LGBTIQ Groups Meet With County Executive And Sheriff To Discuss Public Safety Issues At Branch Brook Park

A coalition of local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed, and questioning ("LGBTIQ") and allied organizations met Tuesday afternoon with Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura and Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVencenzo to discuss the issue of "cruising" in Essex County parks.

LGBTIQ community leaders stressed the need for a new, multi-sector strategy to deal with this issue in the wake of the tragic killing of Atlanta CEO and father of four Defarra "Dean" Gaymon in Branch Brook Park by an undercover sheriff's officer, Edward Esposito, on Friday, July 16.

Darnell L. Moore, Chair of the LGBTQ Concerns Commission of the City of Newark, said on behalf of the group: "We were extremely heartened by the spirit of cooperation and community expressed by County Executive DiVincenzo and County Sheriff Fontoura this afternoon." Moore added: "We look forward to finding more formal ways to partner with the county on this issue going forward."

Rev. Janyce L. Jackson, pastor of Newark's Liberation in Truth Unity Fellowship Church, stated: "I am feeling very hopeful because the county officials are listening and responding to our concerns. Newark and Essex County can be a place where the LGBTIQ community feels safe, and we are committed to working with the county whenever possible."

Gary Paul Wright, executive director of the African American Office of Gay Concerns, said: "The viewpoint of the people that I come in contact with is that what took place in Branch Brook Park was a crime against gay people. However, after our meeting in the County Executive's office, I believe that community members and our law enforcement bodies can work together to change this assumption."

Other LGBTIQ community leaders present at the meeting included: Aunsha Hall, of the North Jersey Community Research Initiative's Project WOW, Kyle L. Rosenkrans, of the Newark-Essex Pride Coalition, Sylvia Thomas of the Rutgers-Newark Law School's LGBTQ Caucus, as well as Kimberly Williams of FEMWORKS, Jeanne LoCicero of the ACLU of New Jersey, Steven Goldstein, Troy Stevenson, and Luanne Peterpaul of Garden State Equality.

Moore also said that the group hopes to present an update as to their discussions with the county during an upcoming community forum in Newark's North Ward, where Branch Brook Park is primarily situated. The forum will be organized by the Newark Pride Alliance and the LGBTQ Concerns Commission of the City of Newark, as one in a series of public forums on general LGBTIQ issues in each of Newark's five wards.