With the telescope nearly a year into its stint in space, the agency has released its chief historian’s investigation into the namesake of the telescope. James Webb, NASA’s second-ever administrator, worked at the US State Department during the Lavender Scare, a period in which LGBTQ federal employees were often fired or forced to resign, and the decision to name the telescope for him courted criticism from researchers.
There’s no evidence that proves Webb was directly involved in those firings in the 1950s or in the 1963 firing of gay NASA employee Clifford Norton, according to Brian Odom, the NASA historian who completed the investigation.
Webb’s name caused controversy
Officials at NASA announced in 2002 that the telescope would be named for Webb, who oversaw the Apollo moon landing program in the 1960s and helped burnish the fledgling agency’s reputation. It was considered an unusual choice at the time, since Webb was an administrator and not a scientist.
Months before the telescope was set to finally launch, though, several astronomers called on NASA to remove Webb’s name from the telescope, which has since recorded severalnever-before-seenimages of the universe.
In a 2021 piece for Scientific American, a group of astronomers wrote that Webb’s legacy “at best is complicated and at worst reflects complicity in homophobic discrimination in the federal government.”
Even scientists who work on the telescope have expressed their dissatisfaction with its name. Earlier this summer, Dr. Jane Rigby, the operations project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, tweeted that “a transformative telescope should have a name that stands for discovery and inclusion.”
Officials at NASA have refused to rename it, though, citing an investigation into Webb’s career. The results of that investigation weren’t made public until now, almost a year after the telescope launched.
The report found no evidence linking Webb to firings
In his report on his investigation into Webb, Odom acknowledged the pain caused by the Lavender Scare but said that “no available evidence directly links Webb to any actions or follow-up related to the firing of individuals for their sexual orientation.”
The findings of that investigation, Odom wrote, were based on more than 50,000 pages of historical documents from various archives, including NASA headquarters, the Truman Presidential Library and the National Archives.
Odom investigated two meetings that predated Webb’s time at NASA: In 1950, then-undersecretary Webb met with President Harry S. Truman and later two White House aides and Democratic Sen. Clyde Hoey of North Carolina to discuss the Hoey Committee, a Senate subcommittee created to investigate how many LGBTQ people worked for the federal government and whether they were “security risks.”
In his meeting with Truman, Webb discussed with the president how the committee and the White House “might ‘work together on the homosexual investigation,'” according to historian David K. Johnson, author of “The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government,” one of the many documents Odom cites in his report.
No evidence links Webb to any action that followed those discussions, Odom said.
The historian also investigated the firing of Norton, a budget analyst at the space agency. Norton sued the Civil Service Commission after his firing, and his case, Norton v. Macy, was one of several that helped overturn the executive order that allowed federal agencies to fire LGBTQ employees for their sexuality, Odom wrote.
Odom said he found no evidence to show that Webb was aware of Norton’s firing; since it was federal policy at the time to oust LGBTQ employees, Odom wrote, Norton’s departure was “highly likely — though sadly — considered unexceptional.”
No documents could prove that Webb was directly linked to firings of LGBTQ employees, Odom said.
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Barely a day after a deadly LGBTQ bar shooting killed two transgender people and three other patrons, Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker (R) released a campaign ad slamming trans athletes. Democrats are pointing to Republican anti-LGBTQ campaigns like Walker’s as the type of rhetoric that led to the murder of five people at Colorado Springs bar Club Q on Saturday night.
The video featured Riley Gaines, a self-described 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer. In March, Gaines tied for fifth place with trans swimmer Lia Thomas. Gaines has been complaining about it ever since.
In Warnock’s ad, Gaines says, “For more than a decade, I worked so hard. Four a.m. practices to be the best. But my senior year, I was forced to compete against a biological male.”
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Walker says, “That’s unfair and wrong.”
Both are peddling a right-wing narrative that trans women are a threat to women’s sports, locker rooms, and other female “safe spaces.” This narrative has been used to push trans youth sports bans across the nation, even in states where no trans athletes are competing in school sports.
Gaines continues, “A man won a swimming title that belonged to a woman, and Senator Warnock voted to let it happen.”
The on-screen text then reads: “Raphael Warnock voted to allow biological men to compete in women’s college sports.”
Walker says, “Warnock’s afraid to stand up for female athletes.” Walker will face incumbent Sen. Warnock (D) in a December 6 runoff election.
