Superiority Texas Style: Lesbian Tops Straight Man (Gene Locke)

In the recent race for mayor of Houston, Texas it boiled down to a male lawyer and a lesbian.

Gene Locke is the male lawyer who tried every dirty trick he could to trash Annise Parker. Gene Locke focused on the fact that Annise Parker is an open and proud lesbian. His campaign spent many thousands of dollars trying to drive home this fact, in hopes that would be enough.

Hey Gene, evidently Houston citizens aren't as bigotted as you!

In my dreams I hope that people were able to see being Lesbian has nothing to do with one's ability to perform a job. But sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if it has more to do with the fact Gene Locke is a lawyer.

But no matter what the reason, Gene Locke (a straight man - we presume) was topped by Annise Parker (a lesbian).

I hope she used a really big strap on.


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El Paso, Texas GLBTQ Center opens amidst violence

El Paso, Texas - Thursday night marked the opening of a new GLBTQ community center in downtown El Paso.

Last Monday night the director of the Center, Charles Sloane, was assaulted (kicked and hit in the head) in the lobby of the Center. He said "That's one of the things we're here to combat. We're going to continue to go to the community and bring this up."

"Imagine if the adults are doing this what's going on in the schools. Nationwide, more than 50 percent of students (who identify as gay) say they’ve been assaulted."

Sloane said the attackers used the term "faggot," and that such occurrences were fairly well known within the gay community, but not always well-reported.

"We've gotten three reports of assaults in the last two months, and in every single one they would not report anything to the police department."

Sloane said he wanted the opening of the center to be marked by a positive outlook, and not defined by the single act of violence that took place Monday.

full article - source: The El Paso Tree - author: Sito Negron

Friends Claim Texas Man's Killing Was Hate Crime

Adrian Clay, also known as Shari Campbell, was found dead in the 4800 block of Presa Road. Evidently Shari was killed after leaving The Boss, a local bar.

Adrian, dressed in drag, was found near the bar bleeding and unconcious. After being rushed to the hospital he died from sustained injuries.

Friends of the victim believe it was a hate crime

full article

Gay-Baiting politics in Texas, as usual

PLANO — An openly gay City Council candidate is being used like a pawn in an effort by right-wing conservatives to seize control of the Collin County Commission.

This is according to County Commissioner Phyllis Cole, who faces an April 8 runoff against Matt Shaheen for the Precinct 2 seat she’s occupied for the last 17 years.

An anonymous e-mail reportedly was sent out last week attacking Cole for her support of Collin County Teen Court coordinator Justin Nichols, 23. The e-mail stated,“Look who Phyllis appointed to work with your kids,” and contained a link to a March 14 Dallas Voice article about Nichols, who’s vying to become the first-ever openly gay member of the City Council in the May 10 municipal election.

“I’m very disturbed about the whole thing, because I like what Justin does, I like Justin,” Cole said. “I don’t want to be a commissioner anymore if this is what’s going to be involved, taking a nice young man like Justin and hanging him out to dry.”Both Cole and Nichols said they were unsure how many people received the e-mail. Cole suggested that her opponent, Shaheen, was responsible for the attack, but he denied that. “Neither my campaign nor I are behind any such e-mail,” Shaheen said in a written statement. Shaheen didn’t respond to a request for further comment.

“This was the whole game plan,” Cole said. “They’re going to be running busloads of people from Prestonwood Bible study to vote.”

“We’re going to lose the whole damn thing on top of losing this election,” she said. Nichol said he’s been involved with Teen Court since he was a freshman in high school, when he served as a juror in a pilot version of the program. Nichols, who came out as gay when he was 16, became coordinator in October 2006 after the commission unanimously voted to fund Teen Court countywide. Teen Court allows people 18 and under charged with class-C misdemeanors to avoid having convictions go on their records. Cases are prosecuted, defended and adjudicated by fellow teens. Juveniles prosecuted in Teen Court are far less likely to reoffend, according to Nichols, and have contributed more than 5,000 volunteer hours in the form of community service.

“For all I know, it was some fringe radicals who are resorting to childish tactics,” Nichols said. “It was sent from an anonymous address, which is cowardly to say the least.”

“These small-minded people are going to do what they do, and we just need to stand strong,” said CCGLA President Morris Garcia, a Plano resident who supports Nichols.

Scientific studies show gays are no more likely than straight people, and in fact may be less likely, to commit child sexual abuse. “Activists and politicians who say otherwise are simply appealing to ignorance and fear to mobilize anti-gay bias for political gain,” the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said in a recent paper on the subject.

full article

AUSTIN: Anti-gay comments cost police commander his job

(Austin, Texas) A veteran police commander has been suspended for 20 days for demonstrating "personal bias" toward gay officers and a second commander who did not report the remark and then refused to take a suspension for it has been fired.

Cmdr. Calvin Smith, a 34 year veteran of the force and the newly appointed supervisor of the Austin police training academy, told outgoing supervisor Cmdr. Larry Oliver that he was worried about the "kind of message" the potential transfer of a gay female officer would send at the academy the Austin American Statesman reported.

Smith later denied the woman a transfer to his command. Oliver, following that, mentioned the conversation that Smith had had with him to another female officer and a complaint was filed with internal affairs.

Smith agreed to a 20 day suspension but Oliver refused to accept a 30-day suspension for not reporting the incident.

He was subsequently fired. It is not known if he will appeal.

"We hold our commanders to the highest standards, which were not met in this case," Assistant Police Chief David Carter, is the department's chief of staff, told The Statesman.

full article

The Austin police officer who complained that a commander discriminated against her because of her sexual orientation wrote in a memo to top police officials that she was "horrified" at the severity of the punishment offered to a second commander for not reporting it.

full followup article

Paul Broussard

On the night of July 4, 1991, Paul Broussard, a 27-year-old gay banker in Houston, and two of his friends, Cary Anderson and Richard Delaunay, were assaulted as they traversed a parking lot in the Montrose area. Their assailants were 10 youths from the Woodlands, an upscale suburb north of Houston. The boys (all but three were only 17, the eldest was 22) had been cruising the Montrose area earlier that evening, harassing those they presumed gay by throwing rocks at them. With their "queer rocks" as they called them, they had already smashed the windshield of a car and hit a passing man in the mouth. When the attackers encountered the three men, they began by asking for the directions to Heaven, a nearby gay nightclub. Upon being told the directions, the boys leapt out of their two cars and assaulted Broussard and his friends with fists, steel-toed boots, two-by-fours studded with nails, and at least one knife. Broussard’s two friends, Delaunay and Anderson, although injured, managed to escape. Broussard, however, was trapped and subjected to a vicious beating.

Five of the boys received probation or deferred adjudication. The three other primary assailants received 15-year (and one day) prison sentences for their admitted participation in the beatings.
Jon Buice, who confessed to having wielded the knife that apparently made the fatal wound, received the longest sentence–45 years for murder. Another of the assailants, Paul Chance Dillion, was convicted on one count of attempted murder served concurrently with one count of aggravated attempted murder, and was released March 2000.

The very frequency of antigay verbal and physical assaults in schools nationwide is astounding. (Click here for: "Basic Facts about Heterosexism in our Schools.")

(Click here for: Letter From Mother of Paul Broussard.)

To read John Aston’s interview with Judy Shepard, "Visions of Peace: The mother of Matthew Shepard talks about her son’s life, some of the experiences that preceded his murder, and how to teach love and respect," which ran in December 2000 OutSmart, click here: http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/issue/i12-00/shepard.html.
Schools are absolutely essential places where heterosexism and homophobia has to be addressed and stopped.