Hillcrest Brewing Company

direct lender payday loans

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Hillcrest Brewing Co., which will have its grand opening next week, is the latest in a long line of local craft brewers. But it’s laying claim to a boast that none others seem to be able to make: the first openly gay brewery in the world.
While it was never the owners’ intent to become the first to develop a brewery catering to the LGBT community, news of its branding has certainly helped raise its profile beyond San Diego County.
“All of our restaurants have always been marketed for the gay community. That’s our passion,” said Chris Shaw, one of the owners, whose Mo’s Universe Family of Restaurants includes Baja Betty’s, Urban Mo’s and Gossip Grill, all in Hillcrest. “We built the place to be comfortable for evyeryone to enjoy, but our primary focus is on the LGBT community.”
The owners, though, are not shy about crowing about their new business’ gay identity, adopting @QueensofBeer as their Twitter handle. “We are queer and we love beer,” reads the description on their Twitter feed.
The new 2,000-square-foot space at 1458 University Ave., will initially feature four of the brewery’s micro brews that will eventually expand to about a dozen. In addition, specialty pizzas, baked in the brewery’s stone ovens, will be served.
The new operation houses two 14-barrel fermenters capable of producing 28 barrels or 58 kegs, Shaw said. Although Hillcrest Brewing Co. opened last Friday, it will celebrate its grand opening on Tuesday.
The idea for a brewery germinated only after a local brewer, David White, who is also gay, approached the restaurant group seeking investors for a brewery, said Stefan Chicote, one of the owners.
“We had been looking at different concepts to complement our other locations,” he said. “We looked at a breakfast club, a supper club, and then David White came knocking on the door, gave us a six-pack of his beer, and Chris said, ‘What do you think of a brewing company?’ I said, stop the bus, that’s it.”
Greg Koch, CEO & Co-Founder of Escondido-based Stone Brewing Co., Southern California’s largest craft brewer, said he welcomes yet another member to the county’s growing club of brewers.
The only prejudice he harbors when it comes to brews is what he calls the “industrial fizzy yellow” stuff.
“I believe as American citizens –21 and over — we have an individual right and freedom to have access to great quality beer,” he said. “But if you want industrial fizzy yellow beer, we don’t offer it for you.
“I just think (the new Hillcrest brewery) is cool because craft beer is cool, and people who make and enjoy craft beer are cool.”
from The Union-Tribune

Representative Marsha Looper

DENVER, COLORADO – Colorado Rep. Marsha Looper’s campaign manager forwarded an e-mail to supporters that praised the lawmaker for voting against civil unions even though she has a gay son.
It’s no secret at the state Capitol that Looper is one of at least four House Republicans with a gay child, but an unwritten courtesy has been to let the lawmaker be the one to publicly reveal that information.
Looper said she has been asked by some voters about her son’s sexuality and has answered honestly, but never meant for it to become so public.
“I’m very, very disappointed,” Looper said, of the e-mail making its way among El Paso County voters. “These are are very intimate issues. I love my son. I always will. He has said, ‘Mom, I want my privacy.’”
Looper, of Calhan, faces Rep. Amy Stephens, of Monument, in the June 26 primary after they were drawn into the same House district during last year’s reapportionment, s parking a contentious inter-party battle over which candidate has conservative credentials.
During last year’s session, when another civil unions bill was introduced, Looper appeared supportive as long as it was not gay marriage. This year, she has been adamantly opposed to civil unions.
Looper’s son lives out of state and was unavailable for comment.
“I wonder if her son appreciates being used in this way,” said House Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino, a gay Denver Democrat who co-sponsored the civil unions measure .
Looper said she doesn’t know who wrote the e-mail, which was forwarded by her campaign manager, Lana Fore-Warkocz, last month.
“I am disappointed that my campaign manager forwarded an e-mail that would include any member of my family in policy discussions,” Looper said in a statement she issued today after being contacted by The Denver Post.
“My opinions, financials and policies are appropriate discussions for the campaign, however my family members’ personal lives are not a legitimate avenue for my campaign, or any other campaign to discuss.”
The e-mail discusses the civil unions bills introduced during the session.
It notes that Looper, during the House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 8, successfully amended Senate Bill 2 “to protect religious organizations and different kinds of counselors from harm for disagreeing with the civil unions provisions had it passed. (Praise God!)”
“God is truly to be praised for Marsha Looper because she also has a homosexual son,” the e-mail reads.
Looper voted against the bill in committee, but did not mention her son. None of the reporters covering the hearing mentioned it either.
Late that night, the bill died on the Republican-controlled House floor without a debate or a vote, sparking an intense showdown between supporters and opponents on what was the second to last day of the session.
During a special session the following week, the bill died in its first committee hearing. At that time, Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, announced he was voting against the bill although he has a gay son.
“He voted against civil unions to uphold the will of Colorado voters,” the e-mail said. “(Praise God!)”
Stephens, the House majority leader, has opposed civil unions legislation, saying backers should to take it to the voters in November and see if there is as much support as they believe there is.
Stephens said she has no comment on the e-mail.
from The Denver Post

