Michelle Shocked

one hour payday loans

Shocked may be an understatement.
Grammy-nominated folk singer Michelle Shocked took a San Francisco audience by surprise Sunday night, launching into a fire-and-brimstone rant about same-sex marriage and California’s Proposition 8 during her second set.
“When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilization, and Jesus will come back,” a visibly agitated Shocked told the crowd at Yoshi’s, the majority of whom walked out of the concert.
Shocked, who had long been a lefty but converted to born-again Christianity in the 1990s, seemed to have planned her oratory beforehand.
“You are going to leave here and tell people, ‘Michelle Shocked said God hates f—–s,’” Shocked said, according to several audience members.
Shocked told the crowd to use social media to promote Proposition 8, the voter initiative that banned gay marriage in California, and went on to deliver Bible verses in Spanish and English.
Thank you for coming, ladies and gentlemen. This show is over,” the club’s manager announced over the public address system.
“It’s not over,” Shocked fired back. She continued to sing, but Yoshi’s management cut off her mic and turned off the stage lights, according to The Bay Area Reporter.
Derek Hunter, Yoshi’s artistic director, issued a statement about the confrontational performance.
“This was Michelle Shock’s third visit to Yoshi’s San Francisco; her first was March 2009. She has never given any indication that she is anti-gay or racist in her previous plays. She obviously has some serious issues and unfortunately chose our venue to vent them,” Hunter said.
As word of Shocked’s anti-gay outburst spread on Twitter, the Hopmonk Tavern in nearby Novato canceled the singer’s March 29 concert.
“Due to comments made by Michelle Shocked at Yoshi’s in San Francisco last night, March 17, we have decided to cancel our show with Michelle on March 29. Refunds can be made at place of purchase,” the club said in a statement.
On Monday, Yoshi’s said it would not invite Shocked to perform at the club again. “We at Yoshi’s SF do not & will not ever tolerate the type of bigotry & hatred exhibited last night by @MShocked,” the venue tweeted. “She will never be back.”
from The New York Daily News
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Colin Clark

Colin Clark will miss the Houston Dynamo’s next three matches for using “unacceptable and offensive language.” The Dynamo winger used a gay slur directed at a ball boy in a nationally televised match on Friday night and most expected MLS to make a strong statement, which they did. In addition to the three-match ban, Clark was fined an undisclosed amount and is required to attend sensitivity training.
While suspended, Clark will be allowed to train with the team and use the team’s facilities. Because of the Dynamo’s light schedule in April, he will not return to the field until May 9, when Houston takes on New York.
Fans watching the match on Friday heard the gay slur because it was picked up by the on-field microphones and immediately took to Twitter to express their outrage. Clark was on his own Twitter account that night to issue what appeared to be a sincere apology and on Wednesday, he took his punishment in stride.
“I am sorry about what happened during the Seattle match,” Clark said in a statement. “I have personally apologized to the ball boy, and I want to take this chance to say I’m sorry to everyone that I’ve offended. I intend to never use those words again in any context. There is no excuse for them. What I said does not properly represent who I am or what I believe. I made a mistake that I truly regret. I accept the punishment that has been handed down by MLS, and I want to learn from this incident and move forward.”
While the gay slur, especially directed at a ball boy, was awful, the ensuing actions of both Clark and the league are encouraging. After the incident, Clark never made an excuse for what he did and issued a legitimate apology. MLS then handed down a harsh, but fair punishment in an effort to stamp out something that has no place in the game or society and Clark has accepted it. If nothing else, the post-incident actions have been encouraging.
Leagues around the United States have seen the fight against homophobia become more high profile in recent years, but this might be the first time that a gay slur resulted in a suspension. Kobe Bryant and Joakim Noah were both caught using gay slurs during games, but both were handed hefty fines and not suspensions.
from SB Nation
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Related Post:

Soccer Player Calls Ball Boy A Faggot

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Colin Clark

The evidence against Houston Dynamo midfielder Colin Clark could not be any clearer. It was caught on-camera during a nationally televised game on NBC Sports Network and is now all over YouTube.
On Friday during a match, Clark called a ball boy for Seattle Sounders FC a “faggot”.
Why Clark would say that to a kid, working the sideline probably as a volunteer, only he knows.
The incident that led up to it was innocuous.
Clark was running to the sideline to take a throw-in and signaled for the ball boy to throw him a ball. The kid, instead, rolled one to him. Clark picked up the ball, hurled the gay slur at the ball boy and then continued play.
The kid had not done anything wrong. He didn’t wait to respond to Clark’s request. He rolled the ball directly to Clark, not in an opposite direction.
The difference in time had Clark caught a toss instead of picking up the rolled one would have been a second or 2. The flow of play was not interrupted.
Yet, Clark was so offended that he directed a gay slur at a kid.
Clark later apologized on Twitter saying, “I’d like to offer a sincere apology to everyone who watched the game, especially the ball boy for whom I used awful language towards.”
He continued, “I didn’t mean to disrespect anyone and am sorry for letting my emotions get the best of me. It’s not who I am and it won’t happen again,”
I have no reason to doubt Clark’s sincerity. I don’t know anything about him other than what his MLS biography says.
He truly may feel awful about his actions.
It doesn’t matter.
When Garber and MLS complete their investigation into the matter, and it shouldn’t take long given the clarity of the audio on the broadcast, Clark needs to be whacked, not just slapped on the wrist.
Some people may think it unfair or a “politically correct” overreach, but Clark needs to be made an example. Garber needs to suspend him for at least three to five matches to show that bigotry of any sort will not be tolerated in MLS.
Soccer has a long and sorry history concerning bigotry. FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) was a network setup in 1999 to combat the racism and xenophobia that was ingrained in European football.
FARE’s official website proclaims: “Football is the biggest sport in the world and belongs to all of us. It should be the right of every person to play, watch and discuss freely, without fear. We want to see the beautiful game played without discrimination.”
FIFA, the world’s governing body for soccer, has followed the lead with its own anti-racism campaign. Discrimination is taken seriously in Europe with clubs being fined heavily for any racist actions of their fans.
This season the English Premiere League has featured two highly profiled cases of racism.
Liverpool forward Luis Suarez received an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.
Chelsea defender John Terry is scheduled to go on trial in July in England for using racist language toward Queens Park Rangers player Anton Ferdinand.
MLS has virtually no history of racial discrimination.
Much of that is due to the fact that the United States is a melting pot and societal rules for racially abusive language long have been established.
That doesn’t mean people won’t still go there, but they know the backlash can be fierce.
But the world, the USA included, is still in the infancy stage of being serious about discrimination based on sexual orientation. I doubt it would have entered Clark’s mind to have hurled a racial slur during a televised match.
Everyone knows the maelstrom that would have been set off had he called that ball boy the “n-word” or some other racial slur.
But it’s still too easy for us to arbitrarily hurl gay slurs. In general, we aren’t nearly as offended by them.
And even when incidents are called out, condemnation often comes with a wink of the eye.
Soccer, or any sport , has not been nearly as proactive about attacking anti-gay sentiments as they have racial ones. Hate speech is hate speech. It’s all-inclusive. It really does not differentiate between race, ethnic origin, religion or sexual preference.
So here is a chance for the United States, long considered a minnow in international soccer, to take the lead on issue that should be taken more seriously.
The slur Clark used has as much place in soccer as does a racial or ethnic slur. MLS should treat it the same and come down with a penalty just as harsh.
from The Inquirer

Christopher Orlando

MANHATTAN — One of two men who admitted to attacking a customer at the famed gay rights landmark Stonewall Inn last year was sentenced Tuesday to two months in jail — just a fraction of the eight-year sentence he initially faced.
Staten Island resident Christopher Orlando, who was 17 when he beat Washington D.C. man Benjamin Carver, 34, in the mens room of the bar on Oct. 3, 2010, will serve 60 days in jail and five years probation, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner said Tuesday afternoon.
Orlando and Matthew Francis, 22, admitted on Sept. 8, 2011 that they attacked Carver, who was visiting the Stonewall on a trip to New York.
“Get away from me, faggot. I don’t like gay people,” Francis said to Carver, according to prosecutors. “Give me a dollar. Give me 20.”
Carver updated his Facebook page from a hospital bed after the attack, which left him needing stitches.
“Got gay bashed while peeing in the bathroom at stonewall bar, where the gay rights movement began. Ironic, right?” he wrote.
“New York, I still love you,” he added.
Orlando pleaded guilty last September to third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted robbery. He was expected to receive a six-month sentence.
Francis, who also initially faced eight years in prison and was believed to have played a greater role in the attack, is serving two years after pleading guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted robbery.
Orlando was granted youthful offender status, under which his criminal record will be sealed as long as he is not arrested again.
When the two young men were promised abbreviated sentences by pleading guilty, customers at the Stonewall, at 53 Christopher St., said they were outraged by the length of the punishments.
from DNA Info

