Q-Patrol returns to the streets of Houston 30 years after the murder of Paul Broussard in the wake of hate crimes in Texas

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — It has been more than thirty years since Paul Broussard was murdered, highlighting what many members of Houston’s LGBTQ+ community at the time already knew: police simply did not take hate crimes seriously.

That’s why a group of determined gay youth created their own security force, Q-Patrol, working together to stay safe during a dangerous time.

It started in 1991 in Houston, Texas.

Stephen Tompkins and Mark Gartner were in their thirties.

“It was illegal for men to dance together and any type of behavior could trigger this type of raid,” Tompkins said.

“They would charge you with public lewdness (dancing) and I got arrested once,” Gartner added.

Then came the murder of Paul Broussard.

While walking home from a bar in Montrose, the center of Houston’s gay community, the 27-year-old banker was attacked by a group of teenagers and young adults.

They stabbed him with a pocket knife, kicked him with steel-toed boots and repeatedly beat him with two-by-fours studded with nails.

Even after the police were called, it took hours for the ambulance to arrive.

After emergency surgery, Broussard was pronounced dead.

“Okay, we have to take a stand. Stephen and I had been involved in several neighborhood patrols in our neighborhood in southeast Houston,” Gartner said. “We knew something about it, so we were the first to put our hands up and say we knew how to put this together.”

“We know we needed maybe some people on foot, foot patrols, maybe some people on bikes, maybe in cars, and communicating with walkie-talkies,” Gartner said.

“And be well signposted, so T-shirts and cars have magnetic signs,” Tompkins added.

“We would find out where that license plate was registered and send them a postcard,” Gartner said. “‘Dear Mom or Dad, the driver of this car was seen harassing gay people in the Montrose area, and we want to let you know that we know who you are, we know where you live, and we’re aware of what’s happening in.” “We got a lot of hate mail from parents saying, ‘I’m proud of my son.'”

“The important thing is that they knew that we knew who they were and where they were if something happened,” Tompkins added.

“It was dangerous, but exciting. That’s part of what made it fun,” Gartner said.

“Our good friend, Brian Bradley, stood up to the kids and said, ‘You’re going to go to jail and they’ll call you Maria.’ The kid started crying. That was effective,” Tompkins laughed.

“That’s when we started to get the police on our side. Until then, they were like, ‘Yeah, they got hit again, they probably deserved it.’ That was the attitude we took,” Gartner explained.

In the mid-90s, Q-Patrol began to lose members.

“It just faded away,” Gartner said, “in a very positive way because people felt safe. Did you know that three years after we did Q-Patrol… the police department, at their hiring event at a gay pride? Did you have a booth to hire?”

But progress is complicated.

In recent years, hate crimes have increased, and survey after survey shows they are largely underreported.

Here in Texas, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed more anti-transgender legislation than ever in its last session.

“When I moved to Montrose in 1997, the Q-Patrol was around. I remember seeing them walking the streets. I remember feeling safer. So, I wanted to do what I could to make this happen again so we can take care of ourselves,” Ethan explained Michelle Ganz.

Ganz is now a volunteer for the new and revived Q-Patrol.

Members don’t patrol the streets as often, but they are called out in support of protests and other LGBTQ+ gatherings.

They encourage everyone to participate in self-defense and de-escalation training.

“We’re not trying to hurt people. We’re trying to protect ourselves,” explained Andrew Degar, co-founder of Third Ward Jui Jitsu, a nonprofit group that runs some self-defense training. “That can be done with words, it can be done with light actions, at different levels before it becomes necessary to get to a harder approach.”

“Sometimes you don’t need to know anything. You just have to show up,” Ganz said. “That matters more than anything because they see that effort. A lot of people have so much apathy about so many things, so they just stand there as spectators, but when you show up and show that you care, that matters and builds real things.” relations.”

Tompkins and Gartner are retired from their jobs and daily volunteering.

For them, the resurgence of Q-Patrol is both bitter and sweet.

“I think that was largely due to some of the changes we initiated, so I’m very proud of that,” Gartner said. “But your other question: Is there more to do? Yes. There is always more to do,” Gartner said.

It is a new generation of activism inspired by the work of the past.

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