Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Combined Gay News Headlines (T5T-1)

Unless the whole "Adonis" thing just isn't your idea of hot, Matus Valent is about as good as it gets. The 6'3 Slovakia-to-California model has appeared on the covers of Muscle & Fitness, Men's Fitness, Men's Workout, and something called Steel Jungle more times than we'd like to count. And that's before you take all [...]
Don't speak Spanish? That doesn't mean you won't be able to understand the homophobia in this ad! CONTINUED » Permalink | 1 comment | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: Advertising, Ahorro Cel, Homophobia, Mexico, Video
• CROWNS A beauty competition that doesn't involve questions about same-sex marriage! Mr. Gay Philadelphia is crowned. [Michael Musto] • BROADWAY More pageantry! This time in the form of Mr. Broadway. And the winner is … [Broadway World] • FLORIDA Watch the State Supreme Court hear oral arguments on overturning the ban on gay adoptions. Tune in [...]
Don’t forget, boys and girls, it’s almost Pink Tuesday! Everyone needs a little cocktail to get themselves through the week, so come have one with us! The appetizers are amazing (hello, last week’s mac and cheese?!), the drinks are fabulous and affordable, and it looks like the weather will allow for us to finally have [...]
The Fresno gay community lost one of it’s own last week in a tragic car accident. Angel Moreno was only 29.  Friends of Angel’s have organized a car wash to help with the cost of the funeral services.  The car wash will be at the Express parking lot on Tuesday, April 21 from 9-6pm. Please [...]
What do you call 50 queers gathering in a lecture hall to discuss various matters relating to the GLBTQ+ community? Apparently it’s a Town Hall Meeting. Which is exactly what happened Thursday night at the Health Science building on Fresno City College’s campus. Equality California put it on, which was interesting for several reasons. If you’re not [...]
It's nice to know that Peter LaBarbera's BFF, Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel, is consistent in his homo hate. In his latest column for Don Wildmon's news organ,  "Separate but unequal protection," he manages to make a mess of criticizing the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. It's kind of tiring to see the same old arguments put forth. And the lie in this screed is particularly entertaining:
Furthermore, under existing criminal statute if H.R. 1913 becomes law, actual violence or injury need not take place for a "hate crime" to occur. For example, if a group of Christians are at a "gay pride" parade and a one of them gently places his hand on a homosexual's shoulder and shares that there is freedom from homosexuality through a relationship with Jesus Christ, then, voila, we have a battery and, consequently, a felony "hate crime."

But the Christian needn't even touch the homosexual.  If the homosexual merely claims he was subjectively placed in "apprehension of bodily injury" by the Christian's words then, again, the Christian can be thrown in prison for a felony "hate crime." The FBI has included mere words - "insults" and "intimidation" - in calculating "hate crimes" statistics and - under the current political regime in Washington - there's every reason to believe they'll subjectively consider "insults" and "intimidation" (read: traditional sexual morality) for purposes of prosecuting "hate crimes."

This was only a small snippet of the non-reality-based column. This law wouldn't do anything to stifle free speech. The ACLU's Washington Legislative Office passed along this document outlining that the legislation protects First Amendment rights of free speech and free association.
III.  The New Bill Provides Strong Protection of Free SpeechThe ACLU has a long record of support for stronger protection of both free speech and civil rights.  Those positions are not inconsistent.  In fact, vigilant protection of free speech rights historically has opened the doors to effective advocacy for expanded civil rights protections .

Fourteen years ago, the ACLU submitted a brief to the Supreme Court urging the Court to uphold a Wisconsin hate crime sentencing enhancement statute as constitutional.  However, the ACLU also asked the Court "to set forth a clear set of rules governing the use of such statutes in the future."  The ACLU warned the Court that "if the state is not able to prove that a defendant's speech is linked to specific criminal behavior, the chances increase that the state's hate crime prosecution is politically inspired."  The evidentiary provision in the House bill will help avoid that harm.

The ACLU appreciates the sponsors' inclusion of the evidentiary provision that prevents the hate crimes legislation from having any potentially chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech.  The evidentiary subsection in the bill provides that:

Evidence of expression or association of the defendant may not be introduced as substantstantive evidence at trial, unless the evidence specifically relates to that offense.  However, nothing in this section affects the rules of evidence governing the impeachment of a witness.

