Court nixes $5M verdict against Phelps
(Richmond, Va.) A federal appeals court on Thursday tossed out a $5 million verdict against protesters who carried signs with inflammatory messages like “Thank God for dead soldiers” outside the Maryland funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said …
Tags: 5 Million, Circuit Court Of Appeals, Court Of Appeals, Dead Soldiers, Federal Appeals Court, God, Inflammatory Messages, Judge Panel, Marine Killed In Iraq, Phelps, Protesters, Richmond, Richmond Va, SignsVirginia gov candidate wrote anti-gay masters thesis
(Richmond, Va) Virginia’s Republican candidate for governor said Monday he no longer believes his argument in a graduate thesis written 20 years ago that discrimination against gays and other groups is acceptable for the benefit of straight, married couples.
Bob McDonnell’s research paper, first reported Sunday by The Washington Post, shakes …
Tags: Anti Gay, Benefit, Bob Mcdonnell, Discrimination, Gay Masters, Gay Richmond, Gay Virginia, Gays, Graduate Thesis, Married Couples, Masters Thesis, Republican Candidate, Research Paper, Richmond, Richmond Va, Richmond Virginia, Virginia Gov, Virginia Governor, Washington PostBoth black and gay: Internal rights fight
It was already challenging enough for Cornelius Jones Jr. to grow up being black in the racially-tense South.
But facing the prejudices of the people outside the African American community wouldn’t be the hardest struggle of his life. Even from the young age of 5, Jones had a sense of the obstacles he would face on the inside.
“I didn’t want to be associated with the weakness and nastiness that gay people were defined by in my neighborhood,” Jones remembers of his time growing up on a predominantly black street in Richmond, Va. “In my neighborhood, church and school, gays were constantly shunned, ridiculed and picked on.”
When he was 15, Jones moved to Washington, D.C. to stay with family friends and attend a performing arts high school — “and also to get away from the constant bullying I received,” he said. But they soon learned that he was gay and he was kicked out of the house. It was then that he had to confront his parents with his real identity.
His mother gave him one piece of advice: “Do what you do behind closed doors.”
It would be a lifetime of pain and struggle that would teach him that his mother’s advice was no way to awaken a black community deeply rooted in religion to the rights of gays. And it would be events like the passage of Proposition 8 — the anti-gay marriage measure in California that 70 percent of blacks voted for — that would be a platform for him to open the doors.
See Both black and gay: Internal rights fight
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Dems too gay for Liberty U
(Richmond, Virginia) Liberty University - the Virginia college founded by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell - has stripped its fledgling College Democrats club of official recognition, saying the party stands against the conservative Christian school’s moral principles.
Vice president of student affairs Mark Hine said in an e-mail to club President …
Tags: Club President, College Democrats, Conservative Christian, E Mail, Fledgling, Gay Richmond, Gay Virginia, Hine, Jerry Falwell, Liberty University, Moral Principles, Richmond, Richmond University, Richmond Virginia, Student Affairs, Televangelist, Vice President, Virginia College, Virginia Liberty, Virginia UniversitySuspects in alleged gang rape of Richmond lesbian plead not guilty
Three suspects in the alleged gang rape of a lesbian woman in Richmond pleaded not guilty Thursday and were likely to remain jailed until a judge decides whether there’s enough evidence to put them on trial.
Lawyers for Humberto Hernandez Salvador, 31, Josue Gonzalez, 21, and Darrell Hodges, 16, entered the pleas to charges that included kidnapping, carjacking, gang rape and sodomy in the Dec. 13 attack. See Suspects in alleged gang rape of Richmond lesbian plead not guilty
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Court appearance for accused in lesbian gang rape case
(Martinez, California) Two men and a teenager were formally charged Tuesday in the alleged gang rape of a lesbian in the San Francisco Bay area.
Humberto Hernandez Salvador, 31, and Josue Gonzalez, 21, were charged with kidnapping, carjacking and gang rape in the attack last month in Richmond.
Hate-crime enhancements were added …
Tags: Alleged Gang Rape, Carjacking, Case Martinez, Court Appearance, Enhancements, Francisco Bay Area, Gang Rape Case, Hate Crime, Josue, Lesbian Rape, Martinez California, Richmond, San Francisco Bay, San Francisco Bay Area, Teenager, Two Men4 Arrested in lesbian gang rape case
(Richmond, California) Two men and two teens have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian.
Officers arrested Humberto Hernandez Salvador at his Richmond home, Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said. The 31-year-old is being …
Tags: Francisco Bay Area, Gagan, Gang Rape Case, Lesbian Rape, Police Lt, Richmond, Richmond California, Richmond Police, San Francisco Bay, San Francisco Bay Area, Suspicion, Teens, Two Men, WomanIn Wake of Prop 8, Attack on gay woman in Richmond reflects continuing trend
RICHMOND — News this week of arrests in the Dec. 13 gang rape of a lesbian brought relief to many in the community, some of whom were so outraged that they led police to breaks in the case.
But even as the resolution is lauded, gay-rights advocates and local and national crime statistics portray a gloomy truth about hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation.
Until the root causes of bias toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are addressed, “we’ll continue to have hate perpetrated against us,” said Shawna Virago, a program director for the San Francisco-based advocacy group Community United Against Violence.
The group reported 304 crimes against Bay Area gays in 2007, the latest year for which complete statistics were available. That amounted to an approximate 6 percent increase from 2006.
Nationally, the FBI recorded 1,265 crimes deemed to have been motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation in 2007, a slight increase from the 1,195 tallied a year earlier but a 24 percent jump from 2005 figures.
Data compiled by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs — which counts the San Francisco group among its members — show national numbers to be considerably higher, from 1,486 incidents in 2006 to 1,833 the following year.
See Attack on gay woman in Richmond reflects continuing trend
San Jose Mercury News,
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4 sought in gang rape of lesbian
(San Francisco, California) Police in Richmond, northeast of San Francisco, are hunting four men accused of the brutal kidnapping and gang rape of a lesbian. Investigators have appealed to the public for help and have posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrests and conviction of the men.
Police …
Tags: Brutal Rape, California Police, Conviction, Four Men, Gang Rape, Investigators, Lesbian San Francisco, Richmond, San Francisco CaliforniaPolice offer $10K reward in lesbian gang rape
SAN FRANCISCO—Police in Richmond are offering a $10,000 reward for information in the alleged gang rape of a woman who authorities say was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building.
Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked on Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.
Along with the brutality of the assault, the fact that the woman may have been targeted because she was gay has unnerved the officers assigned to the case, Gagan said. They went public with some details about the case over the weekend hoping it would motivate witnesses to come forward with information about the suspects, who have not been apprehended.
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San Jose Mercury News, US
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