CHILLICOTHE, OHIO – School and law enforcement officials still are evaluating evidence in the Oct. 17 beating of a Unioto High School freshman whose mother thinks the attack was tied to his sexual orientation.
Rebecca Collins said Thursday she thinks the school has not done enough to address bullying.
“I’ve called and called and called … (The response) has been real lackadaisical, ‘kids will be kids,’” Collins said.
Officials, however, say they still are evaluating evidence, including a cellphone video and a Facebook post, that came to light after the school’s initial investigation, which indicated the fight was not motivated by the boy’s sexuality.
During the two years her son has been at Unioto, and even at his previous school, Collins said her son repeatedly has been called names relating to his sexuality.
Oct. 17 was the first time those taunts escalated into a physical attack, she said. Before the assault, Collins said she was not aware her son had any issues with the boy who struck him.
“I just want it to stop. I want my son to be left alone. I worry about my son every time he walks out the door,” Collins said, adding people should accept others regardless of sexual orientation, race or any other differences.
The Gazette is not using the names of either boy involved in the incident in compliance with its internal guidelines.
Unioto High School Principal Jim Osborne said he couldn’t talk about specifics, but he said that he had spoken with Collins about concerns she had.
“I’m sorry she feels that way (about our discussion). I feel our conversations were pretty productive,” Osborne said.
What prompted the fight
Collins’ concerns have been aired by Columbus media outlets, but those reports have failed to include additional information about the investigation itself.
According to the initial report obtained Thursday by the Gazette, the two boys were on their way to a third-period class when they “bumped shoulders.” The 15-year-old suspect told deputies he has a mental illness, that he “just zoned out,” and didn’t know why he punched Collins’ son, according to the report.
Collins’ son sustained a black eye, a knot behind his ear, a chipped tooth and a possible concussion, Collins said.
While Collins told deputies she thought the fight was motivated by her son’s sexuality, the report indicates Osborne told the deputy he talked to the teacher and students in the classroom and no one reported the student saying anything about Collins’ son’s sexuality.
When a cell phone video of the fight showed up on Facebook, Collins reported it. The video, allegedly taken by the aggressor’s cousin, shows he waited for Collins’ son and then struck him multiple times. She also reported a comment the boy made on her son’s Facebook photo two days before the attack. She said the comment made a derogatory reference to her son’s sexuality.
According to Collins, the student was given a three-day suspension for the fight. While Osborne declined to confirm the suspension due to confidentiality issues, he said the discipline in the situation was meted out days before he became aware of the video, which contradicted his investigation and appears to reveal premeditation.
“We’re continuing to look at options,” Osborne said.
While the school has surveillance cameras, they are only located in the hallways and not the classroom where the fight occurred. Since the fight happened during a class change, the teacher was monitoring the hallway outside the room as they are required to do during class changes, Osborne said.
While the sheriff’s office continues to investigate the motive, Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt said his office is evaluating whether to file an assault or felonious assault charge.
“What people are failing to understand is there isn’t an Ohio law to enhance it (if the assault was motivated by the victim’s sexuality),” Schmidt said.
There is a federal hate crime law, he added, but the federal district attorney would have to file the charge, and Collins could approach him about it. He also said he has not heard from Collins or her son, but certainly is willing to listen to them if they want to talk with him. Schmidt anticipates filing the charge from his office today.
Collins said she wants to see the school enforce zero tolerance for all bullying and implement stricter consequences.
“To me, it’s not only the kids doing it. The teachers aren’t stepping in,” Collins said. “If it has to be everyone walks a single line like preschool, then have it.”
A 2007 state law requires districts to have a districtwide policy that prohibits harassment, intimidation or bullying. The policy must include numerous aspects, including a requirement of staff to report incidents and parents or guardians of any student involved in the incident be contacted.
The law also requires the policy to include a procedure to investigate incidents and a strategy for protecting the victim from additional harassment.
The law does not include verbiage about sexuality, but a pending bill (House Bill 208) would amend the law to prohibit bullying “based on any actual or perceived trait or characteristic of a student.” A definition of “trait or characteristic” is included in the proposed bill and includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
Unioto Superintendent Dwight Garrett said Thursday that the district’s legal counsel advised him not to speak about the specifics of the fight. He did say he had not heard from Collins about any bullying concerns until after Oct. 17, but she had spoken to Osborne before.
“We have one goal and that’s to educate every student. A lot of these things that are going on happen before or after school and on social media, then they bring it to school,” Garrett said, adding school officials do not have jurisdiction over what happens on social media sites.
He said the district does have the required policy and adheres to it. The high school had an assembly on cyberbullying three days after the fight that Osborne and Garrett said had already been scheduled before the fight.
Staff is educated annually about reporting bullying, and the high school has at least one education assembly on bullying a year, Osborne said. While there have been reports of bullying before relating to sexuality, Osborne said he doesn’t get them often and has not had an assault on any other student who is out about his or her homosexuality.