This provision will reduce or eliminate the possibility that the federal government could obtain a criminal conviction on the basis of evidence of speech that had no role in the chain of events that led to any alleged violent act proscribed by the statute.

The full letter is here.  Bam Bam needs a better script to work from.

I listened to a lot of statements made by Angie Zapata yesterday afternoon and this moring as audio played in court. There were five jailhouse telephone calls from Allen Ray Andrade, the admitted killer of Angie Zapata: one to Angie Tyree, and four to Felicia Mendoza. These were all recorded, collect calls from jailhouses to these two witnesses.

The title to this piece is a quote from Andrade -- it was from one of the calls played in court yesterday.

I'd have liked to have this diary up yesterday, as I broke down in tears in the courtroom twice yesterday over the feelings of lost humanity...a feeling that my life, in the defendent's and his My tears were over statements made by Andrade in his calls to Mendoza.

I'd also love this diary to be more detailed, but I'm writing most of this during my lunch break.

The first line that set me to suppressing audible sobs was this one (as verified by the Greeley Tribune and TruTV In Session blog on CNN, as well as by me):

It's not like I went up to a schoolteacher and shot her in the head or ... killed a law-abiding straight citizen.

It was a comment not just about Angie, but about all trans people, The problem with this quote is that there is a measure of truth to this quote -- it goes to how a trans panic strategy is likely to be used in a killing of a trans victim, no matter what the circum stances of the homicide. I felt a sense of loss and worthlessness in hearing the audio statement.

The other is one I suppressed sobs over was this one from Andrade to Mendoza:

Did you see that thing in make-up?

I added the emphasis -- Andrade did not say "that thing" in any particularly emphasizing way.

The reason that one evoked tears was that the last time I was called a trans related epithet to my face, it was "that thing." It just reminds me of being perceived and treated as a less than human being.

Tears. Lots of tears. There's a reason I bring tissues to court.

I just received this email from HRC:

Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Tell Congress: honor Matthew Shepard

Dear Louise,

Judy Shepard has waited more than 10 years for this moment. Congress could vote as soon as NEXT WEEK on the hate crimes bill that would give LGBT people the protections they need and deserve, and honor the memory of Judy's son.
And tomorrow, during House Judiciary Committee action, right-wing lawmakers are planning an attempt to derail the bill with "poison pill" amendments. So your action is more urgent than ever.

Watch this powerful new video of Judy's personal story, and take action on the hate crimes bill now!

The radical right is desperate. Whether the issue is marriage or hate crimes, they feel the debate slipping away. Their answer: to resort to deceit and distortion.

Our opponents want Congress to believe that the Matthew Shepard Act will brand pastors as criminals for giving a Sunday sermon. It's nonsense, and they know it. The bill has specific free speech protections and targets only violent acts.

Judy Shepard doesn't want to deny anyone their right to free speech. But after ten years of calling for the federal government to take action, ten years of waiting and tens of thousands more victims, she knows it's time for Congress to act.

Hear Judy in her own words. Then demand immediate action from Congress.

And please tell your friends and family everything that's at stake and ask them to contact their representatives too.

A setback on hate crimes will have far-reaching implications. It will set the tone and the political climate for our entire agenda. This is so important. I hope you can help.

Warmly,

Joe Solmonese
President

This hate crime legislation is so important. And terribly overdue - decades overdue.

Another example of a life cut tragically short below...
This July marks the 25th anniversary of Charlie Howard's death:

Charles O. Howard (January 31, 1961 - July 7, 1984) was an American hate-crime victim in Bangor, Maine in 1984. As Howard and a male companion, Roy Ogden, were walking down the street, three teen-aged men, Shawn Mabry, Daniel Ness, and Jim Baines, aged 15-17, harassed Howard for being gay. The youths chased the pair, yelling homophobic epithets, until they caught Howard and threw him over the State Street Bridge into the Kenduskeag Stream, despite his pleas that he could not s wim. He drowned, but his friend escaped and pulled a fire alarm. Charlie Howard's body was found by rescue workers several hours later.

