04.21.06
Posted in Advocate Articles at 12:39 pm by pikapp44
Two men were arrested last week in connection with a tire iron attack on two gay American tourists in St. Martin, prosecutors said Wednesday in Philipsburg, after refusing for two days to confirm or deny local media reports to that effect. One of the two men, neither of whom was identified, was still in detention, and more arrests were on the way, said St. Martin chief prosecutor Taco Stein.
“This guy is talking,” Stein said. “And according to the information he’s giving us, we expect to arrest at least three other men.” The second man was released for lack of evidence, he added.
Stein confirmed local media reports that the arrests were made at Bamboo Bernie’s, the popular nightspot where New York journalists Richard Jefferson, 51, and Ryan Smith, 25, were attacked April 6.
Smith and Jefferson, a senior broadcast producer for CBS’s national evening news, were airlifted for medical treatment to Miami. Jefferson, who has been released, said Smith is being treated for brain damage.
Jefferson said the three assailants yelled antigay slurs at his friends earlier that evening, and he faulted local authorities for not speaking to witnesses the night of the crime or pursuing leads. “The people who harmed us are well-known punks,” he told reporters last week. “People in the community know who these guys are. They are not talking to the police. The entire island is watching something bad happening.”
St. Martin is a popular Caribbean tourist destination, control of which is divided between France and the Netherlands. (AP)
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Posted in E's Thoughts at 12:36 pm by pikapp44
A prominent business journal in Kentucky has come out against Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher’s recent elimination of antidiscrimination workplace protections for gays and lesbians. In an editorial today, Tom Martin, editor-in-chief of Business Lexington, lambasted Fletcher’s action, saying that the governor has “undermined” the ability of Lexington, Louisville, and other Kentucky cities to attract new business, from industry conventions to companies thinking about relocating.
“Governor Fletcher may or may not be pandering to the most extreme social and religious conservatives among his voter-base. That’s a political matter,” Martin wrote. “Our concern is for the well being of our business community. And in any case, either way, this policy sends Kentucky stumbling backward, even as the nation and the world have moved on.”
He added: “With the stroke of a pen, Governor Fletcher has undermined the efforts of our urban centers, which have local antidiscrimination statutes shielding gays and lesbians, to present themselves to prospective new businesses and residents as progressive and fair-minded.”
Lexington’s 1999 Fairness Ordinance included sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected class in the city’s policy against discrimination in housing, employment, and public accomodations. Other areas of the state have similar protections.
In the editorial, Martin pointed out that after Cincinnati, Ohio, passed an antigay charter in 1994, the city lost $46 million or more in convention business, as several firms that had considered having their conventions there decided to go elsewhere. “Under the watch of Gov. Ernie Fletcher, the state of Kentucky now harms corporate recruiting,” he wrote. (The Advocate)
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04.17.06
Posted in Gay Rights at 3:23 pm by pikapp44
WASHINGTON — Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese made the following statement regarding comments Justice Antonin Scalia made recently at a Swiss law school claiming there is no constitutional right to “homosexual conduct.”
“Justice Scalia stubbornly refuses to see that all Americans have a right to liberty and privacy under the law,” said Solmonese. “Justice Scalia was dangerously out-of-step with Americans in 2003 when the Supreme Court decided this question and he remains so today.”
Solmonese continued, “This is just the latest example of why it’s so critical that fair-minded Americans think of the court when they head to the ballot box. With the Supreme Court tipping further to the right, these sentiments could one day become reality.”
According to a clip aired on CNN, on March 8, 2006, Scalia told students at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland:
“Question comes up: is there a constitutional right to homosexual conduct? Not a hard question for me. It’s absolutely clear that nobody ever thought when the Bill of Rights was adopted that it gave a right to homosexual conduct. Homosexual conduct was criminal for 200 years in every state. Easy question.”
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04.06.06
Posted in Advocate Articles at 9:35 am by pikapp44
April 06, 2006
The antigay American Family Association is at it again, this time threatening Wal-Mart for selling DVDs of Brokeback Mountain.
The AFA is rallying its followers to contact the big-box retailer and request that the Oscar-winning film not be stocked in stores. This latest AFA campaign, following on the heels of the group’s continued boycott of Ford Motor Co. for advertising in gay publications, including The Advocate, is currently being shrugged off by Wal-Mart, which on Wednesday began selling DVDs of the gay love story throughout its 3,900 stores.
While not giving in to the AFA, Benton, Ark.–based Wal-Mart made no comment regarding its position on gay rights, telling the Los Angeles Times its decision to stock Brokeback is purely financial.