“(Bullying) is an ever-ongoing battle in these schools today. Every situation is different,” Osborne said.
When Osborne receives a report of bullying, it is first investigated for validity since sometimes he gets anonymous reports of bogus complaints as a joke.
Once a report is determined to be valid, if it is the first occurrence, Osborne said they handle it as an educational opportunity. They talk about bullying, why they should not behave that way and that there will be disciplinary consequences, which are outlined in the code of conduct, if the behavior continues, he said.
“We’re trying to teach these kids diversity and social tolerance, a lot of things that aren’t just academic,” Osborne said.
Collins intends to continue pushing the issue. Osborne said Thursday he is supportive of the mother standing up for her son.
Collins said she has contacted Citizens Against Bigotry and Prejudice for assistance. According its Facebook site, the group, located near Youngstown, is a grass-roots effort begun in May “to add exposure to those who are teaching hate, and promoting hate amongst the LGBTQ community.”
The Chillicothe Gazette also received a call Thursday afternoon from Richard Walsh, who works with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, that GLSEN is planning to offer support to Collins and her son.
In a statement on the incident released late Thursday, GLSEN said that according to its 2009 National School Climate Survey, one in four LGBT students in Ohio had experienced some sort of physical assault at school within the past year because of their sexual orientation.
“It is extremely frustrating for us at GLSEN to watch a student get bullied when there are tools and resources that are proven to reduce and prevent similar incidents from taking place in a classroom or hallway,” said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard. “School districts with comprehensive anti-bullying policies inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity are effective at curbing anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. It is time for the Union-Scioto school district and every school in Ohio to protect students from the kind of torment that everyone has witnessed on video.”
Walsh said Equality Ohio is evaluating the story and discussing potentially organizing a town hall meeting in response.
The issue also had a residual impact on Chillicothe High School, where officials starting receiving calls after another media outlet reported the location as “a Chillicothe high school” and not specifying the fight happened at Unioto. The calls prompted Superintendent Jon Saxton to release a public statement.
“We believe that this is an unfortunate incident for any school, student, or parent to experience. We regret that such incidents do occur in schools, but want to clarify that the location of this incident was not on a Chillicothe School District building,” Saxton wrote.
from The Chillicothe Gazette

Is it ever OK to tweet that a girl’s a “slut”? How about using an offensive name for gays on Facebook? Or texting a racial slur?
Most young people think it’s all right when friends are joking around with each other, according to a new poll.
Jaded by the Internet free-for-all, teens and 20-somethings shrug off offensive words and name-calling that would probably appall their parents, teachers or bosses. And an Associated Press-MTV poll shows they don’t worry much about whether the things they tap into their cellphones and laptops could reach a wider audience and get them into trouble.
Seventy-one percent say people are more likely to use slurs online or in text messages than in person, and only about half say they are likely to ask someone using such language online to stop.
“On Twitter, everybody’s getting hit hard. Nobody really cares about nobody’s feelings,” said Kervin Browner II, 20, a junior at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. “You never know how bad it hurts people because they don’t say anything.”
But young people who use racist or sexist language are probably offending more people than they realize, even in their own age range. The poll of 14- to 24-year-olds shows a significant minority are upset by some pejoratives, especially when they identify with the group being targeted.
“It’s so derogatory to women and demeaning, it just makes you feel gross,” Lori Pletka, 22, says about “slut” and more vulgar words aimed at women. The Southeast Missouri State University senior said other terms regularly offend her online, too – slurs for black people, Hispanics, and gays or lesbians.
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed say they see people being mean to others on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. And 51% encounter discriminatory words or images on those sites.
But they mostly write off the slurs as jokes or attempts to act cool. Fifty-seven percent say “trying to be funny” is a big reason people use discriminatory language online. About half that many say a big reason is that people “really hold hateful feelings about the group.”
That may be why even the most inflammatory racist slur in the AP-MTV poll – the “N-word” – didn’t rouse a majority of young people. Only 44% said they’d be very or extremely offended if they saw someone using it online or in a text message. Thirty-five percent said it wouldn’t bother them much, including fully 26% who wouldn’t be offended at all.
Among African-American youth, however, 60% said they would be offended by seeing the N-word used against other people.
Four in 10 young people overall said they encounter that word being used against other people, with half of those seeing it often.
Other derogatory expressions are more common and accepted. Majorities see “slut” and “fag” used against others, and only about a third consider them seriously offensive.
But 41% of women deem “slut” deeply offensive (jumping to 65% if it’s used against them specifically), compared with only 28% of men. And 39% of those who are gay or know someone who is gay are seriously offended by the use of “fag,” compared with 23% of all others.
Demeaning something with “that’s so gay” is so common that two-thirds of young people see it used, and the majority aren’t offended at all, despite a public service ad campaign that tried to stamp out the anti-gay slang.
A similar effort to persuade kids not to use “retard” hasn’t hit home with half of those surveyed, who don’t find the word even moderately bothersome. Twenty-seven percent are seriously offended, however.
Some teens just text the way they talk. Calling each other “gay” and “retarded” is routine in high school, says Robert Leader, 17, a senior in Voorhees, N.J. So teens text it, too.
But constantly seeing ugly words on their electronic screens may have a coarsening effect. “It’s caused people to loosen their boundaries on what’s not acceptable,” Leader said.
What group gets picked on the most? Those who are overweight.
And slurs against the overweight are more likely to be considered intentionally hurtful than slights against others; 47% say these comments are meant to sting.
Muslims and gays also are seen as targets of mean-spiritedness.
In contrast, only a third say discriminatory words about blacks are most often intended as hurtful, while two-thirds think they are mostly jokes. And 75% think slurs against women are generally meant to be funny.
It’s OK to use discriminatory language within their own circle of friends, 54% of young people say, because “I know we don’t mean it.” But if the question is put in a wider context, they lean the other way, saying 51-46 that such language is always wrong.
Yet four out of 10 young people have given little or no thought to the ease with which their electronic messages could be passed to people they didn’t expect to see them; less than a quarter have thought about it a lot.
Two-thirds haven’t considered that what they type could get them in trouble with their parents or their school. But it happens.
A 13-year-old Concord, N.H., girl was suspended from school for posting on Facebook that she wished Osama bin Laden had killed her math teacher. The University of Texas Longhorns dismissed a sophomore football player for his racial slam against Barack Obama on Facebook after the 2008 presidential election. And a Harvard law student’s email to friends, suggesting that blacks might be intellectually inferior, was forwarded across the Internet, prompting the law school dean to publicly denounce it.
“People have that false sense of security that they can say whatever they want online,” said Pletka of Cape Girardeau, Mo. “Anything that you put into print can be used.”
The AP-MTV poll was conducted Aug. 18-31 and involved online interviews with 1,355 people ages 14-24 nationwide. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
The poll is part of an MTV campaign, “A Thin Line,” aiming to stop the spread of digital abuse.
The survey was conducted by Knowledge Networks, which used traditional telephone and mail sampling methods to randomly recruit respondents. People selected who had no Internet access were given it for free.
from The New York Daily News