This event galvanized the Bangor community in ways similar to the killing of Matthew Shepard, although the case never attained the same level of national notoriety. Baines later spoke to various groups in Maine about his involvement in the case and the damage that intolerance can do to people and their community. His story, Penitence: A True Story by Edward Armstrong, was published, although Baines received no royalties from the book.

The Bangor City Council and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have been working on a monument to be installed along the Kenduskeag Stream honoring the memory of Charlie Howard as the victim of a hate crime.

On November 14, 2007, the Bangor City Council approved the monument, and the Charles O. HoO. Howard Memorial Foundation is raising money to install the monument. On July 7, 2004, a twentieth anniversary walk was held in memory of Howard. The Maine Speakout Project maintains the Charlie Howard Memorial Library in Portland, Maine. The library is open to the public.

This incident inspired a similar scene in the beginning of Stephen King's novel It, where three homophobic teenagers throw an openly gay man, Adrian Mellon, over a bridge and into the Kenduskeag, there to be set upon and murdered by the monster Pennywise.

Mark Doty wrote a poem about the tragedy called Charlie Howard's Descent. The murder is also the inspiration for a novel by Bette Greene titled The Drowning of Stephan Jones

This account of Charlie's life is heartbreaking:

1984 Bangor, Maine
A Rose For Charlie:

By the time Charlie Howard reached high school in the late 1970's, he was accustomed to his classmates' taunts and sneers. Charlie was fair-haired and small boned. He has a learning disability. His severe asthma would have made it difficult for him to participate in sports, even if he had wanted to. The way he walked and talked set him apart from most of the other boys in Portsmouth, N. H. As a little kid, he got laughed at and called a "sissy".

In later years, he got shoved around and got called a "fag". Charlie had to have a tough shell just to get through most days without crying or running away. Undearneath, he has accumulated a lot of scars and bruises. He wondered if people would ever leave him alone - or if, because he was gay, he would be the butt of their jokes forever. Charlie couldn't wait to get out of high school, but he skipped his graduation ceremony becasue he didn't want his family to witness how the other students treated him.

Many new graduates see the future as an open door. Charlie saw doors closing. Since his grades were low, he wasn't considered as "college material" Jobs were scarce in Portsmouth, especially for someone who made no secret of being homosexual. He didn't get alone well with his stepfather, so he knew he couldn't continue to live at home. As long as he remained in Portsmouth, Charlie felt, he would be an embarrassment to his family. Leaving town seemed to be his only option.

He drifted away around for a few years, into his early 20's, and the familiar hassles and put-downs wherever he went. He eventually moved in with a man in the small coastal town of Ellsworth, Maine.

When the realationship broke up in early January, 1984, Charlie decided that nearby Bangor, with a population of 30,000, offered better opportunities for work and a social life. A mutual friend introduced oduced Charlie to Scott Hamilton and Paul Noddinm who lived in a big Victorian house they had restored on Highland Avenue in Bangor. Charlie had no money, no job, and no plans. Scott and Paul offered him a place to stay while he looked for work.

As the weeks passed, Charlie's prospects remained bleak as the Bangor winter, The local job market what he had hoped for, and after a month Scott and Paul suggested that Charlie might be better off returning to Portsmouth, where he had more connections. Charlie's mother let him move back home. The new arrangement didn't last a week. He moved in with another man, but this situation didn't work out either. He called Scott and Paul. They could hear the pain in Charlie's voice, so they decided to help him give Bangor another try.

Something was different this time. Charlie was more upbeat and determined, and his high spirits seemed to open more doors.

A neighbor helped him get a part-time job through a city emplyment program. He found a warm community of friends at the Unitarian Church, which had a number of openly gay memebers. The church also sponsored Interweave, a gay and lesbian support group. As a token of thanks for their generosity, Charlie suprised Scott and Paul by decorating their house for Easter and cooking an elaborate meal. A few weeks later, he took a palce of his own on the third floor of an old roominghouse on First Street, behind the church.The building was run down, but Charlie livened his surroundings with posters and plants, and eventually, a kitten.

Church had never been a big part of Charlie's life, but the acceptance he felt among the Unitarians was a new experience. Here he found a new place to express his own openness and sense of humor, his love for life. He started attending services regularly and soon decided to undertake the preparations required for membership. The Unitarian Church and Interweave were the only two organizations in Bangor that welcomed homosexuals.