“The fact that we are offering the movie is not an endorsement of the content of the movie or any specific belief,” said spokeswoman Jolanda Stewart. “We simply offer the latest titles that consumers want.”
However, AFA special projects director Randy Sharp doesn’t care what Wal-Mart’s reasoning is. “[Wal-Mart] is trying to help normalize homosexuality in society,” Sharp told the Times. “But how many copies are they going to have to sell to recruit [sic] the losses of customers who they’ve offended and will no longer shop at Wal-Mart?”
It’s not clear how many people will be offended by the presence of Brokeback on Wal-Mart’s shelves—the film grossed over $83 million domestically and another $83 million internationally. (The Advocate)
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Posted in D's Thoughts at 9:30 am by pikapp44
PlanetOut Network
published Tuesday, April 4, 2006
U.S. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., announced Tuesday that he supports marriage equality for same-sex couples.
“Gay and lesbian couples should be able to marry and have access to the same rights, privileges and benefits that straight couples currently enjoy,” Feingold said in a statement opposing a proposed constitutional amendment facing Wisconsin voters. If passed, the measure would deny marriage equality and block recognition of civil unions or domestic partnerships.
“Denying people this basic American right is the kind of discrimination that has no place in our laws, especially in a progressive state like Wisconsin. The time has come to end this discrimination and the politics of divisiveness that has become part of this issue,” the Wisconsin senator said.
Feingold becomes the fourth U.S. senator to support marriage equality, along with Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
“I think it’s terrific,” said Evan Wolfson, the executive director of Freedom to Marry. “I think (Feingold) has given one more indication that as people think this through, they realize, as he said, that it’s time to end this discrimination.”
Wolfson did not think Feingold’s announced position on same-sex marriage would hurt the senator’s presidential ambitions, even though a recent study from the Pew Center showed 51 percent of those Americans polled opposed same-sex marriage.
“I think that the American people are grappling with this, but will respect leadership and will be willing to fight for a candidate’s convictions,” Wolfson said.
Feingold has not formally announced a White House run. A year ago, though, he created a political action committee, the Progressive Patriots Fund, to fund travel and to make campaign donations, according to the Associated Press. Politicians often use such PACs to build support for presidential runs, and Feingold’s has found backing in Hollywood and elsewhere.
“Sen. Feingold’s announcement today is more than an important step forward in the struggle for equal rights,” said Matt Foreman, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
“At long last, progressive and fair-minded Americans have a leader taking the ethically and morally correct stand for marriage equality — no equivocation, waffling or hairsplitting,” Foreman said.
“This is the kind of courageous, principled and clear leadership this country so desperately needs,” he said.
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Posted in Advocate Articles at 9:26 am by pikapp44
PlanetOut Network
published Tuesday, April 4, 2006
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. shareholders will decide whether to amend the company’s equal employment policy to exclude sexual orientation after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission denied Ford’s request to keep the issue off its proxy statement, the automaker said Tuesday.
Ford’s policy now says the company won’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, religion and other factors. Shareholder Robert Hurley of Alton, Ill., has submitted a proposal recommending Ford change its policy to exclude any reference to sexual interests, activities or orientation.
Ford asked the SEC to exclude the proposal from its proxy statement, saying it would hurt the company’s ability to recruit employees because some universities require companies to include sexual orientation in their policies. Ford also said publicity over changing the policy could hurt sales to gay rights supporters.
But in a recent decision, the SEC said Ford can’t exclude the proposal. The SEC said a rule that allows companies to reject proposals that deal with “ordinary business operations” doesn’t apply to this case.
Ford is sending its proxy statement to shareholders Friday, spokeswoman Becky Sanch said. Shareholders will vote on the proposals and the results will be announced at the company’s annual meeting May 11.
“We will include it, and we will have our comments in the proxy statement,” Sanch said.
Ford has had an ongoing struggle with the American Family Association and other right-wing groups about homosexuality. In December, Ford said it would stop advertising its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands in gay publications to reduce marketing costs. But after meeting with several gay rights groups, Ford said it would put ads featuring all eight of its brands in gay publications.
Last month, 19 right-wing groups reinstated a boycott against Ford over the issue. The American Family Association said Tuesday that it supports the SEC’s decision.
“I find Ford’s logic in asking the SEC to omit the resolution interesting,” AFA Chairman Don Wildmon said in a statement. “In essence Ford is saying they are concerned that a boycott by homosexual groups would financially hurt the company, but the boycott by the pro-family groups will not.”
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