Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Combined Gay News Headlines (T5T-1)

Didn't Dateline: To Catch a Predator teach us that sites like MySpace, Facebook, and AOL are essentially the homepages of child predators looking to snag some underage ass? Parents were taught to be scared of the Internet, install blocking and monitoring software, and treat every email and instant message as if it would infect their [...]
Barack Obama's presidential inauguration is less than a week away, so by now you must know how you'll be honoring the historic day, right? We've got a little poll below, audience participation-style.CONTINUED » Permalink | 1 comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg Post tags: Barack Obama, Poll
If you're a single lady socialite — sorry Olivia, social — in New York City, then you always need arm candy to escort you to fundraising galas, charity balls, and non-profit soirees (yes, those are all the same thing). For Manhattan's upper crust, and those wishing to be, the man on your arm invariably happens [...]

I know that there are some good Republicans out there.  I worked for one.  But, with this emerging, how can anyone trust any Republican?

From the Washington Post:

A former Justice Department official entrusted with enforcing civil rights laws refused to hire lawyers whom he labeled as "commies" and transferred another attorney for allegedly writing in "ebonics" and benefiting from "an affirmative action thing," according to an investigation released yesterday by internal watchdogs.

The department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that Bradley J. Schlozman violated civil service laws and made false statements about his activities to Congress in 2007, but federal prosecutors in the District declined to pursue a criminal perjury case against him.

Over three years in which he controlled employment decisions, Schlozman favored young conservatives for entry-level jobs, transferred those he called "right-thinking Americans" into top assignments and instructed colleagues that "adherents of Mao's little red book need not apply," according to e-mails cited in the report. Authorities analyzed 112 career hires during Schlozman's tenure and determined that "virtually all" of the lawyers whose political affiliations were known at the time had ties to Republicans or conservative legal groups

As TPMuckracker asks: Why No Charges for Schlozman?  Unfortunately, TPM also has an answer:

[Patricia Riley, special counsel to the US Attorney for the District of Columbia] told TPMmuckraker that her office was only asked by the Inspector General's office to look into the possible perjury charges stemming from Schlozman's congressional testimony, rather than the underlying hiring decisions. She said that six career prosecutors, with between 10 and 21 years experience, conducted the investigation, reporting to Assistant US Attorney Channing Phillips (US Attorney Jeffrey Taylor recused himself from the probe).

TPM has some choice excerpts from Schlozman e-mails that ended up in the DOJ report:

[I]n an e-mail on July 15, 2003, to a former colleague, Schlozman wrote, "I too get to work with mold spores, but here in Civil Rights, we call them Voting Section attorneys."

As part of the same e-mail exchange, on July 16, 2003, Schlozman wrote, "My tentative plans are to gerrymander all of those crazy libs rights out of the section.

I did not think it was possible for me to hate the Bush junta more than I already did.

I was wrong.


This Tarun Surti guy is a piece of work. Not only does the (morally and financially) bankrupt owner of the ARTE' Hotel in Brentwood, Tennessee under fire for the termination of two openly gay employees, more staff are coming forward to say that they were fired and retaliated against based on their gender, sexual orientation, and national origin.
"We were spoken down to," former food and beverage manager Freda McAllister said. I guess in [the owner's] particular culture, women are second, so that was obvious from the treatment we got over there."

"[We were told] we 'didn't know how to run businesses,' and we should do things more like they do in India," added Tamara Head, former controller.

Former front office manager Timothy Horne said that he was treated badly partly because of his young age and also because he was gay, a charge echoed by former hotel supervisor Sergeo Lleneza.

At least these folks are protected by anti-discrimination laws and can file complaints with EEOC and Department of Labor that could be ruled in their favor. The former HR director David Hill and former assistant general manager Leonard Stoddard will likely see their case go nowhere, since Tennessee's laws do not cover sexual orientation (or gender identity and expression), and there's no federal ENDA. Here is the January 13 report from WSMV-TV, via PageOneQ:

Reminder: there will be a demonstration in front of the ARTE' Hotel on Saturday, January 17 at 9AM (760 Old Hickory Blvd, Brentwood, TN)).

Related:
* TN: man fired for being gay; owner dares him to sue since there's no ENDA
* GM of Tennessee hotel that fired gay HR director terminated as well

The appearance of anti-gay evangelist Rick Warren at a Martin Luther King Day event in Atlanta has understandably angered the LGBT community there. According to the following news report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a protest is being organized.

It is a shame that Rick Warren, who is against civil rights for an entire class of Americans has been given such a high profile by Barack Obama. His inclusion in the inauguration has boosted his public stature and does harm not only to the LGBT community, but to America’s reputation and stature on the international stage.

The protest is described on Join the Impact/Atlanta.

There will be a march and a rally beginning at 9 AM at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. 

Gay protest likely at King Day service

Members of metro Atlanta’s gay community plan to protest Monday when the Rev. Rick Warren speaks during the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

[…]

“Having Rick Warren speak is an affront to the civil rights movement and its tone of unity,” said Todd Vierling of Atlanta, who is helping organize the protest.

Related articles: Crossposted at Pride of Monterey County.

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