lgbtQnews

Fort Worth mayor and others call for independent review of Rainbow Lounge raid

newseditor — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:33:32 -0700

Source: Dallas Morning News, CBS11TV.com, Denton Record Chronicle, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Dallas Voice, Dallas Voice

A candlelight vigil was held outside the Rainbow Lounge Wednesday for Chad Gibson who was severely injured during the raid there Saturday night. Another benefit for Gibson is scheduled for this evening. Facebook photo by Dick Carter

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief on Friday called on federal prosecutors to ensure a thorough review of the weekend raid on Rainbow Lounge by the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) that left one man seriously injured.

Meanwhile, Fort Worth police announced Thursday that they’ve suspended all joint operations with the TABC. Fort Worth Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead said in a Thursday press release that the action is being taken until the department gains a “better understanding” of the events that occurred at the Rainbow Lounge last weekend.

TABC officials confirmed Wednesday that 26-year-old Chad Gibson, who suffered a severe head injury during the raid, was in the custody of TABC agents when he was hurt, and not in the custody of Fort Worth Police.

Both agencies have said they will conduct internal investigations of the raid, but Moncrief and other officials have also called for independent investigations.

Moncrief said he has asked acting US Attorney James Jacks to review the police investigation after it’s been completed “to ensure the department has thoroughly and impartially carried out its obligation to all the citizens of Fort Worth. I encourage the TABC to follow the same course.”

Kathy Colvin, a spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office in Dallas, said Friday that Jacks and Moncrief have met and discussed the issue, Denton Record Chronicle reports. She said that the office would review any documents and reports that Fort Worth provides it.

“From our understanding, the investigation is still ongoing,” Colvin said. “We’re certainly monitoring the situation.”

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Navy says gay sailor’s murder was probably not a hate crime

newseditor — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:32:36 -0700

Source: Navy Times, North County Times, San Diego Union Tribune, 10News.com, KTLA

Seaman August Provost via MySpace/KTLA

A 29-year-old gay sailor found dead Tuesday at a California Marine Corps base was shot and possibly burned, Navy officials said yesterday, but they say investigators don’t believe that Seaman August Provost of Houston was killed because he was gay.

Provost was found dead about 3:30 am Tuesday by a fellow sailor arriving to relieve Provost who was on sentry detail at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base north of Oceanside, California.

After hearing reports from family and friends that Provost had been harassed by fellow sailors in the weeks before his murder, LGBT activists and two members of Congress called on the Navy to investigate the killing as a possible hate crime.

At a press conference yesterday, a Navy official discounted those reports, but said the investigation into Provost’s death continues.

“There is no evidence or information that suggests this is a hate crime,” said Capt. Matt Brown, director of public affairs for Navy Region Southwest, San Diego Union Tribune reports.

Provost had been on duty for four hours at a guard station at the entrance to an assault-boat compound on the western side of the base, 10News reports.

Armed with a revolver, Provost, who was assigned to Assault Craft Unit 5, stood watch over the compound's approximately 30 Hovercraft and also watched for fires, Brown said.

Earlier this week, Ben Gomez, president of the San Diego chapter of Veterans for Equal Rights, said he has heard from active-duty members of the military that Provost's death was a hate crime. Citing unnamed sources with access to a report on the seaman's death, Gomez said there was evidence that Provost was slain during or after an argument with another sailor about the victim’s sexuality, 10News reports.

Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chairman of the San Diego Human Relations Commission and a longtime gay activist, said Provost's family told her that personnel on the base had been harassing the junior sailor, who was out to fellow sailors.

Capt. Brown, who spoke during a news conference yesterday afternoon at the Broadway Pier in downtown San Diego, said that the military can't yet confirm whether Provost was harassed in the days leading up to his death.

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Federal judge puts Prop. 8 lawsuit on fast track

newseditor — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:17:49 -0700

A federal judge today moved to fast-track the high-profile lawsuit that seeks to overturn Proposition 8 and let California's same-sex marriages resume.