Kobe Bryant

The NBA fined Kobe Bryant $100,000 on Wednesday for using a derogatory gay term in frustration over a referee’s call.
NBA Commissioner David Stern issued a swift disciplinary ruling after the Los Angeles Lakers’ five-time NBA champion guard cursed and used the homophobic slur when referee Bennie Adams called a technical foul on him Tuesday night in the third quarter of a victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
“Kobe Bryant’s comment during last night’s game was offensive and inexcusable,” Stern said. “While I’m fully aware that basketball is an emotional game, such a distasteful term should never be tolerated. … Kobe and everyone associated with the NBA know that insensitive or derogatory comments are not acceptable and have no place in our game or society.”
Stern’s action drew praise from gay-rights organizations that had demanded a fuller apology from Bryant and condemnation of his words by the Lakers. Bryant, the sixth-leading scorer in NBA history, issued a statement earlier Wednesday saying his words came strictly out of anger and shouldn’t be taken literally.
“We applaud Commissioner Stern and the NBA for not only fining Bryant but for recognizing that slurs and derogatory comments have no place on the basketball court or in society at large,” Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said. “We hope such swift and decisive action will send a strong and universal message that this kind of hateful outburst is simply inexcusable no matter what the context.”
Bryant’s words and actions were captured by TNT’s cameras during the network’s national broadcast of the Lakers’ regular-season home finale.
Bryant punched his chair before taking a seat on the bench, throwing a towel on the court near his feet in frustration after picking up his fourth foul in the third quarter. He got his 15th technical of the season for arguing the call, one shy of the cumulative trigger for a one-game NBA suspension.
“What I said last night should not be taken literally. My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period,” Bryant said in a statement issued through the Lakers. “The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings towards the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone.”
The 32-year-old Bryant is a former league MVP, a 13-time All-Star, the leading scorer in Lakers franchise history and sixth on the NBA’s career list after passing Moses Malone last month. He was the MVP of the last two NBA finals while leading the Lakers to back-to-back titles.
Bryant has been among the NBA’s most popular players worldwide for most of his 15-year career, spent entirely with the Lakers, even after he was arrested and accused of sexual assault in 2003 in a case that was later dropped. He has several lucrative endorsement deals with companies ranging from Sprite to Turkish Airlines.
His No. 24 jersey was the league’s best-selling uniform among fans during each of the past two seasons, and Bryant’s jersey finished second to LeBron James’ new Miami uniform in the NBA’s annual rankings released earlier Wednesday.
Gay-rights groups quickly denounced Bryant’s actions against Adams. Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, saw an opportunity to put a spotlight on the unacceptable nature of anti-gay slurs and later praised the NBA for taking action against Bryant.
“When such a prolific cultural institution like the NBA speaks out against hateful words, we are reminded that fair-minded Americans are siding with equality for all,” Barrios said.
Known as a fierce competitor with a nasty edge, Bryant has ranked among the NBA’s top 10 accumulators of technical fouls during each of the past six seasons, and he has edged right up to the line of serious NBA discipline this spring. He ranks second only to Orlando’s Dwight Howard in technical fouls this season, mostly for arguing with referees.
Bryant was called for an additional technical foul that was rescinded Monday. If Bryant gets another T in the Lakers’ season finale at Sacramento on Wednesday night, he would be suspended for the first game of next season, not for a playoff game.
The Lakers will open the playoffs this weekend at Staples Center.
from The Associated Press
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Related Post:

Kobe Bryant’s Gay Slur

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Kobe Bryant

During Tuesday night’s game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant was hit with a technical foul. When he went to the bench, TNT’s cameras caught him clearly calling referee Bennie Adams a “fucking faggot.” Thanks to the skills of @Jose3030 and the power of twitter, the video quickly went viral.
Let’s be clear about something: Kobe Bryant has been a controversial figure, both on and off the court. This post is not about Kobe Bryant. I don’t know Kobe Bryant personally, but in all my professional dealings with him he has come across as intelligent, funny, and well-adjusted. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him as both a basketball player and a person. The issue here is not Kobe; the issue is the word he used.
I’m sure that if you asked Kobe, he would tell you that he wasn’t expressing any homophobic feelings when he called the referee what he called him. I don’t know whether he actually was or not, but in any case I’m more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The gay slur Kobe used is often used as a general insult — Kobe lost his temper, and in a fit of rage he called Adams the worst thing he could think of. I don’t think Kobe’s unfortunate choice of words revealed that he has a deep-seeded hatred of gay people.  I do think they revealed that athletes are still comfortable tossing around a word that, like a few other very hurtful and powerful words, should not be tossed around.
The word Kobe used can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Intelligent, funny people like Louis C.K., Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Joe Rogan have all made cases that when they use the word, they’re not saying that they have a problem with homosexuality or homosexual behavior; they just use it to denote behavior they find unacceptable. The problem with that logic is that while we can control what we say, we can’t always control what people hear, and it’s unreasonable to expect everyone to separate our words from our intentions, especially hurtful words.  In my younger years, I had the foolish belief that proper contexts to use that word somehow existed. I no longer hold that belief in any way, shape or form. The fact is that for a lot of people, homosexual behavior and unacceptable behavior are synonymous. Until that changes, I believe that there is no appropriate context for that word.
In a Gallup poll conducted last May, only 52% of Americans said that they found homosexuality “morally acceptable.” Homosexuals still do not have the right to marriage in most of the country. Research conducted one week ago shows that gay and lesbian teens are twice as likely to experience symptoms of depression as their heterosexual counterparts, and three times more likely to report a history of suicidality. According to the It Gets Better Project, 9 out of 10 LGBT students have experienced harassment at school.
The belief that we are a post-homophobia society is foolish and arrogant. Some people will say that making a “big deal” out of incidents like this reveals that the real problem with our society is that it has become to “politically correct.” Tell that to the teens who have to endure physical and verbal abuse at school because of their sexual orientation, or the families of the teens who couldn’t take the abuse anymore. Maybe the day when it’s okay to use the word that Kobe used and have everybody know that you have no problem with homosexuals or homosexual behavior at all will come someday. I don’t think it will, and I know that that day is not today.
Does the word that Kobe used get used by professional athletes almost every day, in every locker room, without any cameras or tape recorders catching it? Absolutely. In fact, during a playoff game a few seasons ago, Kevin Garnett was actually caught screaming the exact same thing that Kobe screamed. Does that mean that we should say “well, boys will be boys” when someone gets caught on tape like Kobe did? I don’t think so. I’m not calling for Bryant’s head: I believe in freedom of speech, and don’t think he should receive an additional fine or suspension for his choice of words.
What I would like is for some good to come out of this being caught on tape. It’s easy to point the finger when somebody like Tim Hardaway says something blatantly homophobic and pin all the issues with homosexuality and professional sports on isolated cases like him. The truth is that the problems run much deeper, and many of them are more rooted in ignorance than hatred.
Simple math tells us that it would be a miracle if no active MLB, NBA, or NFL player is a homosexual, but no player current athlete has come out, and I would wager that most professional athletes don’t think they have any gay teammates. It’s in environments like that where casual homosexuality can seem harmless. Ask yourself this: if Joe Smith, who was sitting next to Kobe, or Bennie Adams, the referee, was gay and Kobe knew that, do you think he still have used that word? If the answer is no, why should we expect any homosexual who was within earshot or watching the game on TV to not have an issue with Kobe’s choice of words? Is it reasonable to ask sports fans to check their feelings about words like the ones Kobe used at the door, words that may have been directed at them, with hate, in their own lives?
This is a beautiful game, and people of all races, religions, and sexual orientations should feel comfortable playing it, watching it, and enjoying it. When the most respected player in the league by players, coaches, and media members alike gets caught uncorking a gay slur and nobody has a problem with it, it can give the impression that the NBA doesn’t care about creating a welcoming environment for all of its fans. Kobe has an opportunity to clear up his feelings about homosexuals and whether or not he believes the word he used is or is not acceptable language. I hope he takes advantage of it, and that the NBA becomes just a bit more welcoming than it would have been otherwise.
from NBC Sports / John Krolik