Looking into the camera, Gaines says, “Herschel Walker stands up for what’s right.”
Walker then smiles at the camera and says, “I’m Herschel Walker and I’m proud to approve this message.”
In the ad, Gaines doesn’t mention that she and Thomas were both actually beaten by cisgender female athletes, or that the number of trans athletes in collegiate sports is actually very small. She also doesn’t mention that women’s sports are actually threatened by huge funding disparities, rampant sexual abuse, and media neglect, rather than by trans people.
Walker’s ad was released just after Sunday’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual commemoration of trans people who lost their lives to violence and otherwise. This year, at least 32 trans people have died from violence – most have been Black women.
In response to Walker’s ad, Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, the state’s LGBTQ advocacy organization, wrote, “Shame on Herschel Walker — and shame on every politician using LGBTQ lives as political props.”
“There’s an undeniable nexus between this kind of baseless and hateful rhetoric and the violence leveled against our community this weekend in Colorado Springs and the violence being perpetrated against marginalized communities all across this country,” Bridges added.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive of the LGBTQ media watchdog group GLAAD, wrote, “Airing this kind of rubbish under the guise of a political campaign was already deplorable enough—but in the wake of Saturday night’s massacre at Club Q, it’s simply unconscionable.”
“These ads should be pulled immediately from Georgia’s airwaves before more lives are put in danger,” Ellis added.
In April, Gaines went onto the Fox News program of white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ bigot Tucker Carlson to talk about her discomfort with sharing a locker room with Thoma (Though she didn’t mention whether she actually saw Thomas in the locker room).
Gaines has since become a right-wing darling for continually speaking out about the issue. Her voice has joined a growing chorus of those who cast trans people as a threat to women’s and children’s safety. This chorus not only inspires legislation that harms trans people’s well-being, it also inspires violence against the greater LGBTQ community.
The anti-LGBTQ One Million Moms (OMM) is circulating a petition against the beloved British children’s show Peppa Pig after it aired an episode featuring a young polar bear child with two polar bear moms.
The petition tells families to “Beware! Peppa Pig is now boldly glorifying gay marriage.”
It states that OMM is “concerned with the normalization of a sinful lifestyle choice during a children’s show.”
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“This type of sexuality should never be included in a cartoon designed for children, much less praised. It is especially distressing since this popular children’s program is viewed in 180 countries,” the petition said.
The petition is asking Hasbro, which owns the rights to Peppa Pig, to “stick to entertaining and providing family-friendly programming instead of pushing an agenda.”
The Peppa Pig episode in question aired back in September. The show has been on for 18 years but this was its first time featuring an LGBTQ couple.
In its episode called “Families,” a character named Penny introduces her two moms.
“I live with my mummy and my other mummy. One mummy is a doctor and one mummy cooks spaghetti,” Penny says.
The episode came about in response to a petition to include a same-sex couple in the show that garnered almost 24,000 signatures.
And the episode caused international panic among conservatives. Far-right politicians in Italy denounced it, as did Russian lawmakers, one of whom called the cartoon pig a “tool of hybrid war.”
Federico Mollicone, culture spokesperson for the conservative Brothers of Italy party, declared that the nation “cannot accept gender indoctrination” and claimed that “once again the politically correct has struck, at the expense of our children.”
Senator Isabella Rauti, a member of the party, called the episode “gender propaganda” and stated that the “Brothers of Italy have long denounced the attempt at indoctrination by supporters of gender theories.”
In Russia, it was member of Parliament Alexander Khinshtein who denounced the show.
“LGBT is nowadays a tool of hybrid war, and in that hybrid war, we must protect our traditional values,” said Khinshtein during a speech. “We must protect our society and our children. Let me very quickly demonstrate what kind of propaganda is already being waged against our society.”
Now, seemingly a bit slow on the uptake, OMM is getting in on the action. The group is a division of the American Family Association, a Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group.
The group routinely campaigns against LGBTQ representation in commercials, television shows, and the media and states on its website that the goal is to “stop the exploitation of our children, especially by the entertainment media.”
In the aftermath of the tragic shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 18 injured, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said MAGA Republicans are to blame for anti-trans violence.
“Whether spouting dangerous rhetoric from cable news desks or openly bullying schoolchildren from the halls of power, MAGA Republicans are cruelly undermining the safety and well-being of our transgender community,” Pelosi said in a statement released on Sunday to mark the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
She also touted House Democrats’ work enacting “fully-inclusive federal hate crimes protections with the historic Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.”