Many of the other churches, in fact, were openly hostile. Fundamentalist preachers used their pulpits to blame gays and lesbains for many of society's ills.

There were no gay bars in town, and the local clubs routinely kicked out couples of the same sex who tried to dance together. Most of Charlie's friends experienced verbal harrassment, and several had been physically attacked. Incidents of gay bashing often went unreported because victims expected little support from the police.

As a newcomer in town, Charlie Howard ignored some of the unwritten rules observed by lmore long-term residents. He wore whatever he felt like, for instance, even if earrings and a shoulder bag and, occasionally eye make-up weren't "acceptable" adornments for bangor males. He liked to call people "dearie."

In moments of joy, mischief, or defiance, he could burst out into song (usually "I Am What I Am" from the musical La Cage Aux Folles). Refusing to camouflage himself in the crowd, Charlie drew the crowd's attention-and its anger.

High school kids baited him with obscenities on the street. He got ejected from the West Market Disco for dancing with a man.

One day in a grocery store, a middle aged women suddenly strated shouting at him, "You pervert! You Queer!" Everyone stared. Charlie dropped his basket and walked slowly toward the door, terrified. Just before exiting, he choked back his fear, turned, and blew a kiss at the cluster of hateful faces. This confrontation seemed to mark a turning point for Charlie.

The stares of strangers began to spook him a little more after that. Sometimes he was afraid to leave his apartment. He stepped outside one morning and found his pet kitten lying dead on the the doorstep. It had been strangled.

Charlie's friends wished they could shield him from such cruelties, but they knew he would have to come to his own terms with this perilous world. He wasn't the only one for whom church and Interweave meetings sometimes felt like shelters in a storm.

Interweave sponsored a potluck supper on the night of Saturday, July 7th, 1984. When the party broke up around 10 o'clock, Charlie talked his friend friend Roy Ogden into walking downtown with him to check his post office box.

They headed up State Street. Midway across the bridge spanning Kenduskeag Stream, in the heart of Bangor, Charlie noticed a car slowing down just behind them. He thought it was one belonging to some high school boys who had harassed him a few days earlier.

When they stopped the car and got out, he knew that he was right. The three young men had just left a party to look for some more beer when they spotted Charlie.

Shawn Mabry, the driver, was a sixteen year old high school dropout who had recently been in trouble for using a nunchuk. Mabry was making a name for himself in the city hockey league. Daniel Ness, a year older than Shawn, lived with his family on the west side, the upper-class side of Bangor. His favorite subject was art.

Jim Baines, almost 16, managed to keep up his grades while playing football and basketball. He planned to go to college someday.

Two girls stayed behind in the car. One of them had a fake ID that she intended to use to buy the beer.

"Hey Fag!" one boy yelled. Then the three started running. Roy and Charlie took off, but Charlie tripped on the curb and fell hard onto the walkway. He couldn't get his breath: the excitement was making his asthma kick in. He felt his legs jamming.

Charlie scrambled to stand, but the boys grabbed him. They threw him back down and laid into him with kicks and punches.

"Over the bridge!" shouted Jim Baines. Daniel grabbed Charlie under the arms and lifted. Jim got him by the legs. Charlie was gasping now. He snatched enough air to yell, "I can't swim!" From the far end of the bridge, Roy heard his plea.

Jim and Daniel heaved Charlie up onto the guardrail. They had to pry his hand loose. Shawn gave the shove that sent him over. They looked down at the black water 20 feet below and congratulated themselves.

The girls in the car were grinding the ignition. They yelled for Jim and Daniel and Shawn to come on. The boys spotted Roy Ogden watching from the end of the bridge and promised him he'd be sorry if he ever told anyone. When they got back in the car, they were laughing.

Roy waited for the car to disappear. He could still hear the boys whooping and hollering. Then he ran along State Street till he found a fire alarm.

In a few minutes, fire engines and police cars were screaming toward the bridge. Through downtown Bangor, Kenduskeag Stream flows between smooth concreet walls. In the depth below the bridge that night was estimated at around ten feet. The searchlights trained into the current and along the banks revealed no sign of Charlie Howard.

