St. Mark Carson
Mark Carson (1981-2020), a gay man who was shot to death in Greenwich Village this month, had a favorite phrase he used when people heckled him on the street. “He’d say, ‘Pay it and pump,’ which means don’t pay it any attention, keep moving,” said Alonzo, 33, an online radio host who said Mr. Carson had been his best friend since they were teenagers on Webster Avenue in the Bronx.
In their neighborhood, homosexuality was “a taboo,” Alonzo said, but Mr. Carson was not threatened or bullied growing up.
“If people said something like, look at that homosexual,” said Alonzo, who would provide only his first name, as he is professionally known, “he would just switch even harder, just to let the person know, yeah, I’m gay, and he kept moving.”
“A lot of guys would say something to him, but also give him compliments about his fashion, like, ‘Look at him, he’s gay, but yo, his sneakers is hot,’” Alonzo said, adding, “If he was able to walk around as himself on Webster Avenue, he was able to do it everywhere.”
excerpt taken from his New York Times obituary