She concluded, “Heartbroken for so many beautiful souls murdered by hate and guided by relentless activists across the country, let us renew our resolve to build the future that our children deserve. Together, we will forge a safer, more just America – one where all of its people can freely and proudly exercise their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
In a separate statement focused on the Club Q shooting, Pelosi called the attack “despicable.”
“Our hearts break at the senseless slaughter of… five beautiful souls and the many more injured or forever traumatized, at what was a sanctuary of safety and solidarity.”
Pelosi said the attack contributed to “further shattering the sense of safety of LGBTQ Americans across the country.”
“While Democrats have taken important steps to combat gun violence this Congress, this deadly attack is a challenge to our conscience and a reminder that we must keep fighting to do more.”
“Thank you to the heroic individuals who stopped the gunman and to the brave first responders at the scene. May it be a comfort to the loved ones of those murdered and the Colorado Springs community that all of America mourns with them during this devastating time.”
Pelosi is far from the only one who has been calling out the dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric the Republican party has been spreading.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also criticized the GOP’s “anti-LGBTQ campaign” from this past year in connection to the shooting.
“After Trump elevated anti-immigrant & anti-Latino rhetoric, we had the deadliest anti-Latino shooting in modern history,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Sunday. “After anti-Asian hate w/COVID, Atlanta. Tree of life. Emanuel AME. Buffalo.”
“And now after an anti-LGBT+ campaign, Colorado Springs. Connect the dots, GOP.”
Ocasio-Cortez also attacked Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who has been one of the most anti-LGBTQ members of Congress this past session and is also a staunch opponent of gun control legislation. Boebert has spent her first term in Congress attacking LGBTQ people and portraying them as a danger to children. She has opposed all gun control legislation and even rose to fame from the gun-themed restaurant she owned where the waiters carried guns.
“The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful,” Boebert wrote over the weekend. “This morning the victims & their families are in my prayers. This lawless violence needs to end and end quickly.”
“Lauren Boebert, you have played a major role in elevating anti-LGBT+ hate rhetoric and anti-trans lies while spending your time in Congress blocking even the most common sense gun safety laws,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “You don’t get to ‘thoughts and prayers’ your way out of this. Look inward and change.”
In a separate tweet, Buttigieg explained his position more: “Republicans continue to run on and spread anti-LGBTQ ideology and hatred while refusing to lift a finger on gun violence. This is preventable, but only if they start seeing LGBTQ people as equals, and themselves as leaders.”
“You encourage this type of hatred,” he responded. “Get off Twitter and start looking inward.”
The Navy has confirmed that a sailor was among the 18 injured in the Colorado nightclub shooting on Nov. 19 that also left five dead. Local officials and police said the sailor played a key role in stopping the shooting.
Information Systems Technician Petty Officer Second Class Thomas James was among those injured, the Navy said in a statement released Tuesday but added that “James is currently in stable condition and we remain hopeful he will make a full recovery.”
News of James’ injuries comes as many have begun to praise the heroic actions of another member of the crowd who served in the military — Armyveteran Richard Fierro — who has been credited with heroically rushing the shooter, causing him to drop the AR-style rifle he was holding.
The Denver Post reported that, after Fierro had the shooter on the ground, he took the man’s handgun from him and proceeded to beat the shooter with it. Meanwhile, James kicked the shooter in the head.
James enlisted in the Navy in 2011, according to records released by the service, and served aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, as well as at posts in England and Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, before being stationed in Colorado Springs.
James was qualified as an enlisted aviation warfare specialist and enlisted surface warfare specialist. James’ service included being awarded the Joint Service Achievement Medal twice, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and a Good Conduct Medal, in addition to several other awards.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Joe Biden called Fierro and his wife at a press briefing Tuesday and offered his condolences as well as his thanks “for his bravery and … for his just instinct to act … saving maybe dozens of lives.”
Jean-Pierre noted that “this attack also comes amid a rise in violent rhetoric and threats against the LGBTQI+ people across the country.”
Colorado Springs is home to several military facilities and has a strong Army and Air Force presence. A spokeswoman told Military.com the Department of the Air Force is unaware at this time of any airmen or Guardians injured in the shooting.
The Navy said that it is asking everyone to “respect [James’] privacy as he continues his recovery.”
