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Daniel Yakovleff was found dead in apartment. |
Tall and reed thin, Mark Snyder speaks in a soft, delicate voice and uses mannerisms he describes as effeminate.
Snyder said he always felt comfortable being himself and walking hand in hand with his boyfriend around Boston, a city he described as much more tolerant of gays and lesbians than his hometown in rural Pennsylvania.
But the stabbing death of his friend, 20-year-old Daniel Yakovleff, a gay hairstylist from Roxbury, has caused Snyder to question how safe he is.
Police say Yakovleff's Jan. 17 death is under investigation, and they have released no information about motive or suspects. But his death has sent a chill through the city's gay community.
Many gays say that in recent years they have felt more vulnerable to harassment, name calling, and assaults, particularly since the same-sex marriage amendment debate in 2004 that put a spotlight on the community and unleashed anger from gay marriage opponents.
"We don't know what caused his death," said Snyder, who is founder of QueerToday, a Boston nonprofit that combats discrimination. "I know that for me and my friends, it was a huge wake-up call that we're a small community and we're brothers and sisters and we need to look out for each other. You never know which one of us may be a victim."
The night Yakovleff was killed, he went to the Eagle bar on Tremont Street in the South End, then to a Dorchester apartment, police and friends said.
The third-floor flat belonged to Steven Odegard, who had met Yakovleff that night, and later found him dead in his apartment, said Odegard's lawyer, John Swomley.
Odegard told police he was asleep and woke to find Yakovleff dead in a back bedroom, police said.
"He is not a suspect," Swomley said
Odegard has been cooperative, and police are looking for a third person, Swomley said. "We're hoping police find the killer."
Department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said detectives have interviewed Odegard and are working "around the clock" to solve the homicide. Driscoll said police are searching for witnesses who saw Yakovleff leave the Eagle that night.
"We share his family and loved ones' desire to find the person who did this," she said.
Police and organizations that track trends in hate crimes said they have not seen a spike in crimes against gays and lesbians in recent years.
But leaders of advocacy groups that work with the gay community said they have heard more complaints of verbal harassment on the street and in school. In some cases, they say, gays have been shoved in hallways or assaulted on the street.
Constance Robinson - crisis and resource specialist at Boston GLASS, Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services - said many of the teenagers she works with said they have felt bullied at school.
"People are more comfortable yelling epithets," she said. "It's part of the daily lexicon. They hear it all the time."
The fight over same-sex marriage that has played out in the presidential race has empowered those who hold prejudices against gays and lesbians, especially when they hear conservative candidates decrying same-sex unions, advocates said.
"Increased visibility of any community, especially where there is a sense of controversy, unfortunately brings out the haters," said Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, which holds weekly support meetings for people struggling with their sexuality. Many who attend the meetings knew Yakovleff.
Their reaction to his killing "ranges from grief to fear, worrying that something like this could happen to them," Sterling Stowell said. "There is a lot of concern about their own vulnerability and the vulnerability of their friends.
"I don't want to speculate on what happened," she said. "But just stepping back from it, as we work with young people, it's a reminder" of the risks of being in the gay community.
Advocates said people may not report crimes because of a general distrust of police or fear by those hiding their homosexuality that they might be outed if they report they have been victimized.
"If people are going through that and they're being harassed, they need to report it, so we can have an idea," said Officer Javier Pagan, an openly gay patrolman who is the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender liaison to the Police Department. "We know a hate crime is a crime that is very underrerported."
Yakovleff's mother - Peggy Rux, who lives in Connecticut - said her son never felt unsafe in Boston.
"He loved the city; he was very comfortable there," she said. "He was careful at night. He wouldn't take the subway at night. . . . He tried not to go alone in a section of the city that he considered 'sketchy.'
"But I don't know what happened that night," she said.
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
