Virginia governer says no need for LGBT protections
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Thursday he doesn’t see a need for protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
During a regular appearance on WRVA [1], McDonnell said, “I don’t know that we need it based on the numbers that I’ve seen,” when asked if he would sign a bill with LGBT protections.
[2]
“There really isn’t any rampant discrimination on any basis in Virginia,” he said. “If you’re going to have a law, it needs to actually address a real problem.”
McDonnell issued an executive directive banning workplace discrimination, but the directive is not law. Nevertheless, McDonnell said it must be obeyed because discrimination is prohibited in the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions.
[1] http://www.wrva.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=WRVANewsPodcast.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/RICHMOND-VA/WRVA-AM/ASK%20THE%20GOV%203-25_1.mp3?CPROG=PCAST?CCOMRRMID&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=RICHMOND-VA&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&NG_ID=wrva1140am&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=&SERVER_NAME=www.wrva.com&SITE_ID=1249&STATION_ID=WRVA-AM&TRACK=#
[2] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-bob-mcdonnell-top.jpg
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 …
Virginia 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 …
Both 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
Philadelphia Metro
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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 …
Suspects 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 …
4 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 …
In 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 …