One night, someone called 911 to ask police in Malvern, Pennsylvania to conduct a mental wellness check on Maddie Hofmann, a 47-year-old transgender woman.
The caller said that Maddie had sent an email that sounded like a suicide letter. When police checked on Hofmann, they ended up shooting her three times inside her own home. She died from the injuries.
Her death left behind her wife, Rebecca Hoffman, and their two children, ages 9 and 4. Her wife and family are still searching for answers and accountability.
“[My wife] belonged on medication, not on a shelf,” Rebecca told The Philadelphia Inquirer, referring to a box of Hofmann’s ashes.
Maddie struggled with anxiety and depression and spent years going on and off medication. Weeks before the shooting occurred, Maddie had shared several concerning tweets, including one of her holding a firearm.
Maddie’s sister, Emily Flynn, said that both she and her sister were Korean adoptees raised by white parents. This resulted in some mental distress, Flynn said. Maddie had just begun finding healing and a voice for the painful isolation she felt in a predominantly white community.
Because Maddie was her family’s main income earner, Rebecca had to ask her mother for funds to cover her wife’s funeral and other living expenses. After what the Inquirer described as a “months-long back-and-forth” with Social Security, Rebecca finally received a check for her deceased spouse’s benefits.
But Rebecca hasn’t been able to read the police incident report or access body-camera footage, leaving her to rely on police accounts when explaining to her young children what happened.
“[My older child] wants to know if [police] didn’t do the right thing because they didn’t know what to do and maybe if someone told them, then they would know what to do next time,” said Rebecca. “But then he also is asking, Did they know the right thing but they just didn’t want to help his [parent] because his [parent] was different?”
In response to the shooting, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office said that Maddie had aimed a Glock 19 9mm handgun at police during the wellness check. As a result, no officers were charged in her slaying.
Malvern Mayor Zeyn Uzman said police officers in the local department took a three-hour course in 2021 that covered recognizing and responding to people with mental health issues and other special needs.
“Given the factual circumstances of the event and the incident lasted only 57 seconds, any additional training or policy changes would not have prevented this tragic occurrence,” Uzman told the Inquirer.
After her sister’s death, Flynn launched a GoFundMe campaign to provide for the well-being of Maddie’s children and to raise awareness to prevent similar incidents. Additional funds “will be used to start a foundation or scholarship fund for trans youth in the foster care system in Maddie’s name,” the campaign states.
The shooting is not only an example of trans people’s higher rates of negative encounters with law enforcement and judicial officials; it’s also a grim reminder that people in mental health crises make up about 25 percent of fatal police shooting victims in recent years, a Washington Post investigation noted. Many of these people died after police conducted wellness checks over fears of a possible suicide attempt.
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
The Senate voted Wednesday to open debate on a bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage, signaling that the legislation has sufficient Republican support to pass.
Lawmakers advanced the legislation in a 62-37 vote days after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed to proceed on an updated version of the measure released by a bipartisan group of senators.
A dozen Republicans voted with Democrats to advance the legislation: Sens. Roy Blunt, of Missouri; Richard Burr, of North Carolina; Shelley Moore Capito, of West Virginia; Joni Ernst, of Iowa; Cynthia Lummis, of Wyoming; Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska; Rob Portman, of Ohio; Dan Sullivan, of Alaska; Mitt Romney, of Utah; Thom Tillis, of North Carolina; and Todd Young, of Indiana.
Blunt, Burr and Portman are retiring from Congress at the end of this year.
The bipartisan group that crafted the bill, led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., signaled this week that the bill would have the 10 GOP votes needed to pass in the upper chamber during the lame-duck session.
Democrats need 10 Republicans to support the bill in order for it to overcome the 60-vote procedural hurdle before a final floor vote can take place.
Key senators involved in the negotiations previously delayed a vote on the legislation until after the midterm elections to give Republicans more time to review an amendment aimed at attracting more GOP votes to overcome a filibuster.
In a statement, the bipartisan group said the amendment was crafted to “confirm that this legislation fully respects and protects Americans’ religious liberties and diverse beliefs, while leaving intact the core mission of the legislation to protect marriage equality.”
The House passed a version of the bill in July, with 47 Republicans joining all Democrats in voting for the legislation. The lower chamber passed the bill, titled the Respect for Marriage Act, after Democratic leaders expressed concern that the Supreme Court could follow its June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade with a ruling rescinding the right of same-sex couples to marry.