At a hearing in a packed San Francisco courtroom, Chief US District Judge Vaughn Walker gave parties to the suit an Aug 7 deadline to submit preliminary papers on the suit. He ordered the parties to file joint or separate case management proposals laying out the facts that they agree are already settled, the facts that still need to be tried, and a road map on how best to proceed, Oakland Tribune reports.

The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 19.

Because state Attorney General Jerry Brown has said he believes Prop. 8 is unconstitutional and will not defend it in court, Walker also agreed to let Prop. 8's campaign proponents intervene in the case to defend the measure.

Attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies, who argued on opposite sides in the 2000 Bush v. Gore lawsuit, filed the lawsuit, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, on behalf of two California same-sex couples. The suit argues that Prop 8 violates the US Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and due process of the law, according to Bay Area Reporter.

As he had tentatively ordered Tuesday, Walker declined to grant a preliminary injunction halting Prop. 8's enforcement until a final decision is made. Granting an injunction, he said, would create too much uncertainty and confusion.

“Because entering a preliminary injunction may raise novel concerns that could be avoided through a prompt decision on the merits, the court’s tentative plan is instead to proceed expeditiously to trial,” Walker wrote.

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New York gay paper folds; Gay media company implodes

newseditor — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:45:50 -0700

New York Blade, a biweekly newspaper that has covered gay-interest news in New York City since 1997, suspended publication this week, and its staff was let go, New York Times reports.

“Everyone was let go, but the people on The Blade know that they may come back if The Blade is coming back,” said Matthew Bank, chief executive of the company that publishes the paper, told the Times.

That means the only printed gay newspaper in NYC at the moment is the weekly Gay City News, published byVillager Media (which also publishes three neighborhood papers in New York).

Bank announced earlier that his company had sold the weekly gay bar guide that he started, HX Magazine.

As NYPress points out, all of this corporate intrigue calls into question the financial health of one of the nation’s most venerable gay newspapers, the Washington Blade, which is tied to its New York corporate cousin in a complicated mesh of intertwined companies

Bank blamed the advertising climate for the closure of New York Blade: “The economy and the future of print media being more difficult was definitely weighing on us,” he told the Times.

But the company that financed the New York Blade and several other gay publications, including the Washington Blade, is reportedly in receivership and is being forced by the Small Business Administration to sell its assets.

One of those related companies, Window Media, announced this afternoon in a Washington Blade story, that David Unger has “resigned” as CEO of Window Media and Unite Media.

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Three charged in homophobic attack on Long Island

newseditor — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:45:35 -0700

Two women and one man were arrested Monday in the central Long Island town of Mastic Beach, NY after police say they brutally attacked a woman outside her home while making anti-gay remarks about the victim's sexual orientation.

According to Suffolk police, the suspects kicked, hit, and pushed the victim while making the hate remarks, Newsday reports.

Officers, responding to a “fight in progress,” arrested Nora Mitzner, 21, Lindsay McBeth, 25, and Selwyn Icangelo, 20, on the scene.

The incident started at about 7 pm Monday after the suspects complained that the victim's partner was taking pictures as they drove past the victim's house, said Det. Sgt. Robert Reecks, commanding officer of the Suffolk police hate crimes unit.

The three suspects got out of their car and “jumped” the woman, Reecks said. Police said the three suspects used a series of homophobic slurs while hitting, kicking, and punching the victim.

Reecks said the attack was unjustified. “There was an argument about taking pictures,” Reecks said. “That doesn’t give you carte blanche to beat up somebody.”

Authorities say all three suspects pleaded not guilty at their arraignments in First District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday.

The suspects would have been charged with harassment, but because of the “hate element” in the crime, officials have raised the charge to aggravated harassment, WPIX TV reports.

The physical injuries sustained by the victim were not serious and did not require hospitalization, officials said.

"In Suffolk County, we stand united in denouncing violent and abusive acts against a person because of their race, creed, ethnicity or sexual orientation, " said Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy.

The attack in Mastic Beach was the second reported homophobic assault in June police said.

On June 19, a Central Islip man used anti-gay epithets while beating three gay men on Earle Street in Central Islip, Suffolk police said, according to Newsday.

