‘Survivor’ Hatch says imprisoned because he’s gay
(Newport) “Survivor” winner Richard Hatch said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he believes he was sent to prison because he’s gay, a claim the prosecutors in the case call baseless and delusional.
Hatch, speaking publicly for the first time since being released from prison to home confinement, told NBC’s “Today” …
Tags: Broadcast, gay, Home Confinement, Nbc, Nbc Today, Newport, Prosecutors, Richard Hatch, Survivor Hatch, Survivor WinnerProsecutors drop case against gay couple accused of trespassing on LDS property
Prosecutors won’t pursue a case against two men accused of trespassing on LDS Church property earlier this month. An LDS Church security guard detained a gay couple on Salt Lake City’s Main Street Plaza on July 9 after observing the pair “kissing and hugging,” according to a police report. Derek Jones and Matt Aune were cited for trespassing after refusing to leave. The incident led to two kiss-in protests against the church in Salt Lake City and one in San Diego. Aune has said the couple’s display of affection was modest, but officials with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns the plaza, released a statement that the two men were “much more involved” than a “simple kiss on the cheek.” It said the couple “engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language, and had obviously been using alcohol.” In a statement released Wednesday, Salt Lake City Prosecutor Sim Gill said the trespassing case against Jones and Aune has been dropped. Gill said despite that Main Street Plaza is owned by the church, there “continues to be a mistaken belief by many visitors that there is a public right of way.”
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Neo-Nazi ideas blamed in gay Oxnard teen’s slaying
July 22 marked the third and likely final day of testimony in the pre-trial hearing of a boy accused of gunning down a gay classmate at an Oxnard junior high school.
Prosecutors contended Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court that the boy, Brandon McInerney, was motivated at least in part by neo-Nazi beliefs.
McInerney was 14 and Larry King was 15 when King was fatally shot during a computer lab class on Feb. 12, 2008. McInerney was acquainted with local neo-Nazis and kept a notebook with elaborate drawings of Nazi symbols and regalia, according to testimony from an investigator. McInerney, now 15, has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder.
Read more about the shooting and pretrial hearing.
See Neo-Nazi ideas blamed in gay Oxnard teen’s slaying
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Texas official admits mistakes in raid of gay bar
A raid on a Fort Worth gay bar by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission that left one man seriously injured was done in violation of several of the agency’s policies, according to TABC Administrator Alan Steen. “I don’t think you have to dig very deep to figure out that TABC has violated some of their policies,” Steen said. “We know that, and I apologize for that.” Meanwhile, the city is requesting that federal prosecutors take on additional oversight responsibilities for the investigation of what transpired at the Rainbow Lounge. Dallas Voice (7/16) , Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas)
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Jury begins deliberating in NY hate crime trial
(Syracuse, NY)A jury is deliberating at the trial of a 20-year-old upstate New York man charged with the hate crime slaying of a transgendered woman.
Prosecutors say Dwight DeLee fatally shot 22-year-old Lateisha (lah-TEE’-shuh) Green outside a Syracuse house party last November because of anti-gay bias.
Three days of testimony wrapped up …
Tags: Crime Trial, Delee, Gay Bias, Hate Crime, House Party, Last November, Prosecutors, Shuh, Syracuse Ny, Testimony, Transgendered Woman, Upstate New York, York ManFort Worth mayor wants federal review in raid of gay bar
Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief called on federal prosecutors Friday to ensure a thorough review of last week’s bar raid that resulted in a serious head injury to one patron. Parallel investigations — one by Fort Worth police and another within the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission — are already under way into what happened Sunday at the Rainbow Lounge. And, police chief Jeff Halstead has announced the indefinite suspension of bar checks conducted jointly by his department and TABC. Mon
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Walsh: A step back for gay Utahns
Reading the headlines, the news isn’t good for gay Utahns.
Former Equality Utah Director Mike Thompson has moved to San Francisco, taking his organizing skills from Holladay to the Haight. He says it’s personal, not professional.
Then, Pride Week opened with what looks like a hate crime.
