In response to the brutal murder of 19-year-old gay Puerto Rican George Steven Lopez Mercado, New Yorkers will gather for a vigil to protest the senseless, heinous and homophobic death of the young man.

Betty-Diana Arce, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , circulated an email that read in part, "According to CNN...Mercado, was found on November 14, 2009 burned, dismembered and decapitated. Mercados arms, legs and head had been torn off before the body was dumped. Active and known in the gay community of Puerto Rico, Mercado was a victim of a brutal, disgusting and torturous hate crime. His body was left a few miles out of his home town in Caguas, literally torn limb from limb.

"This grotesque crime is made worse by the response of the police. The police investigator responded to questions concerning the murder of George Steven Lopez Mercado that 'people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen.' "

The incident sparked outrage in the Latino and Gay communities and a vigil was held on Sunday November 22nd at 5 p.m at Pier 45 in New York City. There will be similar vigils held in Boston, Chicago, Durham, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Organizers include GLAAD, The LGBT Community Center, Dignity, Anti-Violence Project, Latino Commission on AIDS, and the office of City Council Speaker Kathleen Quinn.

In a recent My Latino Voice.com article, Pedro Julio Serrano, the first openly gay Puerto Rican politician, was quoted as saying "The God I know is full of love and compassion....to hate or judge other people....Being Gay is not a sin, homophobia is the sin."

Also on emails circulated, heated over anger and fear sparked after Mercado's murder, was the historical quote from Bayard Ruskin, Civil Rights Activist and mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change," wrote Rustin. "Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays. . . . It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change...The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people."

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