Jubilation greets Indian court ruling that strikes out anti-gay law

newseditor — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:32:36 -0700

Source: AFP, Reuters, Times of India, Associated Press, Hindustan Times, Day After
India’s Victorian-era law against gay sex is discriminatory and therefore a "violation of fundamental rights" accorded under the constitution, a court in New Delhi has ruled in a long-awaited landmark decision.

The ruling, which effectively decriminalizes gay sex, was greeted with jubilation by a sizable crowd outside the Delhi High Court building, Mansi Tewari reports for Day After, an Indian magazine. Men and women in the crowd hugged each other without fear and tears of joy rolled down the eyes of many in the crowd when the when the decision was announced.

“We have finally entered into the 21st century,” said Anjali Gopalan, executive director of Naz Foundation, a leading health and gay rights lobby. Naz Foundation filed the petition that the court ruled on today.

“I am feeling ecstatic and had our fingers crossed throughout,” Gopalan told Day After. “It is a progressive judgment and the now we all are ready to celebrate the spirit of ‘inclusiveness’. We welcome the Court’s decision.”

“My god! What a progressive judgment,” declared Sunetra Choudhury on India’s NDTV [see clip at end of post]. “I’m so proud.”

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Defense chief talks about ‘softening’ DADT enforcement, while Congress stalls

newseditor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:03:08 -0700

Talking with reporters accompanying him on a trip, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said yesterday that he’s looking at ways that the military’s anti-gay “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy might be made “more humane”.

“One of the things we're looking at – is there flexibility in how we apply this law?” Gates said, according to CNN’s Barbara Starr.

He indicated that could mean, among other things, refraining from starting discharge proceedings against a service member who was outed by a jilted lover or through some form of what he called “vengeance”.

“If somebody is outed by a third party, does that force us to take action?” Gates asked, rhetorically, according to AFP. He added, “And I don’t know the answer to that, and I don’t want to pretend to.”

“That’s the kind of thing we're looking at – seeing if there's a more humane way to apply the law until it gets changed.”

But Gates made it clear that he expects the policy to be “changed” by Congress, and indicated that the steps he’s considering are short-term solutions.

“The issue that we face is that how do we begin to do preparations and simultaneously the administration move forward in terms of asking the Congress to change the law,” Gates said.

Unfortunately, it appears that one place in capital that isn’t on board with a change to the policy is Congress – the only institution there that can repeal the law.

“Congress seems intent on delaying any debate on repealing the military’s ban on open service by gays until next year,” Military Times reported this weekend.

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Historic Magic Valley Pride builds bridges in So. Idaho

JamesTidmarsh — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:19:56 -0700

TWIN FALLS, ID — “Building Bridges.” That was the theme of the first ever Magic Valley Pride festival, organized by the Southern Idaho Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (SIGLBT) Community Center. The week long Pride events included a media training workshop, reception for the Community Center, legislative breakfast, an Idahoans for Fairness meet and greet, film night, and walk/candlelight vigil. The week’s events culminated on Saturday with a barbecue/potluck held at Cascade park in Twin Falls.

Keynote speaker Idaho State Senator Nicole LeFavour, Idaho’s first openly gay lawmaker, told the crowd of about sixty at the SIGLBT Community Center reception Tuesday that she believes that equality for the LGBT community is possible, but that it’s going to take the average citizen to make it happen. LeFavour stressed that it’s events like “Magic Valley Pride” that are going to help further the dialog in communities like the conservative Magic Valley area.

“There is no other place that I would rather be tonight.” LeFavour, told the audience. “What you guys are doing here is so amazingly historic, I can’t tell you how touched I am by your dedication and perseverance.”

Also speaking at the reception was Monica Hopkins, Executive Director of ACLU of Idaho, and Twin Falls Democratic Party organizer Dixie Siegal, who introduced Sen. LeFavour.

Magic Valley Pride spokeswoman, and SIGLBT Community Center Treasure, Nicki Abraham says the week long celebration served a two-fold purpose. “First to reach out to those LGBT individuals who feel alone and isolated, and secondly to dispel the myths, misconceptions and prejudices many still have in the Magic Valley about the LGBT community.”