The House will need to take up the Senate’s version of the bill before sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
“Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love. Today’s bipartisan vote brings the United States one step closer to protecting that right in law,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday after lawmakers advanced the mesure.
The legislation would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, enshrine legal same-sex marriage for the purposes of federal law, and add legal protections for married couples of the same sex.
Same-sex marriage remains the law of the land under the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. But Democrats cited Justice Clarence Thomas’concurring opinion in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe in which he called on the now-more-conservative court to reverse the ruling as well as another landmark decision legalizing contraception.
The cases were weeks apart and eerily similar: Two young men at popular New York City gay bars. They each left with at least one mysterious person. They were both found dead. Both of their bank accounts were drained.
And they may not be the only ones.
More gay New Yorkers are coming forward for the first time with accounts that share notable similarities to the unexplained deaths this spring of Julio Ramirez, 25, a social worker, and John Umberger, 33, a political consultant.
The biggest difference so far: They survived.
NBC News spoke to two people who described harrowing experiences that seem to broadly fit the pattern of what happened to Ramirez and Umberger.
“It sounded so eerily similar to what happened to me,” Tyler Burt, 27, said about Ramirez’s death. “I was like, ‘I’m lucky to be alive.’”
Burt and a student at New York University believe they fell victim to a larger string of robberies and assaults that police are investigating. Their stories also mirror a troubling detail that Ramirez’s and Umberger’s families have only suspected — that they felt like they were drugged before they were robbed.
The New York City Police Department said that the city’s medical examiner is still determining the official causes of Ramirez’s and Umberger’s deaths. There have been no arrests. Police would not confirm whether Burt’s or the student’s cases were a part of their ongoing investigation.
John Umberger was found dead in New York City in May and his bank accounts were drained.Linda Clary
The NYPD provided a statement on Friday reiterating that police and the district attorney’s office are investigating “several incidents where individuals have been victims to either robberies or assault,” in which some but not all are members of the LGBTQ community. NBC News could not verify that the men’s experiences were connected to the string of robberies and assaults.
Meanwhile, the gay community in the country’s largest LGBTQ city awaits answers.
John Pederson, 55, says he was robbed in similar circumstances in 2018 and, combined with the recent reports, the experience has left him shaken.
“Part of it’s like, am I crazy?” Pederson said. “Women are so aware of this as a thing that happens. I don’t think gay men would ever suspect that this could be done to them.”
No memories and emptied bank accounts
In December, Burt — who reached out to NBC News on social media after recent reports regarding the two deaths — was walking home from a night out with friends when he stopped at The Boiler Room, a popular gay bar in Manhattan’s East Village, for one last drink by himself. Sitting alone at the bar was the last thing Burt says he remembers before waking up the next morning in his apartment confused.
Burt said he woke up lying on top of his bed with all of his clothes and shoes on and his phone missing. He then noticed that his personal laptop, iPad, headphones and wallet were also missing. Using his work laptop, he discovered that was just the beginning of what would amount to roughly $15,000 of stolen belongings and funds. The person or people who robbed him accessed his checking account, overdrafting it to pay off his credit cards and then using them to buy three new iPhones that morning.
Burt, who reported the incident to the police the day after the encounter, said he believes an assailant used his unconscious face to unlock his iPhone and bank accounts using the Face ID feature. He said he believes that the person or people who robbed him also slipped him some sort of drug, knocking him unconscious and causing him to black out.
Tyler Burt said he was robbed of $15,000 worth of belongings and funds after he blacked out.
“I don’t think I was drinking nearly enough to have zero recollection. Also, that’s never happened to me before,” Burt said, adding that he had a total of three to four drinks over the course of four hours. “I’ll go out and I’ll get home and be like, ‘Oh, gosh, I don’t remember getting home,’ or, ‘I don’t remember leaving,’ or something like that because I drank a lot, but I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember a single thing after I had that drink, which has just never happened to me in my life before.”
The father of a New York University student, who spoke to NBC News on the condition that his name not be published out of fear of putting his son in danger, said that his 21-year-old son also believes he was targeted by men with similar motives on April 8, less than two weeks before Ramirez’s death.