NEW YORK – The accused Stonewall Inn gay bashers insist it was a bar fight – not a hate crime.
Benjamin Carver, the gutsy guy who fought off the two thugs, disagreed – calling it “anti-gay violence” in his chilling account of the attack.
And as the suspects Matthew Francis and Christopher Orlando blamed each other for Sunday’s attack, Carver revealed that he was ready and willing to forgive them both for a beating that left his with stiches above his left eyebrow.
“I’m sure it’s a difficult time for their mothers,” he writes on his blog.
In an interview with The Daily News, Orlando’s dad swore his 17-year-old boy was no bigot and wants to apologize “in person” to Carver.
“We are a working class family,” Don Orlando said outside his Staten Island home Tuesday. “We don’t hate anyone here.”
What Orlando did was “wrong,” his father added.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat what happened,” he said. “It was a bar fight, but I swear on my life it’s not about Gays or race or any of that. We don’t care about any of that stuff in this family.”
Had there been “an elephant” in the bathroom, “there probably would have been swings at the elephant,” Don Orlando said.
The 57-year-old landscaper spoke out a day after his son and Francis, 21, who is also from Staten Island, were charged with assault as a hate crime and attempted robbery.
It was not their first brush with the law. Orlando has a juvenile arrest for disorderly conduct. Francis has convictions for disorderly conduct, pot and weapons possession, but hasn’t done any time in state prison, records show.
“Why do people keep saying this is a hate crime?” Francis’ girlfriend, Nancy Casabona, told The News. “Where’s the hate? This is not a hate crime. He has a sister who is a lesbian.”
Francis’ sister, Deanna Francis, who is indeed a lesbian, lashed out at Orlando’s lawyer for suggesting Francis instigated the attack.
“It takes two to tango,” she said. “My brother isn’t the only one at fault here. There is a lot more to this story.”
The story, according to 34-year-old Benjamin, who lives in Washington, D.C., began on Sunday when he and his boyfriend met up with friends at the iconic West Village bar where the Gay Rights movement was spawned.
Carver says that when he ventured into the bathroom “two men were waiting there.”
“One of the men asked me if I was gay,” he blogged. “I responded by chuckling and saying, ‘Where are you, buddy?’”
He answered me by saying “In a gay bar. Don’t pee next to me, faggot.”
Carver wrote that after rebuffing one of the men’s request for $1 the other demanded $20.
“I then laughed and said, ‘I’m not giving you any money,’” he wrote, and turned to find both men blocking the bathroom door “and staring me down.”
“I realized at this point that the situation had the potential to turn violent.”
Carver said he stepped forward but the men wouldn’t move.
“Don’t escalate this situation,” Carver said he told them. “Please move and let me leave.” This is when the man I’ve learned to know as “Matthew” cold-cocked me in the face.”
Carver said Orlando tackled him and Francis hit him about a dozen times before he was able to break free and start punching back.
“I immediately saw a beer bottle sitting in the basin of the sink,” he wrote. “I grabbed it and swung as hard as I could at one of their heads, but missed. Then I threw the bottle at them.”
When the attackers “recoiled back,” Carver said he escaped the bathroom and ran into the bar.
“I had blood streaming down my right eye and was dazed, but I immediately placed two hands on the pool table outside of the bathroom and searched the table with my good eye for a billiard ball to use as a weapon,” he wrote.
Francis was hot on his heels, Carver wrote.
“I took a big step toward him and swung at him with everything I had, but missed him,” he wrote. “After that it gets fuzzy for me. I heard screaming, someone grabbed me from behind, and people rushed between me and the two men.”
While a bartender and some of the patrons took off after Francis and Orlando, Carver said he nursed his wounds and knocked back a whiskey.
Carver later wrote a valentine to New York City while he was being stitched up that appeared on his Facebook page. “New York, I still love you,” he wrote.
On his blog, Carver praised the NYPD, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and the EMS workers.
“I know people often complain about New Yorkers and their emergency services, but I will tell anyone that will listen that the term “New York’s Finest” actually means something,” he wrote.
Carver also wrote that this was his first brush with violence and that he’s surprised that he “never felt fear, before, during, or after the experience.”
“During the altercation I only felt a singular focus to neutralize the threat,” he wrote. “I’m proud of that.”
As for the accused gay bashers, Carver wrote, “We must be better than these bullies.”
from The New York Daily News

David Yost

Almost 20 years after back-flipping onto kids’ TV sets as the nerdy Blue Ranger on Fox’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, David Yost opened up to No Pink Spandex  about his stint on the show. And during the three-part interview, Yost revealed just what happened behind-the-scenes when his character was written off the show (and sent to live on another planet): Yost actually walked off set one day after being teased about being gay.
“The reason that I walked off is that I was called ‘faggot’ one too many times,” Yost says in the clip. “I had just heard that several times while working on the show from creators, producers, writers, directors… Basically I just felt like i was continually being told I was not worthy of being where I am because I’m a gay person. And I’m not supposed to be an actor. And I’m not a superhero.”
After leaving the show, Yost says he experienced a nervous breakdown. But he’s been doing just fine since then, working behind the camera as a producer for reality TV shows like Temptation Island. Still, the fact that such intolerance might have taken place on set of Power Rangers kind of kills the nostalgic buzz we all have for the show, no?
from Entertainment Weekly