Christopher Vonnegut Allen was arrested after allegedly beating his gay neighbors — a man and a woman — bloody in Ogden. One victim needed surgery. You may not have heard of it. Prosecutors charged Allen with only one count of burglary.
And this week, two nice Mormon ladies from Santa Cruz decided to give their unwilling church one more chance to reconcile with its gay members and the LGBT community outside the flock.
While the rest of the country moves forward — New Hampshire, New York, Iowa, for goodness sake — this place seems perpetually stuck.
It probably helps that Thompson missed the headlines. Still, he’s optimistic.
“You can’t have a defeatist attitude,” he says. “You’ve got to press against it in order to even hope for a change.”
He points to Salt Lake City’s nondiscrimination ordinance and domestic partners registry, an anti-bullying law, polls that show Utahns supported the Common Ground Initiative (even if lawmakers didn’t).
“Maybe they’re not significant in some people’s minds, but there are measurables there,” he says. “People are having conversations. Change is going to come sooner or later.”
See
Walsh: A step back for gay Utahns
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Documentary on murder of a homosexual
PBS will be airing another hard-hitting P.O.V. series documentary, which on June 30 (10 p.m.). “Beyond Hatred” is the story of a family trying to recover after the 2002 murder of a gay man. Here’s a summary from PBS:
“In September 2002, three skinheads were roaming a park in Rheims, France, looking to “do an Arab,” when they settled for a gay man instead. Twenty-nine-year-old François Chenu fought back fiercely, but he was beaten unconscious and thrown into a river, where he drowned. The acclaimed French vérité film Beyond Hatred is the story of the crime’s aftermath; above all, of the Chenu family’s brave and heartrending struggle to seek justice while trying to make sense of such pointless violence and unbearable loss. With remarkable dignity, they fight to transcend hatred and the inevitable desire for revenge.
Shot in direct-cinema style, with dark tones and long, evocative takes, Beyond Hatred forgoes third-party narration to let those who must deal with the crime’s aftermath tell the story — the lawyers and prosecutors as they seek justice through the courts, those who knew the victim and his murderers, and even the father of one of the perpetrators. Most of all we hear from the Chenus: François’ father, Jean-Paul, and mother, Marie-Cécile, and his two brothers and two sisters, as they try to reconstruct what happened and face the horror of François’ last minutes.
You can watch the trailer here. This documentary goes to show that hate crimes are still alive and well worldwide. I hope you’ll tune in. See Documentary on murder of a homosexual
Waterbury Republican American
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The Robert Wone Stabbing: Anatomy of a Murder Case
A 911 call from a million-dollar townhouse in Dupont Circle on a sweltering summer night three years ago:
“We need an ambulance,” Victor Zaborsky blurted, his delicate voice pitched so high that the operator mistook him for a woman.
“What’s wrong, ma’am?”
“We had someone . . . in our house, evidently,” Zaborsky said, gasping, “and they stabbed somebody.”
Over the next eight minutes, stammering breathlessly on the phone, he would report that while he and his two housemates were asleep, an unseen “intruder” had slipped into the residence and attacked a visiting friend of theirs.
“Are they bleeding?” the operator asked. “See someone bleeding?”
“Yes,” said Zaborsky, then 40, in words that echo today: “Someone is bleeding in our house.”
So began a real-life parlor mystery — an unsolved killing and alleged coverup in the guest room of an elegant home in the heart of Washington’s gay community, with a trio of seemingly unlikely suspects: a self-described “polyamorous family” of three men. The bizarre murder that evening of a young Ivy League lawyer named Robert Wone, still grist for gossip and conjecture on the city’s gay blogosphere, has vexed police and prosecutors since the 911 call just before midnight Aug. 2, 2006.
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Sotomayor unlikely to change Court balance
(Washington) In more than 16 years as a federal judge, Sonia Sotomayor has often sided with people claiming discrimination in education and employment. She’s backed police and prosecutors over defendants. She’s upheld assertions of free speech and religion.
Not easily pigeonholed, Sotomayor has also been part of rulings that go the …
Tags: Assertions, Discrimination, Education, Federal Judge, Free Speech, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Prosecutors, Religion
