Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere

Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere, a New Jersey couple married in 2010, were horrified when a photo of them kissing at their engagement party was altered and turned up in an anti-gay unions mailer 2,000 miles away.
The playful photo had been posted on Edwards’ personal blog and was originally set against the backdrop of the New York City skyline.
But the doctored photo showed the gay couple standing in a snowy Colorado setting and was used in a political campaign to attack a Republican who supported civil union legislation.
The tagline for the ad, which was sponsored by Public Advocate of the United States, was: “State Sen. Jean White’s Idea of ‘Family Values?’” White later lost the primary.
Now, with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the couple and photographer Kristina Hill are threatening to sue the organization behind the ad and its president, Eugene Delgaudio, if they do not stop using the photo.
“Our initial reaction was complete shock,” said Privitere, 37, who works in entertainment ticketing and lives with Edwards in Montclair, N.J. The couple has been together for 12 years.
“We were heartbroken to see that our picture that was taken to represent love and family, and our values, and to share with other LGBT couples, was used for complete opposite purposes to induce fear and spread hate and bigotry,” he said.
Public Advocate, based in Falls Church, Va., is on the SPLC’s 2011 hate group list. It never had permission to use the photo, according to Hill, who runs her own wedding photography business.
Delgaudio, who is head of the board of supervisors for Loudon County in Virginia, told ABCNews.com that he has not yet received SPLC’s letter and is “looking into the matter.”
“I am searching whether or not we have the photo,” he said. “I have not commented on this ever and I have no statements on it. … Someone could do this without my permission — but I am working on it.”
Public Advocate, a grassroots advocacy organization, claimed that “thousands flock” to its website and called the Southern Poverty Law Center a “prehistoric dinosaur.”
“I have no idea what that means,” SPLC lawyer Christine Sun told ABCNews.com.
She said Public Advocate has 10 days to respond to her letter and then SPLC will make legal copyright claims for Hill and state law privacy claims and infliction of emotion distress on behalf of Edwards and Tom Privitere.
“Beyond a lawsuit … we decided to get involved because these actions are truly reprehensible — to take a personal photo of the happiest day in a couple’s life and use it in a homophobic attack ad,” said Sun. “It’s demonizing, unfair and unjustifiable.”
The couple learned the photo had been taken without authorization from a friend who saw it in a mailer from Sen. White and called them in June.
“Our immediate reaction was to find out where it had come from,” said Edwards, 32, a college administrator. “We scoured the Internet and found an article in the Denver Post to find out more.”
“We went through the whole process of anger and heartbreak,” said Privitere. “And now that we are on this road, we are trying to get some justice not just for us, but for other couples.”
SPLC’s criteria for listing hate groups is based on those who “demonize” a class of people with “misinformation and lies,” according to Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC Intelligence Project. Such groups include the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Semitic organizations, neo-Nazis and black supremacy groups.
“There are only a handful of anti-gay groups,” said Beirich. “We don’t list those who are against gay marriage or the Biblical prescription against gay marriage — only the groups that are engaged in demonizing propaganda and lies about the gay community and basically lying about them to make them pariahs.”
Previous campaigns by Public Advocate include:
A fundraising letter asking recipients to “imagine a world where police allow homosexual adults to rape young boys on the streets?”
Comparing same-sex marriage to bestiality.
Suggesting having gays as Boy Scout leaders is “the same as being an accessory to the rape of hundreds of boys.”
Characterizing campaigns to stop anti-LGBT bullying as “requir[ing] schools to teach appalling homosexual acts … force private and even religious schools to teach a pro-homosexual agenda.”
“I use colorful language and hyperbole, but when I say something like, ‘Keep Obama away from your children,’ I am not stupid, I know it’s hyperbole,” said Delgaudio.
“We definitely have 2,000 photos and in the neighborhood of 80 to 100 videos on my website, and if someone doesn’t want us to use it, we take it off,” he said. “We seek permission or we take the stuff off that’s not in the public domain.
“This may be the first objection in 30 years,” Delgaudio said. “Frankly, we are not distributing this photo and I’d be hard pressed to find anything today. Mostly, this an attack on me from previous statements I’ve made.”
As SPLC waits for or a response from Public Advocate before the threatened legal action, Edwards and Privitere hope the incident is a teachable moment.
“We want to use this as an opportunity to educate people and show them that a gay couple can and do have loving relationships,” said Edwards.
“This sort of thing has a trickle-down effect,” said Privitere. “I think of all the closeted gay high school students who got mail that day and felt disheartened that they would never have a family and the parents on the fence about whether to accept their gay child for who they are. That hurts.
“These people are spreading lies, and I want them [recipients of the mailers] to know they have our support,” he added.
from ABC News

Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean’s album “Channel Orange” already is one of the most widely discussed and highly praised albums of the year, but don’t look to buy at a Target store when the physical CD is released next week.
The Minneapolis-based retail giant has announced it won’t stock the album, which has generated massive interest since the R&B singer revealed recently that some songs were inspired by a gay relationship he once had.
But after initially suggesting that Target’s decision may have been related to Ocean’s sexual orientation, his manager, Christian Clancy, has backed down and said Target’s decision was a response to the release of Ocean’s album a week early in digital form exclusively on iTunes.
A Target statement, reported by MTV News, explained that “At Target, we focus on offering our guests a wide assortment of physical CDs, so our selection of new releases is dedicated to physical CDs rather than titles that are released digitally in advance of the street date.”
In addition, the statement refuted Clancy’s allusion in a since-deleted Tweet on Tuesday that the decision had anything to do with the musician’s sexuality.
“The claims made about Target’s decision to not carry the Frank Ocean album are absolutely false,” the statement said. “Target supports inclusivity and diversity in every aspect of our business. Our assortment decisions are based on a number of factors, including guest demand.
“Target has a longstanding tradition of supporting music and artistry that reflects the diverse landscape of American culture,” the statement added. “Our history of partnering with diverse artists includes recent partnerships with a variety of musicians, such as Ricky Martin, B.o.B., and Gloria Estefan.”
Target also stocks albums by gay artists including Adam Lambert and Elton John, and recently began selling gay pride T-shirts and donating proceeds to the Family Equality Council, which supports the rights of LGBT parents.
Clancy deleted his original Tweet and later sent another that said: “Note to self: Take your own advice. Emotional knee-jerk reacting isn’t the move.”
His original Tweet said “Target has refused to carry Frank’s album because of iTunes exclusive. Interesting since they also donate to non-equal rights organizations.”
It was a reference to a Target donation to the group Minneapolis Forward, which had supported several candidates including gubernatorial hopeful Tom Emmer, who reportedly had supported an anti-gay ministry. MoveOn.org, the liberal advocacy group, boycotted Target in 2010 because of the $150,000 donation.
from The Los Angeles Times
*
*
*
Related Post:

Frank Ocean Says His First Love Was A Man

SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA – A lesbian couple filed a federal lawsuit in California on Thursday seeking to solve their immigration woes and put a stop to the deportation of same-sex spouses.
The suit – which seeks class-action status – was filed on behalf of Philippines citizen Jane DeLeon, who was sponsored for a green card by her employer but can’t get a waiver she needs to obtain residency here because the U.S. government doesn’t recognize her three-year marriage to her American spouse.
The case is one of a number of challenges brought by same-sex couples – some of them facing immigration troubles – over the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that prohibits the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex marriages.
“It’s clearly the kind of case where typically the waiver would have been granted, but it was simply denied based on DOMA,” said Peter Schey, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, which filed the suit on behalf of the couple and DeLeon’s 26-year-old son.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment on individual cases. The agency said it will continue to enforce the Act “unless and until Congress repeals it or there a final judicial determination that it is unconstitutional.”
In addition to solving DeLeon’s immigration problems, the couple is seeking an injunction to halt the deportation of immigrants in same-sex marriages who would qualify for legal status, were it not for the Act.
According to a copy of the lawsuit, DeLeon, an accounting clerk from Irvine, is eligible for a green card but needs a waiver because she entered the country more than two decades ago as if she were married when she was actually in a common law relationship with Joseph Armas.
A waiver application must show that a foreign citizen’s absence from the country could cause extreme hardship to an American citizen spouse or parent.
But federal immigration authorities last year denied her application for a waiver on the basis of her 2008 marriage in California to 49-year-old American Irma Rodriguez, even though Rodriguez suffers from a medical condition that could make moving to the Philippines devastating to her health.
The government told DeLeon that Rodriguez did not qualify as a relative because of the Act, according to the lawsuit.
In April, immigration advocates sued in New York on behalf of several married gay couples, alleging the law violated their constitutional rights by preventing them from sponsoring their spouses for green cards.
from The Associated Press
*
*
*

*

Daniel Zamudio

SANTIAGO, CHILE – Chile’s president signed an anti-discrimination law Thursday following the killing of a gay man beaten by attackers who carved swastikas into his body.
The law was approved in May after being stuck in Congress for seven years. President Sebastian Pinera had urged lawmakers to speed its approval after the slaying of Daniel Zamudio in March set off a national debate about hate crimes in Chile.
Zamudio was found beaten and mutilated in a city park, with swastikas carved into his body. The U.N. human rights office had urged Chile to pass legislation against hate crimes and discrimination after the killing. Many people in Chile refer to the new measure, which enables people to file anti-discrimination lawsuits and adds hate-crime sentences for violent crimes, as the Zamudio law.
“Without a doubt, Daniel’s death was painful but it was not in vain,” Pinera said at a press conference joined by Zamudio’s parents.
“His passing not only unified wills to finally approve this anti-discrimination law but it also helped us examine our conscience and ask ourselves: have we ever discriminated someone? … After his death we’ll think twice, thrice or four times before we fall prey to that behavior.”
Four suspects, some with criminal records for attacks on homosexuals, have been jailed in Zamudio’s killing. Prosecutors are seeking murder charges.
Chile remains among the most socially conservative countries in Latin America. It legalized divorce in 2004, becoming one of the last nations in the world to grant married couples that right.
Some Protestant churches had opposed the anti-discrimination law, saying it could be a first step toward gay marriage, which Chile forbids and which is not explicitly included in the measure.
The Roman Catholic Church, which retains a strong influence over Chilean society, also expressed some concerns about the law, but gay and human rights activists hailed the measure as a step toward equality.
“This law is a giant leap toward creating tools that can prevent and punish discrimination,” Gay Liberation and Integration Movement President Rolando Jimenez told the Associated Press. “There’s still a lot to be done and we need the institutions to enforce it.”
Lawmakers are also preparing to debate a civil union law proposed by Pinera that would grant inheritance and other rights to same-sex couples.
from The Associated Press
*
*
*
Related Posts:

Chile’s Congress Passes Anti-Discrimination Law

Neo-Nazi Killing Of Gay Man Moves Chile Toward Law