NEW YORK – A Lambda Legal client who was violently attacked while trying to dine with friends at a New York City restaurant has recovered $25,000.
On September 18, 2010, Liza Friedlander and two friends went to the breakfast buffet at Sizzler Restaurant 0489, in the Forest Hills section of Queens. What was intended as a relaxing, enjoyable meal turned into a horrifying ordeal of discrimination, violence and degradation. In front of other restaurant patrons, restaurant manager Edgar Orellana shoved Friedlander in the chest, causing her to fall backward, and kicked her while yelling for her to get out of the restaurant and calling her a “fucking dyke.”
The dining room quickly devolved into a threatening scene when patrons began terrorizing Friedlander, screaming at her, and spewing homophobic and hate-filled epithets. A male diner yelled at her, called her a “he-she freak” and demanded that she leave the restaurant. Another man threw objects at Friedlander. He threatened to take Friedlander outside and sexually assault her, saying he would show her “what a dick is.” Fearful for Friedlander’s safety, her friends frantically called 911, as did others at the restaurant during this terrifying ordeal. Police arrived, and a bruised and battered Friedlander was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
In 2011, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on Friedlander’s behalf against Waroge Met, Ltd., doing business as Sizzler Restaurant 0489, and Orellana. The complaint stated that the defendants violated the New York City and State Civil and Human Rights Laws because Friedlander was violently attacked and discriminated against in a place of public accommodation based on her actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex.
The court entered a judgment against the defendants after they offered to allow judgment to be taken against them. Under New York case law, there is “no distinction” between a “judgment on consent,” entered against defendants here, “and a judgment rendered after trial and entered upon a verdict or a decision.”
Says Friedlander:
I was attacked and threatened by people yelling terrible anti-LGBT slurs, throwing things at me and threatening to sexually assault me. On that day, I felt helpless, humiliated and frightened, but today I’m so proud that I stood up and did something about it. No one should have to go through a nightmare like that.
Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Natalie Chin says:
Liza Friedlander experienced violence, discrimination, and degradation at this restaurant because she did not conform to the stereotypes of how a woman should look. This intolerable behavior is prohibited under the New York State and City human rights laws. The result sends a strong message: Violent and discriminatory behavior motivated by bias against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals or transgender people will not be tolerated. Businesses are not exempt from treating LGBT people with dignity and respect.
from Lambda Legal
*
*
*

