Bar raid demands independent probe
Don’t expect law enforcement agencies involved in Rainbow Lounge incident to police themselves
It’s not exactly clear how the Fort Worth Police Department and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission will wiggle out of the public relations stranglehold the LGBT community now has on the two agencies, but I know from years of watching these dramas unfold that they will unless there is an independent investigation.
The local police officers and the state agents who descended on the Rainbow Lounge on Sunday morning, June 28, about 1 a.m. — arresting some patrons for public intoxication and apparently seriously injuring one — will all watch each other’s backs.
The official police reports that the law enforcement officials filed following the raid — which ironically occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and the birth of the gay rights movement in New York City in 1969 — already hold the arresting officers and agents harmless.
The officers and agents claim in the reports that they encountered belligerent drunks in the one-week-old nightclub who threatened them in a sexually suggestive manner. That’s possibly the most preposterous part of the official version of the incident.
See Bar raid demands independent probe
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
 |
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/bar-raid-dema…
What You Can Do for Health Care Fairness
Take Lambda LEgals’c health care fairness survey today. LGBT people and those with HIV encounter prejudice and discrimination from health care providers and institutions, including being denied necessary treatments, services or insurance coverage, or being forced to receive care from health care providers who are poorly trained or even hostile. We need your help to make sure that all of our concerns are heard. As part of Lambda Legal’s health care fairness campaign, we are conducting a national survey (available in both English and Spanish) to document the unique health care experiences and needs of LGBT people and people living with HIV. Information from this survey will be used to educate elected officials and other decisionmakers about the specific problems health care reform must address. Make your voice count for health care fairness.
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-you-can-…
Unanimous California Supreme Court Rejects Attempt to Limit Discrimination Claims by People with Disabilities
‘The Court’s decision furthers the Unruh Act’s purpose to eradicate arbitrary and invidious discrimination from California’s business establishments.’
(San Francisco, June 11, 2009) — Today the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act does not impose extra legal hurdles for people with disabilities, including people living with HIV who seek damages for discrimination.
Statement from Tara Borelli, Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal and a principal author of the friend-of-the court brief Lambda Legal submitted urging today’s legal result in Munson v. Del Taco:
“The Court rightly rejected efforts to misread the Unruh Civil Rights Act to impose extra legal hurdles which would have harmed all disabled Californians who face discrimination in public accommodations, including those living with HIV.
“Real, reliable change for people with disabilities has been painfully slow in coming but the high court’s decision today promises greater fairness in California. The Court’s decision furthers the Unruh Act’s purpose to eradicate arbitrary and invidious discrimination from California’s business establishments.
“Though this case does not directly involve people living with HIV, the application of this decision will be helpful to all people living with disabilities who encounter discrimination, which includes many Californians living with HIV.”
Background on Munson v. Del Taco:
Kenneth Munson, a wheelchair user, filed suit against Del Taco, Inc. alleging violations of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s Unruh Act. Munson’s suit is based on claims arising from visits he made to one Del Taco restaurant, where he encountered architectural barriers to his use of the parking lot and restroom.
Background on Unruh Civil Rights Act:
California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act requires that public accommodations — businesses such as restaurants, rental housing, and doctors’ offices — are open to everyone, without arbitrary discrimination based on disability (including HIV), sex (including gender identity), sexual orientation, marital status, race or several other personal characteristics. Similarly, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) forbids denying disabled people equal access to public places. In 1992, California revised the Unruh Act to better protect disabled Californians from discrimination by saying that a plaintiff who proves an ADA violation has also proven a state law violation.
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/unanimous-cal…
Former gay-porn actor guilty of Denver murder
A male escort was convicted this afternoon of the premeditated murder of his boss and former sexual partner, and now will spend the rest of his life in prison. Timothy Boham, 28, was found guilty by a nine-woman, three-man jury in Denver District Court of first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder and aggravated assault. Colorado law mandates that someone found guilty of first-degree murder must spend the rest of their life in prison, without the possibility of parole. Judge Will Hood Jr. will hand down the sentence Tuesday. The jury took less than five hours to convict Boham, whose lawyers — Amber St. Clair and Kristan Wheeler — claimed that his victim, wealthy Denver businessman J.P. Kelso, committed suicide. They tried to persuade the jury that the murder scene was merely a coverup for a suicide so that Kelso’s life-insurance policy would pay out. According to four days of testimony, Boham had a paid sexual encounter in late 2005 with Kelso, who owned Professional Recovery Systems, a debt-collection agency where Boham briefly worked twice. Boham, a former gay-porn actor, said he and Kelso hung out together numerous times in the 11 months they knew each other.
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/former-gay-po…
“Voices of Witness Africa” Screening Set for May 10
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/voices-of-wit…
Gay, lesbian groups call for public restroom equity in Taipei
Gay and lesbian student activists yesterday called on universities to alter public toilet designations to accommodate gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) students’ needs.
“Because public toilets at schools are designated as either men’s rooms or women’s rooms, it creates a lot of trouble for GLBT students who may not always look the way mainstream opinion would expect someone of their gender to look,” Tsai Pi-jung (蔡璧嶸), president of National Chengchi University’s (NCCU) Gay Student Club, told a press conference in Taipei.
“We suggest that schools change the designation on public restrooms from marking the gender to marking whether it has toilets or urinals or both inside,” he said.
Tsai then showed two restroom signs he had made. On one, the shape of a toilet is drawn to indicate that “there are only toilets inside,” and the other has a shape of a toilet and the shape of a urinal drawn to indicate that “both toilets and urinals are inside.”
“This way, public toilets would be designated by ‘function’ instead of ‘gender,’” he said.
NCCU’s Lesbian Student Club president has short hair and dresses in jeans and a T-shirt. People sometimes mistake her for a man, she said.
Wishing only to be known as “Strawberry,” she told the press conference that women sometimes asked her what she was doing in the women’s restroom.
“Whenever that happens, I have to explain that I am a woman. Then I’m asked why I dress like a man,” Strawberry said. “Why do I have to go through all this questioning when I just want to use the bathroom?”
A student from Shih Hsin University Graduate School of Journalism who wished to be known only as “Hsiao Mo (小莫),” is a man who likes to dress in what would be considered women’s clothing. He usually encounters the same problem. See Gay, lesbian groups call for public restroom equity Taipei Times
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/gay-lesbian-g…
On-line sex meet up ends in murder
Newscaster is killed after drinking and cocaine encounter; Suspect is arrested and confesses.
Tags: Cocaine, Encounter, Line Sex, Newscaster