Bake Hayes

NEW YORK – A West Side gay bashing has turned into an international incident with the NYPD in England tracking down the suspect – a Bronze Star recipient.
One of the victims, Blake Hayes, a 24-year-old deejay for WPLJ-FM radio, noted the conflicting portraits of the suspect.
“On paper, he’s a hero,” Hayes said of Air Force Staff Sgt. Benjamin Ford. “But when it comes to what happened … he deserves to be punished.”
Ford, an expert in defusing bombs, was part of a military contingent that was in town last September while President Obama was speaking to the UN. His job: to help protect the President and other world leaders.
Ford was outside McCoy’s Bar in Hell’s Kitchen in the early hours of Sept. 26 when the attack went down, police said.
Hayes and two friends, Alec Bell and Danny Calvert, say Ford flicked a cigarette at them, then told Calvert, “Keep moving, faggot.”
He also allegedly called Bell a “homo.” Bell and his pals returned fire by making fun of the suspect’s baldness, cops said.
That’s when things exploded.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Benjamin Ford

Hayes told cops that Ford shoved him and Calvert and then clocked Bell in the face.
“Die of AIDS, you fucking queers,” Ford allegedly yelled at the trio before going back inside the Ninth Ave. bar.
Police responded but did not take a report, the victims said. That complaint is now the subject of an NYPD Internal Affairs investigation.
The Hate Crimes Task Force was assigned to the case and eventually identified Ford as the suspect and learned he was assigned to an Air Force base five hours outside London.
A NYPD Intelligence Division detective who is stationed in London drove to the base and interviewed Ford, who admitted he was at the scene but insisted his alleged victims started the fight, a source said.
Surveillance video, however, shows Ford attacking them, the source told the Daily News.
In an added twist to the case, the NYPD and Manhattan prosecutor’s office, after consulting the three gay victims, have agreed to let the U.S. military try Ford and dole out any punishment if he is found guilty in the attack, sources told The News.
Ford has not been formally charged.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who has been involved in pressing for a full investigation, called the latest news in the case a “very helpful development.”
And City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the planned prosecution “sends a strong message” that hate crimes won’t be tolerated.
from The New York Daily News

Dean Awford

UNITED KINGDOM – A former drag queen, Dean Awford, who was known as “Dean The Queen” has been awarded £30,000 for unfair dismissal.
But claims that Dean Awford, 42, suffered sexual discrimination and sexual harassment were dismissed despite being called “a faggot” and a “poof” by his boss.
Mr Awford, who used to appear in clubs in Birmingham and Manchester as Scarlett Eclipse, claimed his boss abused him about his sexuality and even told a customer he had “knickers to match” his leather shoes.
He sued David Gray, of the upmarket furniture store Grays At Northwick in Worcester, for unfair dismissal and sexual orientation discrimination.
Mr Awford had earlier told an employment tribunal that Mr Gray continually used derogatory terms relating to his sexuality during his employment as a £16,000-a-year sales manager.
The hearing in Birmingham heard that Mr Awford was called a “faggot” when he turned up in a white suit, “a poof” and was constantly refered to as “she” or “her”.
On Monday, Employment Judge David Kearsley found that Mr Awford had been unfairly dismissed.
He said that comments by Mr Gray: “Call yourself a fucking manager – you couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery” and his later response: “Fuck off” constituted unfair dismissal.
He also awarded £118 in unauthorised deductions and a further £67 in holiday pay and in total awarding more than £30,000.
But his further claims for sexual orientation discrimination and sexual harassment were dismissed despite his employer making offensive remarks about his sexuality.
Mr Gray, 56, denied both unfair dismissal and sexual orientation discrimination.
“Many homosexual males would have found the comments made by Mr Gray offensive. The tribunal is not condoning Mr Gray’s behaviour,” Judge Kearsley said.
“Equally many women would have found the comments about their underwear on the chiller offensive.
“But we have considered the character of the claimant and the absence of any complaint during the period of employment.”
He continued: “The tribunal doesn’t accept that Mr Gray made any comments that were particularly capable of constituting harassment.
“He referred to himself as Dean the Queen and would recount details of his sexual activity.
“(Mr Awford) believed he was working in his dream job.”
After the hearing Mr Awford said: “I am delighted that the unfair dismissal claim was upheld. I’ve known all along that my treatment at work was wrong.
“I only hope Mr Gray will ensure that no other employees are treated so shabbily in future. I hope I have helped improve his employee relations ahead of the festive period.
“I suppose as far as Gray’s At Northwick are concerned then I could be the Christmas fairy.”
Mr Gray, who took the case using his employers insurance policy, said: “I am slightly disappointed – I think the compensation was rather too high.
“But I am very pleased on the result of the sexual harassment.
“There were lies told in that court that were vulgar and disgusting.”
from The Telegraph UK
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