*

Luka Magnotta

MONTREAL, CANADA – A Montreal teacher has been suspended for showing his 10th grade students the killing and dismemberment video allegedly filmed by Canadian gay porn actor Luka Magnotta, the school board said on Wednesday
The class viewing allegedly took place on the morning of June 4, the same day German authorities captured Magnotta in a Berlin Internet café, ending an international manhunt for the suspected killer. Jun Lin, a 33-year-old student at Montreal’s Concordia University, was killed in late May in one of the city’s grisliest crimes in years.
Police say they believe Magnotta killed and dismembered Lin and posted a 10-minute video of the slaying online. Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said the video shows Magnotta engaged in sexual acts involving body parts and included evidence of cannibalism.
“At the beginning of class each day, history teachers from the school talk about actuality, what happens around Montreal, and that was part of the actuality that day, so he wanted to talk about it, and kids said that they wanted to watch it, so basically he just did what the kids wanted to do,” student Carole-Anne Bouchard-Giroux told CNN affiliate CTV.
One of the vice principals at Cavelier-De LaSalle High School in Montreal overheard two students speaking between classes shortly after the incident, school board representative Jean-Michel Nahas said. The vice principal spoke to several students and decided during lunch to immediately suspend the teacher and launch an investigation. Around 20 students viewed the video, and at least six students sought help from a crisis team of psychologists and counselors that was made available to students after the incident, Nahas said.
The 29-year-old suspended teacher wrote the vice principal an e-mail later in the day apologizing for his actions and was “sorry for all the damages that could have been caused by the video,” Nahas said. Nahas said the school board is not releasing the teacher’s name because of the ongoing investigation.
Nahas said he still wasn’t sure how the teacher was technically capable of showing the video. “There are many filters on the computers at the school and when we tried to view it ourselves, we were not able to,” he said. “It was impossible to view it [over the school Internet connection] so we don’t know how he was even able to.”
Additional psychologists and counselors were made available to students again Wednesday because of the sudden media attention.
The suspended teacher met with the school board Wednesday afternoon in Montreal. The board wants to know “why he did it, if he has any justification of it, and what he has to say about it,” Nahas said while the meeting was in progress.
A statement released after the meeting said the board met with the teacher, who presented his version of events. The school board will investigate further before deciding the fate of the teacher, the release said. The school and the board “reiterate that this is an unconscionable act for which all consequences are considered, up to dismissal of the teacher,” the release said.
The teacher is suspended with pay pending completion of the board’s investigation.
from CNN
*
*
*
Related Posts:

Friends Of Canada Victim Remember Him

Luka Rocco Magnotta Arrested In Germany

Canada Body Parts Victim Was Suspect’s Chinese Gay Lover

Gay Porn Actor Suspect In Body Parts Murder Case

Thapelo Makutle

KURUMAN, SOUTH AFRICA – A 23-year-old black South African was killed last week in an apparent hate crime after getting into an argument about his sexuality, according to South African reports.
Thapelo Makutle, who lived an openly gay and transgender life in Kuruman township in the Northern Cape province, was found Friday with his throat cut in the room where he lived, according to reports.
Shaine Griqua, director of Legbo Northern Cape, a lobby group for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, said in a phone interview that the group was trying to clarify details of the crime after initial reports incorrectly said the man was beheaded.
Makutle was a volunteer with Legbo Northern Cape and worked in a furniture shop.
According to the reports, witnesses said two heterosexual men accosted Makutle about his sexual orientation and appearance. Some reports cited the witnesses as saying the men followed him home, but those reports couldn’t be confirmed.
One of Makutle’s friends, Mosiama Boyang, 23, was at a nightclub with Makutle the night of the slaying. He said in a phone interview that Makutle left about 1 a.m. and planned to walk home.
Murders, beatings and rapes of LGBT people in South Africa are frequent and force some to live underground and hide their identities, but Makutle was open and proud of who he was, according to his friend.
“He was very active and outspoken,” said Boyang. “He would shop. He loved clothing. He was very fashionable kind of person. He was fun-loving and outgoing and that’s what he loved to do, socialize with other people.”
He said Makutle was survived by two brothers and his mother. He told them he was gay about seven years ago, according to Boyang.
“It was not an issue for the family,” he said. “They accepted him because they knew him.”
Boyang said Makutle recently attended a Miss Gay Kuruman pageant, but that he didn’t enter the pageant, as some media reports have suggested.
South Africa guarantees the rights of LGBT people, though hate crimes are not uncommon. A lesbian in the Northern Province was recently stabbed in a bar, according the Legbo Northern Cape.
Traditionalists, led by the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, are campaigning to have the equal rights clause for LGBT people removed from the constitution.
Harassment of LGBT people occurs in many countries in Africa, and homosexuality is illegal in many nations. In Uganda, legislator David Bahati pressed for a measure to impose in the death penalty for homosexuality, but the bill was shelved following a storm of international criticism. He reintroduced the bill, which dropped the capital punishment clause but increased the penalties for homosexuality, in February to applause from fellow legislators.
In October 2010, a Ugandan newspaper published a list of dozens of gay people with photographs, under the heading “Hang Them.”  Ugandan gay activist David Kato, among those who picture was published, was slain with a hammer several months later.
from The Los Angeles Times