He said that his son, who also requested that his name not be published, told him he was leaving The Q bar in Hell’s Kitchen, the same bar Umberger was last seen at, with three men he had just met that night. The four of them, he said, had planned to go back to his son’s apartment to meet a friend who was already there. The man — who connected with NBC News through Linda Clary, Umberger’s mother — said his son and his son’s friend believe they were drugged at some point after returning to the apartment with the three unidentified men. The father said that his son and his son’s friend believe they were drugged because of the sudden nature of their blackouts and loss of memory coupled with the robbery.
When the two gained consciousness, the father said, his son’s phone was missing, his bank accounts were emptied using cash apps and his credit cards were maxed out. In total, the man said, about $5,000 worth of cash and items were stolen from his son. Similarly to Burt, the college student’s father said his son believes the assailants used his unconscious face to unlock his iPhone and bank accounts using Face ID. His son’s friend, he said, had her wallet stolen. The father of the college student said that his son filed a police report and that his case is still being investigated. NBC News was not able to independently verify the son’s account.
Pederson, a freelance computer consultant who reached out to NBC News on social media after recent reports regarding the two deaths, said that on Nov. 16, 2018, he also had a similar encounter. Pederson said he was heading home from Tribeca after attending a large private party, where he had three to four drinks over several hours. While alone and hailing a cab, he said he suddenly and uncharacteristically blacked out on the street corner and was robbed.
He regained consciousness momentarily, waking up to a man shaking him violently in the back seat of an unfamiliar car, yelling, “What’s the PIN number? What’s the PIN number? If you just give us the PIN number, we’ll take you home,” he said. The next thing he remembers is being dropped off in front of his apartment building before waking up the next morning with a bloodied face and his bank account wiped out.
Pederson said that he was not feeling heavily intoxicated before abruptly blacking out, nor did he have a hangover the next morning, which he said is common for him on the rare occasions he drinks too much alcohol.
‘You would not want to wish this on anyone’
Although traumatized, Burt, the father of the NYU student and Pederson said they look back on the incidents today with gratitude that they weren’t fatal.
It took Burt about a month after the encounter before he felt comfortable sleeping in his apartment again, he said, adding that the incident prompted him to go to therapy.
“It took me a while to really process what had happened to me and how terrifying it was,” Burt said. “And then seeing stuff that’s come out — like that kid who died in May — that really could have been me. It was just one small move away from that happening to me.”
“There’s a lot of ‘what ifs,’ that I’ve gone through in my head, which is, you know, not fun to think about,” he added.
Less than two weeks after the college student’s alleged encounter in early April, Ramirez was found dead in the back of a taxi. His body was discovered an hour after he was seen leaving the Ritz Bar and Lounge with three unidentified men, according to the NYPD. His family previously told NBC News that approximately $20,000 had been drained from his bank accounts.
Linda Clary is pressing the NYPD to further investigate the death of her son, John Umberger.Linda Clary
Roughly a month later, Umberger was found dead after he and two unidentified men left another popular Hell’s Kitchen gay bar, The Q. The unidentified men transferred about $20,000 out of Umberger’s bank accounts and maxed out his credit cards, according to Clary, Umberger’s mother.
“The pain and sorrow and horror is like nothing else,” Clary said. “You would not want to wish this on anyone.”
Burt, Pederson, Clary and the college student’s father all said they felt the NYPD did not initially take their cases as seriously as they had hoped and were, at times, unresponsive.
“It seemed like he was being reluctant to do anything that required a little bit of extra work,” Burt said of the detective on his case. “It just felt like it was not a priority at all and I was the one following up, bugging this guy, time and time again and I was just getting nowhere.”
The father of the college student who was allegedly robbed said that police stopped returning his phone calls until recently, months after the deaths of Ramirez and Umberger.
New York City Council member Erik Bottcher, whose district includes Hell’s Kitchen, told NBC News in a phone call that his office has been in contact with the NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney’s office on a weekly basis since reports surfaced in May about Ramirez’s death. His office has sought to ensure that appropriate resources have been dedicated to the investigation, he added.
“It’s horrifying and infuriating that people are being preyed upon and victimized in New York City in this way,” Bottcher said. “Whoever’s doing this needs to be brought to justice.”
While the NYPD only confirmed it was looking into “several” other potentially related incidents, Clary said she was told there were at least a dozen other cases included in the investigation. She spoke highly of the current detective on her son’s investigation. But her message to the police and public officials was clear: “People, do your job.”
“Thank you for the work you do,” she added, but “I need you to work harder, and I need you to do more for the sake of your great city and for the sake of citizens that are counting on you.”
