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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE July 3, 2009
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www.GayPeoples Chronicle.com
Police raid Fort Worth bar, leave one man in hospital
Mayor wants probe of violent incident on same day and time as Stonewall
by Angela K. Brown
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fort Worth, Texas-Two city officials are seeking an investigation into a violent police raid on a gay bar-on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall raid that sparked the modern gay civil rights movement.
The raid on the Rainbow Lounge left one man hospitalized for head injuries and resulted in a number of arrests for what the police called "intoxication."
"I've asked for as thorough a report as possible... to reassure folks that the police are not singling out any group," gay Fort Worth councilor Joel Burns said on June 29.
He said he was particularly disappointed that the raid in the wee hours of June 28 occurred at almost the same time and date that New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn. That 1969 raid touched off a riot and subsequent demonstrations commemorated by the annual Pride events
Burns said Fort Worth police were unaware of the anniversary.
Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks, also
Unskinny bop
calling for an investigation, said she was "very concerned" after hearing from patrons and others in the community about the early Sunday morning raid.
More than 100 people gathered outside the Tarrant County Courthouse on June 28 to protest what they said was police harassment and abuse.
One of those arrested during the raid, Chad Gibson, 26, remains hospitalized with bleeding on the brain, his sister Kristy Morgan said.
Gibson is not violent, and "for anyone to come back and say he did something to provoke this is ludicrous," she told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW.
Fort Worth police went to the Rainbow Lounge with Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents early Sunday as part of routine alcoholic beverage code inspections, said police Sgt. Chad Mahaffey. They first went to two other bars, where ten people were arrested, he said.
Officers then went to the Rainbow Lounge, which had opened about a week ago. They encountered two drunk
ROBERT OLAYAS
Bret Michaels hits a triple in the Cleveland Trash vs. Pittsburgh Trash drag softball game on June 21, the day after Cleveland Pride.
While the post-Pride drag ball game is tradition, North Coast Softball commissioner Rob Gallagher decided this year to add a new twist, contacting Pittsburgh commissioner Jim Sampson to see if they might want to participate as well, bringing the Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh rivalry to a new level.
Sampson readily agreed, bringing nine players on the Steel City Softball League along.
Next year, Cleveland will return the favor, heading out to Pennsylvania to see if they can overcome the home field advantage.
This year, that worked in Cleveland's favor, securing a 7-5 victory in the game.
-Anthony Glassman
Pencil Paintings
by Mary Hobbs
440.247.4275
E-mail: maryhobbs@sbcglobal.net
or visit
www.maryhobbs.net
people who made "sexually explicit movements" toward officers and another who grabbed a TABC agent's groin, according to the police report.
Chad Gibson
Witnesses say the sexual movement and groping claims are lies.
No one was charged with assaultwhich would result from the groping claim-but about half a dozen people were arrested on charges of public intoxication, according to police records.
Police Chief Jeff Halstead said Gibson was the patron who grabbed at the agent's groin. Gibson was so drunk he was vomiting and struck his head when he fell, the chief said. Gibson was arrested, but was taken to the hospital instead of jail.
Halstead said he did not have additional details about how Gibson was injured.
The department has started an internal investigation into the raid, he said.
The TABC is waiting on a report from the Fort Worth office, but "given the concerns that have been raised, it would not be unusual" for an internal investigation to be done, said agency spokeswoman Carolyn Beck.
George Armstrong, 41, said he had been at the Rainbow Lounge about 30 minutes when officers stormed inside. He smiled and flashed a peace sign at one officer, but was then grabbed and tackled to the floor with his arm twisted behind his back, he said.
"He was yelling at me to stop resisting arrest, but I wasn't doing anything. It was horrible. I really thought he had broken my shoulder,” Armstrong said Monday. “I've never been so embarrassed and humiliated. I didn't do anything to him."
Armstrong, who was arrested, said he noticed that other people who were arrested were injured or said they had been tackled by police.
Armstrong said he was released from jail the next day and went to a hospital, where his arm was put in a sling after X-rays determined his shoulder and back were severely bruised and strained.
Armstrong said he didn't see anyone inside the Rainbow Lounge make lewd gestures or grab the officers.
"To me, it seemed like they were trying to make a point," he said of the police.
Ohio schools are unsafe for LGBT kids, report says
by Eric Resnick
"Ohio schools were not a safe place for many LGBT secondary students," says a research brief released by the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network on June 17.
The study, which surveyed 244 high school students in Ohio and 6,209 nationally, is a follow-up to the 2007 National School Climate Survey, which came to similar conclusions.
In Ohio, the study concludes, LGBT students still lack access to important school resources such as gay-straight alliances, and are not protected by comprehensive school anti-harassment policies.
Almost all of the Ohio LGBT students-97%-reported regularly hearing the word "gay" used as an insult. Some said it was frequently used this
way.
• Over three-quarters, 78%, regularly heard homophobic epithets like "faggot" and "dyke" from other students.
• Negative remarks on gender expression were heard from classmates by 88% of Ohio students.
• In addition, these students regularly hear staff and teachers make the same sort of remarks.
• Most Ohio LGBT students, 87%, were harassed during the past year due to their sexual orientation, and half48% of that harassment was physical.
• Sixty-five percent of students who were harassed or assaulted never reported the incident; at the same time, only 30% said that reporting the incident led to an effective intervention.
"It is clear that there is a need for action to create safe school environments for Ohio students," the report continues. "All Ohio schools and school districts should implement safe school policies that offer explicit protection to students who are most often the targets of bullying and harassment based on personal characteristics, such as
sexual orientation and gender identity and expression."
This recommendation almost became Ohio law a few years ago, but it was kept out of the measure.
Ohio Senate Education Committee chair Gary Cates, a West Chester Republican, helped block a 2006 attempt to include protection for LGBT students in an anti-bullying law that eventually passed without it.
Cates was asked to comment on this latest GLSEN report, and released a statement through spokesperson Sarah Spence.
"As the father of a child who switched schools because of bullying, I believe that bullying is bullying no matter what the reason. No child should be subject to that kind of intimidation in school regardless of age, race, religion, sexual orientation, weight, hair color or shoe size. However, placing special qualifiers into law singling out a certain group of students only serves to weaken the law because then one would have to try to list every possible instance in which bullying could occur," Cates said.
Cates, a civil engineer, was present during the 2006 hearings as witnesses explained that the ambiguous language Cates champions is unenforceable and leaves LGBT students unprotected.
"Enumeration is the essential device used to make the duty not to discrimination concrete and to provide guidance for those who must comply," wrote Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in Romer v. Evans, which struck down a Colorado ban on gay and lesbian equal rights laws.
As vice chair of the committee at the time, Cates helped pull the rest of the Republicans into the position he holds. today.
Pressed with Kennedy's declaration, Spence replied, "Senator Cates watched what his son endured and is concerned for any child subjected to bullying. With all due respect to your opinion, nothing in his statement suggests otherwise."