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SecDef’s ‘softer’ DADT; Choi’s discharge; San Deigo out-of-control deputy; + headlinks

newseditor — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:19:28 -0700

::: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Tuesday that he’s looking at ways to make the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy “more humane”, Associated Press reports. While Congress slowly works toward repealing the law, Gates said he will consider softening the expulsion rules. As an example, he said the military might not have to expel someone whose sexual orientation was revealed by a third party out of vindictiveness or other suspect motives. Gates said he had talked with President Obama about repealing the policy. “We were talking about how do we move forward on this to achieve his objective, which is changing the policy,” he said.

::: After a hearing this afternoon in Syracuse, a military administrative board recommended that New York National Guard officer Lt. Dan Choi, an Arabic-speaking graduate of West Point, should be discharged for violating the military’s “don’t ask-don’t tell” policy. Choi announced on the Rachel Maddow show in March that he’s gay. The army quickly a terse letter informing him he would be charged with violating army regulations. “Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard,” the letter said. Before today’s hearing, Choi talked with London’s Guardian for a major feature on his case and the policy that has forced almost 13,000 gay and lesbian personnel out of the military. He says his decision to come out so publicly is part of a love story. He met a man, fell in love, and became increasingly uncomfortable with the lies that were required by military policy. “I started my first relationship ever in life at age 27,” Choi said. “I’m understanding finally what love is. I have to make the decision: am I going to continue lying?” The army’s response to his public coming-out is “an insult to their professionalism," Choi said of the insinuation that his fellow soldiers cannot abide a gay comrade. “They care about what a person can do for the team. We're in a time of war. We have bigger things to worry about than people being gay.”

::: A San Diego County campaign event at the home of a lesbian couple turned ugly Friday in the upscale Cardiff-by-the-sea neighborhood. A sheriff's deputy responding to a noise complaint became angry when one of the hosts, Shari Barman, refused to tell him when she was born. According to people attending the fundraiser, the deputy began pulling on Barman's arm, despite pleas from her partner that she had just undergone surgery. “Guests were yelling, ‘What are you doing? Let her go!’ ” Witnesses said the cop, Deputy Marshall Abbott, who broke up the fundraiser for Congressional candidate Francine Busby “had a raged look in his eyes, and his head was bobbing from side to side,” after he entered the home of Barman and Jane Stratton at about 9 pm. One guest called 911 to report that the deputy was “out of control”. He doused guests who had come to Barman’s aid with pepper spray, pulled out a stun gun, and dropped the 60-year-old host to the floor. Busby said she used a microphone from about 8 to 8:30 pm to address what she described as 30 or fewer guests; witnesses said the unidentified neighbor who later called in the noise complaint had interrupted the candidate’s speech by heckling Busby, calling her a “loser”, and using obscenities. In a fundraising letter, Busby said the neighbor who complained about the fund-raiser was “politically motivated.” Busby said, “There was no noise, there was no problem, these were middle-aged men and women talking very quietly.” The Sheriff's Department has launched an internal investigation into the incident.

dadt: Gates wants to soften gay expulsion rules [AP/Navy Times]
albany circus: Power struggle impedes New York gay marriage vote [Reuters]
florida: St. Petersburg's gay community seeks to become key voting bloc in mayor and council elections | St. Petersburg Times
marriage equality: DC judge rejects suit on recognizing gay marriage [Washington Times]
media: Anti-gay bias still rampant in the media: When will broadcasters grow up? [New York Daily News]
new york: Gay-Bashed on Pride Weekend on the Upper East Side [Village Voice]
Spain: When Gay Pride Day Takes Two Weeks [New York Times]
san francisco: ‘Yay gay!’: San Francisco Pride takes over city streets in its 39th year [Los Angeles Times]

Video: Dan Savage discusses DADT with Keith Olbermann

newseditor — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:47:48 -0700

The Stranger’s editorial director Dan Savage, identified on the program as “activist and author”, made what might be his first appearance tonight as a Countdown pundit, talking with Keith Olbermann about the president’s lack of action on repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Watch video at MSNBC