Shawn, Daniel, Jim, and their two friends went back to the party. Everyone could see they had a story to tell. "We jumped a fag," they said, "and threw him in the stream." The other kids laughed and pumped them for details, then resumed dancing and drinking.

Around 1 a.m., rescue pulled out the body of Charlie Howard, 23, out of the Kenduskeag, a few hundred feet downstream from the bridge.

Daniel Ness turned himself in the next morning as soon as he heard the news. He couldn't believe Charlie was dead. They never intended to kill anybody- they just meant to "show" him. Shawn Mabry and Jim Baines decided to hop a frieght train out of town, but had second thoughts when they got to the railroad tracks. They each went home, where they were arrested.

All three spent Sunday night in the Hancock County Jail. Local and state authorities agreed on Monday morning that that youths posed no further threat to the community. Shawn, Daniel, and Jim were released into their parents' custody.

The state filed formal charges of murder the following week. The boys were later tried as juveniles rather than adults. All three were convicted and sentanced to detention at the Maine Youth Center.

On Monday night after Charlie Howard's murder, more than 200 people crowded into a memorial service at the Unitarian Church.

Afterward, a candlelight procession crossed the bridge. Charlie's mother had requestrequested that someone drop a rose into the water. The marchers moved on to the police station, where they stood silently in the street.

Hecklers from the crowd of onlookers shouted obscene names.

A week later, at the spot where Charlie Howard was tossed over, someone spray painted the words "faggots jump here"...

There have been far too many deaths over far too many years- only a handful known. Goodness knows how many incidences of violence, discrimination, hate or bigotry as well- how high is up?

But maybe this can be a START.

I hope so...

***

Here's HRC's Fight Hate Crimes page, featuring Judy Shepard.

Sue Hyde, of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, wrote an opinion piece published in this Sunday's Boston p://www.thetaskforce.org">The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, wrote an opinion piece published in this Sunday's Boston Globe.

She discusses the tragic cases of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover and Eric Mohat, two youth who committed suicide after being the targets of relentless anti-LGBT harassment in their schools. And she cites some sobering numbers:

"Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT youth (86.2 percent) reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, nearly half (44.1 percent) reported being physically harassed, and about a quarter (22.1 percent) reported being physically assaulted." [...] "Nearly two-thirds of LGBT students (60.8 percent) who experience harassment or assault never reported the incident to the school. . . . Of those who did report the incident, nearly a third (31.1 percent) said the school staff did nothing in response."

Nothing in response? Nothing to help young people who rise each morning not knowing if school brings another day of hell on earth or something a bit more tolerable? As parents and school leaders, we cannot tolerate this status quo.


Read the full piece here, then write to your state Senator in support of the Oregon Safe Schools Act (HB2599).
Today is the 13th annual Day of Silence, in which students across the country will remain silent to draw attention to anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. The Day of Silence is followed by the Night of Noise, aimed at celebrating the day and building community amongst LGBT and allied youth.

Portland’s Night of Noise will benefit the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC) and will take place at the Jupiter Hotel at 9:00 pm tonight! Click here for a map of the Jupiter's location.

As we’ve discussed previously on the blog, bullying and harassment remains a major problem for LGBT students, and for students who are perceived to be LGBT. And the effects of school-based harassment reach far beyond middle school and high school.

For more information on the climate for LGBT students on Oregon’s college campuses, read Too Afraid to Learn, the report coauthored by Basic Rights Education Fund and the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance.
Click here to download the report (PDF).
A California court ruled Monday that transgender people born in California must be able to change the sex on their birth certificate, even if they currently reside outside the state.

The lawsuit was brought forward by the Transgender Law Center on behalf of Gigi Marie Somers, a 67-year-old Kansas resident seeking to change her documentation. Read the full story at the Advocate’s web site, or read the court’s decision.

Birth certificates are often relied upon as a primary documentation resource, used by employers, creditors and the government to verify individuals’ identities. Without the ability to change their birth certificate, many transpeh certificate, many transpeople are left in legal limbo, and are frequently outed by their documentation, which may not match their gender presentation.

Birth certificate change procedures vary from state to state, and some states don't allow any alteration to the sex listed on this critical document. This increased ease in changing birth certificate will benefit California-born transpeople across the country. Congratulations to the Transgender Law Center on this fantastic victory!

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