.