Abe's Healing and Recovery Fund

Please join me in raising urgently needed funds for my friend Abimbola (Abe) Adelaja, a beloved friend to many and a tireless advocate for Black and LGBTQ+ lives, who was viciously attacked last weekend (September 4, 2021) in Brooklyn. The horrific attack, now officially classified by the New York District Attorney as a hate crime, has made news headlines across the country. For those who have not yet heard about the incident: Abe was getting food at the Borhan Food Mart bodega in Bushwick when he was approached by two men who began taunting him with homophobic slurs.

Abe ignored the men and entered the bodega. When he tried to leave, one of the men physically blocked the exit and verbally assaulted him again before the other man broke a glass bottle on Abe's head. At this point, the two men proceeded to slash and stab him repeatedly with the broken bottle and a large flathead screwdriver.

Outnumbered and severely injured, Abe managed to temporarily escape, locking himself in the back storage room of the bodega as his attackers followed behind him, continuing to taunt and threaten him. Though the employees eventually got the assailants to leave, they also demanded that Abe leave as he bled from his stab wounds and struggled to breathe. Abe managed to make his way down the street and around the corner, where he miraculously spotted and flagged down an off-duty ambulance.

 

The Brooklyn community has come together to march for Abe, and against the continued rise of LGBTQ+ directed attacks in the city (almost a 98% increase in hate crimes in the past year). However, even as people march in solidarity with him against the despicable hate crime he endured and the callousness of the bodega employees, Abe himself remains in a precarious position: his hospital bills are astronomical; his injuries make him physically unable to work. With a collapsed lung, head injuries, and multiple stab wounds, he will need continued, extensive care and physical therapy for the foreseeable future. We hope to hit this $50,000 goal to serve Abe’s immediate needs and get him back on his feet temporarily, but his ambulance and ER bills alone are huge. The real amount necessary for Abe’s recovery and healing is incalculable considering the toll this horrific assault has already taken and will continue to take on his career, his health, and his overall well being.

 

Abe has never stopped fighting for the rights of others, even as his own rights are consistently threatened by the many layers of social injustice imbedded in our society; the carelessness of so many people who witness violence and do nothing; and, sadly, by people like Abe’s attackers, who are in so many ways victims of the same system of institutional violence and fear that Abe constantly fights against. If you are able to spare even a dollar or two to a deeply meaningful cause, please donate.

 

Supporting Abe in this moment of need is an opportunity to tangibly support not only Abe himself but Black lives and the safety of LGBTQ+ people everywhere. It’s an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is by lifting up a vital member of the Black LGBTQ+ community in NYC and beyond. Keep marching, keep posting, and keep doing what's right, but please remember that these gestures, incredibly meaningful and necessary as they are, still don't pay hospital bills, continued care, or relocation fees. Understandably, some people are simply not financially able to donate—you can still help by spreading the word about this fundraiser to everyone you know. (This goes for donors as well—don’t stop after pressing “donate”!) Share the fundraiser to all of your social accounts and spread the word verbally to those who don’t frequent social media. Every single dollar donated can and will help. These funds will be crucial stepping stones toward healing, recovery, and safety for Abe.

“We won’t let something like this make us scared. We won’t live in fear. . .We’re here, we’re proud people, so we want to hold space to let the community know we’re here, and we’re going to stand up for ourselves.”

— Abe Adelaja, qtd. on NBC News and LGBTQ Nation (https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/09/gay-man-stabbed-vicious-hate-crime-inside-brooklyn-store-workers-nothing-help/)

 

CRITICAL UPDATE: ONE OF ABE'S ATTACKERS HAS BEEN RELEASED TODAY ON BOND—ABE'S WALLET, KEYS, AND PHONE WERE STOLEN DURING THE ATTACK, SO THIS PERSON OSTENSIBLY HAS ACCESS TO HIS HOME—IT IS CRUCIAL FOR ABE TO RELOCATE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“These establishments are equally responsible for the abuse that we face,” she said. “They are only concerned about the money, not our lives. We are here for liberation, we are here for freedom, and we are here to let people know you have to protect us, it is your duty, and if you don’t, we will continue to march and show the community the power that we have.” — Gia Love

 

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