Where's my son?
It is every parent's worst nightmare.
On October 31, 2007, a phone call came from the police department Kathy Gilleran used to wear a uniform for, the Ithaca police department.
"Please go home, there is a phone message waiting for you at home. Your son Aeryn is missing."
Kathy Gilleran's son had gone missing in a foreign country, Austria, where she doesn't speak the language and, as it turns out, no one will help.
When last seen in Vienna, Aeryn Gilleran was working for a United Nations program, UNIDO. Initially, because he is not an Austrian citizen, the police refused to take a missing persons report. After contact by UNIDO with the Austrian Foreign ministry, the police were instructed to take the report. He was officially declared missing on November 1, 2007.
Between that date and today Kathy Gilleran has gone to Vienna twice. She has gone to the American consulate to ask for assistance in finding her son. One of the responses she received was an embassy employee saying she would pray for her son. When Kathy questioned the employee whether she was praying for Aeryn's safe return or because he was gay, the response was, of course, because he is gay. Kathy told me the only help she has gotten from the consulate in Vienna were directions to a secondhand store to buy warmer clothes.
The Viennese police have been equally non-cooperative. In fact, Kathy felt they were very homophobic, complete with hand gestures and, as she describes them,
Aeryn was consistently portrayed as an 'emotionally unbalanced, gay man who was HIV positive' by the police."
To this day she has never been interviewed by the Viennese police.
This man, a United States citizen, lived in a foreign country for years without problems but has been missing for over a year and a half. It appears the United States Viennese consulate is more preoccupied with his sexuality than giving his mother an answer to where her son is. Isn't one of the primary roles of a US consulate to offer help to US citizens on foreign soil? I am pretty sure that moral judgement is not in anyone's job description. Perhaps GLIFFA, the LGBT foreign service group, would be helpful getting some answers and push the State Department to counter the damage that has been done?
In her two visits to Vienna, Kathy Gilleran, a former police officer, has been able to identify the last place her son was seen. The Viennese police have not done that. She describes a Vienna overflowing with beautiful buildings and lovely churches that her son loved to visit. Aeryn, at one point in his life, considered becoming a priest. But he realized the conflict between priesthood and his sexuality, so he abandoned that path.
But she also describes a city that is seething with racism and anger, homophobia and signs of the not-so distant past, swasztikas, skinheads, threats of violence, graffiti in many languages telling newcomers to go back to where they came from, they are not wanted in Vienna or Austria. There are many violent incidents, beatings that are race-based, no doubt no different than many parts of this country and other parts of the world. I have no intention of trying to single out Vienna or Austria for what is going on there. But could this atmosphere have contributed to Aeryn's disappearance?
There are more questions than answers for Kathy Gilleran, and the US government owes answers to her and her son. I have a list and if anyone can help, please help Kathy find Aeryn. If he is dead, at least she should know. Aeryn's birthday is Tuesday, April 28.
Maybe a certain native of Austria who runs this state can put his enormous abilities to help? I know neither Aeryn nor Kathy is from California but think, Governor, what mountains you would move if one of your children was missing?
So we are asking:
1. Why did he disappear?
2. Was he kidnapped and killed?
3. If he was killed where was he killed?
4. Why did the American consulate not help Kathy Gilleran more?
5. Who is responsible for the consulate's performance or lack of performance?
6. Can the US Department of State become involved now to assist Kathy?
Kathy Gilleran has contacted her senators, Congressional representatives, Amnesty International, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). She continues to seek answers to the whereabouts of her son.
She has set up a web site with more background information on him at
http://www.aeryngillern.com/Aeryn_Gillern/Home.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...id=39083&tsp=1
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"Co-workers last saw Gillern on Monday, Oct. 29, about 6:15 p.m. when he left work. He had hosted his partner for the weekend and dropped him off at the train station to start the day, Gilleran learned. When he failed to show up for work the next two days, Gillern's partner and his upstairs neighbor went to the police to file a missing person report. They were told that Austrian police were not required to take missing persons reports on non-citizens and were sent away, Gilleran said. Not satisfied, UNIDO co-workers contacted the Austrian Foreign Ministry, which directed police to begin an investigation, said Gilleran, who arrived in Vienna on Nov. 2 to begin searching for her son..."